There has been a notifier above my dashboard for quite some time. Initially, I had just ignored it. But it was quite some time now and I thought, a Sunday afternoon would be good to upgrade to the latest Wordpress version. I had a 2.3 version running and had plans of upgrading to the latest 2.5 version. So, the first thing I did was search on the instructions. Apparently I didn’t need to search for it. I clicked the link to download the new version from the Wordpress page and it redirected me to a page, with links on the official guide to Upgrade. It even contained links to fully install the new version or upgrade to the new version. I’ll be telling you the instructions in as detailed steps as possible, but first, let’s first consider why it is necessary at all to take the pain of upgrading.

Firstly, I heard Blog indexing websites like Technorati are leaving behind sites which have older Wordpress versions. Apart from that, there is the obvious reason of trying out something spanking new and be a member of the New League of the New Wordpress users. And yes, the new Dashboard is a welcome change. Although, there are some flaws and shortcomings which I’ll discuss eventually. So, anyway here are the steps to upgrade to Wordpress 2.5.

Step 1: Ensure that you have backed up your Wordpress DB. How to do that? Check out my post on it here and the things to remember while backing up post. Keep it ready, just in case anything goes wrong. If possible keep a back-up of your wp-content folder. This is very necessary as you might need it in case you deleted it by mistake. Also keep a copy of the wp-config.php file. This contains the information to connect to your DB. This shouldn’t be a problem as the new Wordpress folder will have a wp-config-sample.php file. Anyway, so you should have all your back-ups ready.

Step 2: Download the new version of Wordpress 2.5. Extract the Zip or the GZ file to your local machine. The Wordpress Folder now has the same directory structure as it stands in your Root directory. Ensure that the Zip has extracted properly, and that the wp-admin and wp-includes directories are proper. These are the only directories you’ll need to copy/overwrite on your current root directory to Upgrade your wordpress.

Step 3: Go to your plugins console on your Wordpress Dashboard. De-Activate your plugins. This is done as some plugins might not work with the new version. Once the upgrade is done, you can activate them one by one.

Step 4: Use an FTP Client (I use Filezilla) or if you want to go the old school way of using shell commands, you can do that too. Delete the existing wp-admin and the wp-includes directory in your server. No second thoughts. It will be just fine.

Step 5: Upload the new wp-admin and wp-includes directory from local machine. Once it is done, hit the URL of your website/blog to check if it is functioning properly. However, your DB isn’t updated yet to the new version, so your blog might look a bit chaotic or funny, depending upon the theme.

Step 6: Upgrade your Wordpress DB. How do you do that? Just go to your Dashboard. Or hitting the URL of your Admin console. (e.g. http://xyz.com/wp-admin.php) It will now show you a page that your Wordpress DB hasn’t been upgraded and there’s a link to do so. Hit the link, give it a second and voila, your DB is upgraded. Typically, you’ll be logged out. Login to your Admin console again, and welcome to the “ALL NEW WORDPRESS 2.5 DASHBOARD”.

So that is it. Congratulations! You’ve just upgraded to the 2.5 Version. I hope that your transition was as smooth as mine. Peace!