The dreaded WordPress 3.3 upgrade. Yikes!!! I’ve heard so many horror stories from people who have upgraded and had nothing but problems.
It’s always been recommended to wait at least one week before you upgrade to the latest version so that WordPress has enough time to work out some kinks. I mean we want all transitions to go smoothly right!
So I waited a week and decided to upgrade WordPress on video in front of you so you can see the steps that I believe are crucial before you upgrade to any of the latest versions. So, ready to see what those are?
In the video I mentioned some things you should do so I wanted to be sure and provide those links for you.
Backing up WordPress Quickly by Jeffrey Morgan
WordPress Health Check
WordPress Plug-in Directory
I also mentioned that there is a video to show you how to get around in the new WordPress so you can watch that below:
Hope you found this helpful and I sure hope you haven’t had any difficulty with this recent change. If it’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Did your transition go smoothly? Did you take these steps beforehand just as a precaution? Were you aware of these steps before upgrading to the newest version?
Please do share your experience with me and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it’s all be good.
Have a great week everyone and we are counting down until Christmas now! Please stay safe if you are traveling this week because I want to hear from all of you upon your return.
P.S. Be sure and read Jeffrey’s comment below about WordPress. He’s been kind enough to elaborate on some things that I believe you will find extremely helpful.
{ 111 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Adrienne,
Great video here! Really helpful. I haven’t upgraded yet actually because of the same reason you’ve mentioned, all I’ve been hearing about the upgrades were problems. So I decided to wait out a bit. lol Thank you very much for the video. I’ll implement what you’ve mentioned.
Thanks again! Have a great day!
PJ Zafra recently posted..Sean’s Thoughts For The Week Ahead – 16
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Hi PJ,
You heard all these horror stories too huh? In all honesty, I was kind of afraid to even upgrade and then I thought I was probably nuts doing it in a video. But after taking the advice of so many bloggers that I trust that by doing these simple things first that all will go well, it did. Yey!!!
Glad you found this helpful and I have a feeling all will go well with your switch over too.
Thanks PJ and enjoy your day too!
Hi Adrienne
I didn’t know it was recommended you wait a week until you update to the new version.
I’ve always rushed to do it straight away but thankfully I’ve never had any problems.
I did use to rely on plugins on my blog until I read the post you mentioned on Barry’s blog and then I started doing it from my hosting account…
Very easy when you know how lol
Anyway I just wanted to congratulate you on your recent award and on your interview with Barry, which I thought was fab.
Have a lovely christmas Adrienne and all the best for the new year.
Take care
Dawn
Dawn Kay recently posted..Spotlight On My Fab iTunes Reviewers
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:20 AM
Hi Dawn,
Usually when they have some major upgrades and of course you are reading about them all over the place is when they recommend you hold off for at least a week. I kept reading all these horrible stories of what was going wrong so I decided to hold off myself. And then I have more time to backup my computer on the weekends so wanted to be sure to have all of that in place as well.
So glad Jeffrey wrote that post for Barry. That was so helpful and makes so much sense. I had heard that the plug-in I was using to backup my blog didn’t back up images or my theme so had I needed to reinstall everything I would still have lost a lot.
Thank you Dawn for that I was so excited and thrilled. What an honor. I’m sure you’re doing a wonderful job transcribing my interview. He couldn’t have picked a better person.
I appreciate that you I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, Merry Christmas and here is wishing you the best year ever.
Twitter: jmd164
December 19, 2011 at 9:05 AM
Hi Adrienne,
I didn’t know it was a good idea either to wait a week to update WP’s upgrades. I also never deactivate my plugins. I do have an automatic weekly backup set and just before doing upgrades, I don’t usually do another. Not sure if that’s okay or not. Boy oh boy, I am so pleased I didn’t have any problem with this latest update though.
Thanks so much Adrienne, I’ll be deactivating my plugins and will do a further backup before updating WP upgrades and other plugin updates.
