Do not click update on a busy site the day a major version appears. Copy the site, update the copy, test your busiest pages, forms and checkout, then update the live site on a quiet weekday.

The notice in the dashboard

WordPress 4.5 came out on Tuesday. Anyone who now logs in as an administrator sees a notice across the top of the dashboard inviting them to update.

Minor releases, the security and maintenance updates, install themselves on most sites. Major versions like this one wait for somebody to click.

On many small business sites, that somebody is whoever logs in first: the owner, a staff member adding a blog post, a student working part-time.

Clicking takes seconds. Discovering on Saturday that the booking form stopped working on Thursday takes rather longer.

What is in this release

Most of the changes are for people editing the site. Links can now be added and changed inline in the editor, without a separate box, and more typed shortcuts turn into formatting as you write.

Themes that support it gain a proper place to upload a logo. The Customizer, where theme settings are changed, can now preview the site at phone, tablet and desktop widths.

Underneath, the release also updates code that themes and plugins build on. That is where most trouble after a major update comes from.

Why major updates break things

The fifth deserves the closest look. A booking or shop plugin touches the editor, the database, emails and payments at once, so a change anywhere can catch it out, and it is the one that costs money when it fails.

Make a copy first

The safe order is to update a copy of the site before the real one. Some hosts offer a staging copy at the press of a button; otherwise a developer can make one at a private address.

Keep the copy away from search engines and customers. A staging site that sends real order emails or turns up in Google causes problems of its own.

Take a full backup of the live site as well, files and database together, and make sure someone knows how to put it back. A backup nobody has ever restored is a hope, not a plan.

What to check on the copy

Start in Analytics. The ten most visited pages are the ones customers will notice first, so open each one on the copy, on a computer and on a phone.

Then do what customers do. Send every form and confirm the email arrives, place a test order, book a test appointment, search the site and log in to any customer area.

Finally, do what staff do: edit a page, add a link with the new inline tool, insert an image and publish a test post. The editor is where this release changed most.

Anything odd goes on a list with the page address, before anyone touches the live site.

Read the plugin pages too

Each plugin's page in the WordPress directory shows the latest WordPress version its author has checked it against, and its support forum fills quickly when a release causes trouble.

Two days after a release, a quiet forum is good news and a busy one is a warning. Plugins and themes bought elsewhere have their own support pages, worth checking for the same reason.

A worked example

A hop farm sells most of its crop to craft breweries under contract, and each spring sells hop rhizomes to home growers through a small online store on its WordPress site.

In December, a family member saw the notice for WordPress 4.4 and clicked it. Nothing looked wrong, and the store stayed quiet until rhizome pre-orders opened in the new year.

Then the first customers found that checkout offered no shipping rates, so nobody could finish an order. The shipping plugin had not been updated for 4.4, and it took a week of emails to find out why.

This week the farm's developer made a staging copy on Tuesday, updated it to 4.5 and worked through a list: the rhizome pages, a test order shipped to two provinces, the brewery enquiry form and the newsletter sign-up.

Everything worked, but the shipping plugin's page still named 4.4 as the newest version its author had checked.

With rhizome orders at their spring peak, the live site will wait for the author to confirm 4.5, then update on a weekday morning with the developer on hand.

Family members who post news now have editor accounts, which show that an update exists but cannot install it.

How long to wait

A brochure site running a few well-known plugins can usually be updated within days, once the copy checks out.

A site with a shop, bookings or memberships is better off waiting for its key plugins to confirm support, and often for the first maintenance release, which tends to follow a major version within weeks.

What no site should do is wait indefinitely. Plugin authors move on to the current version, and a site several versions behind gradually loses the ability to take their fixes.

And pick the moment: a weekday morning, with someone able to fix things nearby, not a Friday evening before a sale.

Who decides

Settle it in writing: who makes the copy, who tests, who clicks update, and who can restore the backup if something goes wrong. If a web company maintains the site, it belongs in the agreement.

Give staff who only write content an editor account rather than an administrator's. They can still publish; they cannot update the site by accident.

The counter-case

On a simple site with few plugins and no shop, the risk is small, and a quick check of the live site straight after updating may be enough.

Security releases are the exception in the other direction. They install themselves on most sites for good reason, and should never be held back for testing.

For any site that takes orders, bookings or enquiries, though, the copy comes first and the live site second.

Before clicking update

  1. Back up the live site completely.
  2. Make a staging copy hidden from search engines.
  3. Update the copy first.
  4. Test the busiest pages on a phone.
  5. Send every form and place a test order.
  6. Read plugin support pages for reported problems.
  7. Update the live site on a weekday morning.

Step five is the one most often skipped, because pages that look right feel like proof. A form that displays perfectly and sends nothing is a common casualty, and the last to be noticed.

Plugins that will never be updated at all are covered in plugins removed from the WordPress directory.

Frequently asked questions

Does WordPress 4.5 install itself?

No. Minor security and maintenance releases install themselves on most sites, but major versions like 4.5 wait until an administrator clicks update.

What changed in WordPress 4.5?

Inline link editing, more formatting shortcuts, logo support for themes that use it, and previews at phone, tablet and desktop widths in the Customizer, plus updated code underneath.

Why test on a copy first?

Because plugins and themes are not always ready on release day. A copy shows what breaks without customers seeing it, while the live site stays as it was.

What should I test after updating?

Your most visited pages on a computer and a phone, every form with a check that its email arrives, a test order or booking, site search and the editor.

How long should a busy shop wait?

Until its key plugins confirm support, and often until the first maintenance release. Weeks are reasonable; months leave the site behind on plugin and theme fixes.

How do I stop staff clicking update?

Give people who only write content an editor account. They can publish pages and posts, and see that an update exists, but they cannot install it.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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