Re-installing WordPress to get updates

That’s what I was trying to do so back to the beginning of my question:

There is a bunch of PHP files at the root level and when I downloaded WordPress I can’t just replace what’s there because the file structure is much different and messy on my end so I would need specifics as to where to put the files. Do I create a sub-directory and put them there then add theme. I find this very intimidating and need to know more specifics on how I should tackle this as i am an amateur? Do I keep the same database? Or, should I just start and how can I do that? Thanks again.

What files do you see in the root of your site?

I guess they would go in the public/html? The directions still have you going to WordPress Admin to update and I have a feeling I’m still not going to see the update button. It’s probably the theme causing the issue as someone else with the theme had the same problem. Here is a list of files in the public/html where the files I THINK should go.

.quarantine
.tmb
old
oldwebsite
test
wdammnnsite
wp-admin
wp-content
wp-includes
.htaccess
404.access
404.shttml
index.php
index1.html
layout-styles.css
readme.html
test.php
wp-activate.php
wp-blog-header.php
wp-comments-post.php
wp-config-sample.php
wp-config.php
wp-cron.php
wp-links-opml.php
wp-load.php
wp-login.php
wp-mail.php
wp-settings.php
wp-signup.php
wp-trackback.php
xmlrpc.php

There’s nothing odd about that. Please follow the manual update instructions. If you need additional help, you might contact your host.

Wordpress read me file states that after replacing files, point browser to /wp-admin/upgrade.php. Now I’m confused because Codex directions for upgrading doesn’t mention it.

It won’t hurt to hit wp-admin/upgrade.php.

Is that a button? Where is that? Sorry but I’m very new at this. tx

https://nnninvestmentadvisors.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php

I feel like I’m being a real pain. Last question which is crucial. If I upload the new WordPress files, won’t my child theme be eliminated? It states to remove a couple of files from the content folder but child theme will still be there. I guess I’m updating with new files as prompted but child theme will remain?

No, the child theme is not affected.

I’m doing this now and my site is down. Do I want to overwrite index.php because it says to keep all of the files except for two.

yes, just don’t overwrite wp-config.php

I didn’t. Did all that and now can’t sign in to wordpress.

Errors like this are logged. Check the error log on your server. If you can’t find the log, please contact your host.

Meantime, enable wp_debug and wp_debug_log and after an error, look at wp-content/debug.log to see if anything gets logged there. https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Debugging_in_WordPress

I was an idiot and forgot to copy over a file and that’s what was causing the problem. On the dashboard (at a glance) section, it does say that it’s running 4.9.8 BUT on the updates page it doesn’t say anything about what version I’m running like it should and this was the problem from the get-go and I couldn’t update within WordPress. It reads:

WordPress Updates
Last checked on August 28, 2018 at 1:38 pm.