Take Care and Have a Wonderful Christmas
Julie
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Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:25 AM
Hi Julie,
I’m so glad you didn’t have any problems with this upgrade. I probably wouldn’t have either but I decided to just take some precautions just in case. The plug-in that I use to use to backup my blog I later found out that it doesn’t back up your images or themes so be sure and check that out. We never expect to have problems but I’ve heard of people who have lost their entire blogs and either didn’t back them up or their backup wasn’t a full one.
I’ve had problems with plug-ins before so checking them to make sure they are updated before installing a new version is always a good idea. That way if it does end up being a plug-in you can find a newer one that will do the trick or just deactivate it altogether.
Thanks Jule and have a Wonderful Christmas we well. Here is wishing you a fabulous New Year!
Twitter: carpathia16
December 19, 2011 at 9:27 AM
Hi Adrienne, This is very helpful. I knew you should wait a week, but I upgraded over the weekend and had no problems. I didn’t take any of these steps, so I guess I got very lucky! But now I know what to do for the inevitable future upgrade from Wordpress.
Thanks for another very helpful and informative video, Adrienne!
Carolyn | The Wonder of Tech recently posted..Fiverr: What Can You Get for $5?
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Hi Carolyn,
Since you waited a week it sounds like everything went smoothly and am so glad it did. I really don’t understand why so many people were having problems with this switch over but since I had never had any problems and obviously some of these people hadn’t either I thought I better take a few more precautions just in case.
I do hope you’re backing up your blog Carolyn and of course all the files on your computer as well. I know what it’s like to have it crash and you lose everything. Not fun at all. My brother runs his own business and paid his service provider to backup his sites. Not only did his service providers system crash, they lost all of their clients data. He lost all of his sites and had to rebuild the entire thing again. A huge lesson learned and we always think we are doing the right thing.
Glad you found this post helpful Carolyn. Have a great week and Happy Holidays!
Hi Carolyn,
I also usually recommend people wait at least a week before upgrading but this is one of those “do as I say and not as I do” moments. I am like a kid in a candy store when it comes to upgrading to the latest and greatest software. I usually upgrade some of my less important sites first and make sure there are no hiccups before I upgrade my important sites.
If someone does have problems with their plugins, disable all of them like you suggested but then only activate them one at a time until you discover which one is causing the problems. Good luck!
- Matt
Matthew Hooper recently posted..WordPress Backup: Do it Today or Lose it Forever
Oops, I just noticed that I addressed my reply to Carolyn and not to you, Adrienne. Sorry about that.
- Matt
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 1:44 PM
That’s the only reason I didn’t reply Matt because I didn’t think it was addressed to me. But now that I know…
I totally agree, I usually just want to do it and get it over with so I don’t forget and let it go. This time I refrained though and glad I did. Better be safe than sorry I always say. But starting with some other sites is always a good idea. My only thing is that I don’t have a lot of the same plug-ins on my other sites.
I’ve had issues with plug-ins in the past and some that a lot of people recommend just screw my blog all up. Oh well, I guess that’s just part of it.
Thanks for your comment Matt, it’s always welcome.
Hi Adrienne,
More often than not, the problems that people face when updating their WordPress sites are the fault of plugins. That’s why it’s smart to wait a week or so after the updates have been released. That way plugin developers can issue the necessary updates.
- Matt
Matthew Hooper recently posted..9 Great Christmas Gift Ideas for Building an Internet Presence
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 8:01 AM
I agree Matt and I’ve also heard it’s some themes as well. I feel pretty safe though because I use Thesis. Better safe than sorry right!
Twitter: harleenas
December 19, 2011 at 11:22 AM
Loved the video Adrienne!
I wish I had waited for a week before upgrading as well. However, I started getting an error as soon as the new version was launched with none of the posts showing up.
I had to upgrade, but as soon as I upgraded, all the social buttons vanished! I use Digg Digg, so had to upgrade those and then got the whole thing sorted out.
