Avoiding updates… please help!

Is this enough to not lose anything to do upgrade?

No, that may save a copy of your changes but on your actual site, changes will be lost when the update replaces any files you’ve made changes to.

Generally, theme options should be fine.

The ideal thing for you to do is make a complete back-up of your site, then create a child theme and move all of your changed files into the child theme. Then update the regular version of the theme.

Depending on which files you’ve changed, you may need to manually compare the file versions – various programs and/or text editors can help with that.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Child_Themes

Thank you very much. Sorry for the newbie question. But, hey.. thats how we all start out. ??

Anyways, I am working on trying to figure out Child theme now. But you also said make a complete back up of my site. Can you elaborate? How do I go about doing this?

Thanks again!

But, hey.. thats how we all start out. ??

Absolutely – that’s why we’re here :).

There are a bunch of plugins that will backup for you:

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/search.php?q=backup+wp

You should always be doing that regularly.

But in this case, I would also be saving multiple copies of the files you are changing on your local machine — you can copy them via FTP. This is really just a safeguard in case you manage to really mess up a file, it will be easy to go back to where you were a couple of hours (or minutes) earlier.

lol. Well, I have File Manager inside my JustHost CP. But not sure where in the file structure I should be looking or where to put this new childtheme.

The child theme folder goes inside the themes folder:

site_root (www)
    wp-content
         themes (directory where all themes are)
             other themes may be here, including default WP ones
             mantra
             mantrachild
                    style.css

See the page about child themes if you are still unsure.

Think i figured it out. Moving on to backup site. Do you recommend any backup solution in paticular. Especially a free and easy solution. Again, not that savvy in this yet. Looking for simple and effective

Thanks

Look at the plugins — I’d use one that is widely used (look at number of downloads) and has decent ratings – make sure it says compatible with WP3.5.

If you use DropBox, lots of people like this one:

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/wordpress-backup-to-dropbox/

Or perhaps:

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/wponlinebackup/

So if I want to add others besides style.css to my child theme… can or shoudl I do that? Ones I would consider are footer, header, and functions. I am not entirely sure if I have edited those or not. will it hurt to copy them into child theme or shoudl I not do that?

footer.php and header.php are fine to copy to the child theme. Functions works differently, so read the linked child theme page regarding how to do those.

Damn. Well backed up my site with both Backupto Dropbox and also Online Back just in case.

Created child theme, put in style.css. and header and footer.

Some things stayed, some didn’t.

Footer is wrong. And menu navigation bar is wrong. (text color mainly) which would have been in the style.css i believe. So not sure what happened.

Boom. Fixed it. For some reason a couple extra brackets were inserted into my custom CSS in the theme settings during the update. I removed them and everything looks good with the menu.

Although, footer still showing stuff now that I removed. Grrrr

Hey, that sounds not bad, all things considered. And like you’ll get the rest sorted…

Yah so far everything seems good. But i remember struggling mightily to edit things displayed on the footer by default and now cant figure it out again.

What are you trying to change? If you post a link to your site, someone can likely help you with it.

looking through all my notes first. I am sure I saved or noted it somewhere, thats just me. lol

Thank you so far for all your help!