today’s 2.8.6 update – BOOOO!!! HISS!!!!

you don’t edit the default theme you know.

If you want to customise it you should create a new one based on it then it won’t be overwritten. Just restore from the backup. You do have a backup don’t you?

And of course the old, did you backup???…because if you did you would have a backup of the wp-content/themes/default folder.

If you don’t have a backup, ask your host if they have a backup you could use.

See WordPress Backups and remember to backup both your files and your database.

There are plenty of warnings in the docs about core hacks.

Hi there.
I should clarify…
Actually, I didn’t hack anything. I did all of the modding through the wordpress dashboard; ie, editing the header.php and footer.php. And I always downloaded the backups during each update when prompted.

This time, however, wordpress didn’t give me the opportunity to backup. It simply updated in one fell swoop whereas before I had to go through several steps and it would ask if I wanted to download a backup.

I went to the last backup that I have here at work, unzipped it, and found no wp-content folder. I guess that that wasn’t programmed to backup. Or am I just not looking in the right place?

So, you went to wp-admin->Appearance->Editor and selected a page to edit? Right? That is a built in code editor. If you were editing the default themes you were editing WP code whether you knew it or not. You aren’t changing configuration variables, you are physically editing the php/css/js source. That is going to get overwritten when you update.

And just in case it wasn’t clear

See WordPress Backups and remember to backup both your files and your database.

Thanks apljdi.

Why, though, has it never been overwritten before? I’ve done at least 8 updates previously and it never overwrote my changes. Why did it do it this time?

Regarding backups, I have backed up my web sites from time to time. I’m hoping that I have a recent one for my blog at home. Regardless, this will definitely make me more diligent.

Why did it do it this time?

Started happening when the Tools->Upgrade option became available.

Before, when you manually did the upgrade, you might not have uploaded a new version of the wp-content folder (see Upgrading WordPress Extended).

Thanks. Now I know.

I hadn’t touched that code in probably a year, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I backed up the site at least once during that time.

The trouble I have with the upgrade is that I don’t know what files have changed since 2.8.5. Is there a way to have those listed somewhere?
I’m having to pick through the file dates and compare them one by one.

When given a list of which files have changed, updates have gone much smoother and faster. I guess I was spoiled by earlier releases that listed this information, and will have to get used to doing this the hard way vs. dumping every file into my wordpress folder just to update the few files that have changed.

Alright, hoping I got this right. Manual updates give more flexibility to avoid stomp-over of changes, saves uploading extra files for no good reason, so I only uploaded these files:
readme.html
wp-admin\press-this.php
wp-includes\version.php
wp-includes\functions.php
wp-includes\formatting.php
Please correct me if I’m wrong, missed some files, need to do something else to update, or you know where this info is posted so I don’t have to do all the extra work each time there’s an update.

Looking…

wp-includes/version.php
wp-includes/js/swfupload/plugins/swfupload.speed.js
wp-includes/functions.php
wp-includes/formatting.php
readme.html
wp-admin/press-this.php

That’s the list I got from 2.8.5 to 2.8.6.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Version_2.8.6#List_of_Files_Revised

Interesting wp-includes/js/swfupload/plugins/swfupload.speed.js
doesn’t compare differently using Beyond Compare even though it has a newer date and a different size.

Ha, the List_of_Files_Revised was a blank List last time I looked.

Thanks for the confirm, though. Sorry if I sounded cranky, but incremental updates are much easier than drag and drop all files then scratch head and wonder what got over-written. Thanks for great support, security updates, and great product that saves me a lot of work.