I think different people have faced lots of different problems at their end, and comparatively I was better off- so am thankful for that
Nonetheless, I think its a lesson learnt that we should ideally wait for such new versions to start rolling and then upgrade them, which I would have, had I not got an error on the blog.
Thanks for sharing an informative post that would help everyone. Hope you had a wonderful weekend as well
Harleena Singh recently posted..Why Should Charity Begin at Home
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 12:10 PM
Hi Harleena,
Oops, you had problems. I’m so sorry about that… I knew a lot of people were which is why I decided to wait. The posts not showing up seemed to be a big issue and then of course panic mode sets in.
Glad everything is back up and running smoothly for you. Just in case, hopefully this post will help for the next upgrade and what to do before jumping in.
Thanks for sharing that with me and so glad all is well over at your place. I’ll be stopping by this week I’m sure. Until then, enjoy your week and Happy Holiday!
Twitter: bdorman264
December 19, 2011 at 11:29 AM
It went fabulous……..because I didn’t/couldn’t do it. I did change my theme however, and that went pretty well. I think WordPress likes me………
Good, informative post; thanks for sharing.
Bill Dorman recently posted..Does this pizza make my ass look fat?
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 12:12 PM
Does the wordpress.com have a lot of upgrades too Bill? Since I’ve never used them of course I wouldn’t know. I do like the them though, you did good. See, you’re becoming quite the expert now. I think Wordpress likes you too! Darn good thing huh!
Twitter: brpraveen
December 19, 2011 at 12:00 PM
Hi Adrienne,
This is very useful stuff for all of us. Though I should say that I didnt wait that long but luckily didnt run into any issues.
But I definitely agree with you that waiting a while will probably be a better idea next time.
Related to taking backups, it is always a challenge in these “Risk-mitigating” tools. We do a Disaster Recovery excercise in any of the software development organisations where we take our backups to an unknown site and try to setup the whole environment from scratch. That is when we realize that the backups we take every day is just for namesake and doesnt really help us when we have a catastrophe like ‘our office burnt down’ or ‘office was washed out by a flood’.
I am using the WP Backup for my blog database backup, but never really tried to unzip the backuped files and see if I can get the whole blog up and running from the backed up files. Needs some thought now
Praveen Rajarao recently posted..DMC’s First GiveAway: 2 Premium themes from SoloStream Worth $118 !!!!!
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 12:20 PM
Hi Praveen,
Glad you didn’t have any issues. They say to just wait a week, not much longer because we all know it’s best to update and be protected. But not if you’re going to have a lot of issues which is why I say better safe than sorry.
I understand what you are talking about Praveen. I’m dealing with a similar issue right now. I back up my website software monthly religiously and have been for the three years I’ve been using it. The software takes you through the backup so it’s not like you can choose how to back it up. After that I would save it to a DVD which is how I was keeping all my files. So my computer died on me last month and upon getting a new one I uploaded these backup files to my new computer. Guess what! They aren’t recognizing any of these files. I’ve been in touch with their support and through several emails going back and forth, I did everything right but for some reason, the backups missed some files. So I had to pull my hard drive from my old computer and now I have to get all those files off in order to get my sites back. What a royal pain and I will definitely do it differently from this day forward.
I use to use the WP Backup plug-in as well but soon learned that it doesn’t save your images or your theme. So I decided that just in case, I want my entire blog saved. Luckily, Jeffrey wrote that post for Barry and I am now doing a full back up straight from my CPanel. Hope I never need it though.
Twitter: brpraveen
December 19, 2011 at 12:47 PM
Hey Adrienne – Did you notice that only my profile doesnt link back to my site when you mouse hover on my name. All others are fine. Am i missing something?
Praveen Rajarao recently posted..DMC’s First GiveAway: 2 Premium themes from SoloStream Worth $118 !!!!!
