Update WordPress

There are many ways to deploy and develop WordPress. Depending on the workflow, the way to update WordPress and deploy the update might differ. Minor patch versions of WordPress might be updated automatically.

With WordPress, except when using Bedrock↗ or the like, most likely you will just use the update functionality provided by the WordPress admin. Log in to wp-admin: when an update is available, it will inform you and display an "update" button you can click. That will trigger the update. See also the official WordPress docs on updating↗.

# Update locally first

Test WordPress updates on a local development environment before deploying to production. This ensures compatibility and prevents downtime. When updating WordPress core, the database schema typically changes. The update script automatically migrates tables to the new schema while preserving data. If you deploy only updated files without running the database migration, the versions will mismatch — WordPress will display a warning in wp-admin prompting you to run the migration from there.

# Parallel updates

Run updates simultaneously across local and production environments to keep versions synchronized and avoid migration mismatches. Update locally first, verify success, then run the installer again on the production environment.

# Updating plugins and themes

Plugin and theme updates follow the same local-first approach as core updates. The WordPress ecosystem extends functionality through themes and plugins that must be kept current for security and compatibility. Use the same testing and staging workflow described above. For additional security practices, see Secure WordPress.

# Keeping your environments in sync

WordPress is a content management system (CMS), so content is regularly added and edited directly on the production environment — blog posts, pages, images, and media managed by you or clients. If you maintain a local development environment for code updates, the databases and uploaded files will diverge. You need to synchronize two data sources:

1. For the database, check our MySQL article for import/export.
2. For the files you can either use SFTP or have a look at rsync to synchronize certain folders.

Synchronization works bidirectionally. Most often you'll pull production content into local development, but you may have local code changes to push to production as well.