If you haven’t heard, there’s an important security update to WordPress that you really should download. Really, if you aren’t on 4.7.2 – why not?
That being said, sometimes upgrading can be a pain. Usually, you can either set up automated updates (which I would highly recommend), or press the magic button in your dashboard. 95% of the time, everything happens behind the scenes. You get the newest and greatest version, security holes are patched, and you are laughing.
However, if you find yourself in that unlucky 5% (and you find yourself with errors you can’t understand) – you have to get down and dirty behind the scenes. The following are steps if you wish to try and do things yourself.
This is where you’ll need FTP access, and also, just in case, access to server logs.
Your first step is to do a manual upgrade. This is where you’ll need FTP access. Follow the steps in the article, and usually, you’ll be OK.
Find yourself with a 500 error? Check your server logs. Often, there will be an error regarding particular files that have group write access. To fix this, I would recommend the following:
1. Ensure that your wp-admin folder, and all it’s contents, have chmod 755
2. Make sure that your index.php, and your wp-login.php in your root directory (where you installed WordPress) have chmod 644
(These can be modified, most of the time, via your FTP software, such as FileZilla)
And that should do it. If you are still encountering issues, I would suggest either contacting a WordPress expert (hi there!), or if you are really insistent on doing things yourself, your hosting provider.
Happy WordPress-ing!
