4 Tips for a Safe Update

Never have a broken WordPress site

for more than 10 minutes

by András Guseo

About me

• András

• Hungary Geneva

• Full-time father of 2 princesses

• Customer support @ Modern Tribe / The Events Calendar

• Designer / Developer

• www.divi-magazine.com

• Computer game addict

• @AndrasGuseo

The Ecosystem

• WordPress – powering almost 30% of the web

• Themes – 10.000+ themes on Envato market

• Plugins – ~52.000 in the .org repo

• Continuously developed / Frequently updated• New features

• Critical fixes

• Bugfixes and glitchfixes

I’m getting more?!? Give it to me NOW!

Updates don’t always work as we expect

• New bugs are introduced

• The new version is incompatible with the theme or another plugin

• Something goes wrong during update

So we might end up with …

And then...

Result?

The site doesn’t work!

• Losing visitors / customers

• Hurts reputation

• Losing Money!!!

Fixing is time & money

What attitude do you need?

• Patient

• Curious

• Prospective

• Precautious

Be patient!

Be patient!

STOP! Wait a second! (Or a couple of days.)

• Critical vulnerabilities lower risk of breaking as it is focused on that critical vulnerability

• Major release definitely wait couple days

• Bugfix / Maintenance Release usually good to wait 1-2 days

Be patient!

Why is this good?

• Minimize the risk of breaking your site immediately

• If there’s a new bug, it might get fixed.

Be patient - case

• The email case - WordPress 4.6

Be curious!

Be curious!

Look around!

• Check the changelog

• Check the .org support forums / plugin forums for new issues and if they have been fixed

Why is this good?

• Minimize the risk of breaking your site immediately

• It’s good to be curious, no? ;o)

Be curious - case

• The WooCommerce case

• WooCommerce 2.6 – shipping zones – compatibility

Be prospective!

Be prospective!

Use a staging / test / development site!

What is it?

• A copy of your website• Local install with XAMPP or MAMP

• Subdomain / subfolder (staging.domain.com, domain.com/staging)

• Separate domain (mytestingsite.com)

Why is this good?

• Test everything and anything without risking your live site.

Be prospective - case

• The case of the Traveler

XAMPP

• Local server on a pendrive

• No or minimal setup needed

• Fits in your pocket

• Works with any Windows PC anywhere

Be precautious!

Backup!Backup!

@AndrasGuseo

Be precautious!

Backup! Backup! Backup!!!

• The single one most valuable thing you can do to your website

Why is it good?

• Restore your website in minutes.

• UpdraftPlus (https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/)

• BackupBuddy (https://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/)

• VaultPress (https://vaultpress.com/)

Be precautious - case

• The Case of the Hired Developer

What can you do? – Recap

1. STOP & Wait! – Be patient

2. Look around! – Be curious

3. Use a staging site! – Be prospective

4. Backup! Backup! Backup! – Be precautious

Thank you!

URLs

Backup plugins

• UpdraftPlus - https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/

• BackupBuddy - https://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/

• VaultPress - https://vaultpress.com/

• .org repo - https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/backup/

Server software

• XAMPP for Win - https://www.apachefriends.org/

• MAMP for Mac - https://www.mamp.info/en/