How to Find Root Directory to Manually Update?

  • I am a teacher that has been charged with the task of maintaining the school’s website.
    However, I am unable to update or make any changes to the website because the version of WordPress is outdated. Unfortunately, clicking the auto-update button is pointless because the auto-update fails every time, so it needs to be done manually.

    I have been trying to follow the steps to update WordPress manually, in which I apparently need to go to the website’s root directory and overwrite some files (which I’m assuming is just like copying/pasting and overwriting some files in a folder on your computer).
    I know absolutely nothing about WordPress, nor do I know where to find this root directory, nor am I the person who created the website, nor was I there when the website was created.

    Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

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  • You can use an FTP client to connect to your server where the WordPress site is located, connecting to your server is done using the same host/server login info given to you by your host.

    Once you are logged in you will see a bunch of folders, you need to double-click the public_html folder, you will now be inside the root folder, you should now see your WordPress files where you can begin updating your installation.

    A decent tutorial can be found here which should explain things for you.

    Hope this helps.

    Thread Starter ssufurijin

    (@ssufurijin)

    This was extremely helpful. However, apparently I’m going to first need to connect to the site using the FTP client, and I’m not sure how I’m going to do that because I was not part of the websites creation. I don’t know what goes in these fields.

    I’m assuming whoever created the website would have the “host” “port” and “password” information necessary to connect? Or is that something that I can figure out on my own (and if so how)?

    That is correct yes, but you should be able to retrieve this information from whoever is hosting your website for you too.

    The host will be your domain name, port is 21, but you will need your username and password to login using an FTP client.

    Once you login, it’s as straight-forward as managing folders & files on a computer.

    Hope this helps.

    The blog’s root directory will be whatever directory on the host contains the file wp-login.php which may or may not be the /public_html/ directory.

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by MarkRH.
Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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