Twitter: brpraveen
December 19, 2011 at 12:48 PM
Never mind…It is fine now…not sure what hpnd
Praveen Rajarao recently posted..DMC’s First GiveAway: 2 Premium themes from SoloStream Worth $118 !!!!!
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 1:20 PM
Glad it’s resolved Praveen.. I guess maybe it was having a moment!
Hi Adrienne,
Thank you very much for including my blog and Jeffrey’s guest post in your video and for linking to it in your post, it’s very much appreciated thanks
It really is an excellent post by Jeffrey and has helped lots of us stay safe. I was reliant on a plugin until Jeffrey pointed out some flaws and concerns with the plugin and ever since his guest post I’ve been safe. Jeffrey really does know his stuff and is so helpful, I really do take my hat off to the man. He’s there for us when we ask for his help and on more than that occassion he has stepped in to help me out, he really is a top man.
Your video is extremely good Adrienne and shows us all the steps we should take before upgrading to the latest version of Wordpress. Due to the problems I had earlier this year I tend to update whenever I see one is needed and have never thought to de-activate my plugins before hand. However I shall heed your words of wisdom and leave it a week (at least) next time
My upgrade did go smoothly at the time but today when I went to publish a post I noticed that the permalink structure had changed so I entered it manually and have since spent far to long trying (and failing) to get Twitterfeed working for the latest post.
I have been back into the settings and for some reason WordPress changed the permalink configuration so I have switched it back
I also noticed that you don’t have Akismet installed is that because you have CommentLuv Premium which has GASP? Just out of interest really as I saw a post by Ileane which said about doing away with Akismet.
Adrienne I’ll catch you again before the week is out so I’ll save the seasons greetings until then my friend
Respect and Regards, Barry
Barry Wells recently posted..Steve King Asks: Is your web business really global?
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Hey Barry,
Well, Jeffrey wrote such an excellent and in depth post that I had to include it here. I use to use the backup plug-in as well until I learned that they don’t backup everything. That in itself made me very uncomfortable. I was then taught to backup everything directly from your CPanel but the way I was told never worked for me. It would stop halfway through and I got so frustrated. Then I read your post from your 7 links challenge and here is Jeffrey sharing the easiest way to do it all. It’s been going like a breeze ever since.
Sorry you are having some issue with your permalink configuration and Twitterfeed working incorrectly. I haven’t seen any issues so far so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I use to use Akismet a long time ago and I have over 100 spam comments a day. Then I would start finding my regular blog commenters landing in my spam from time to time and I got tired of going through it. Several bloggers recommended GASP so I installed that, uninstalled Akismet and have been using it ever since. I have no spammers show up in my spam folder now because they are no longer spam bots. They are actual people spamming me now but not even a quarter of the spam I use to receive. With CommentLuv Premium, GASP is part of it so I’m very pleased about that.
Thanks Barry, I will still be around all week. So I’ll be sending my seasons greetings in my post on Thursday so we’ll catch up then.
Have a great week.
~Adrienne
Adrienne,
I had already updated but your video is great showing just what you should do before upgrading wordpress.
Speaking as someone who has lost a blog before, it is no fun.
I us plugins as well as backup in the cpanel now. I am kind of lazy sometimes and don’t do the cpanel backup as often as I should but at least I have my database sent to me twice a day with a plugin.
I also did not know about the Health plugin.
Thanks for the great info.
Dee Ann
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Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 4:03 PM
Hi Dee Ann,
Glad you didn’t run into any problems with your upgrade! That’s always great news.
Since you are someone who has lost their entire blog then you definitely know the importance of backing up your work. It’s time consuming if you have a lot of blogs but worth it should something happen.
Glad this was somewhat helpful but glad you already knew the majority of this.
Have a great week Dee Ann.
Twitter: annieandre.com
December 19, 2011 at 2:24 PM
Adrienne,
I love this video showing the upgrade process. Brilliant idea and so well executed.
I’ve never had any trouble upgrading but i usually wait a whole month. I wonder if that’s why i’ve never had any problems. The only reason i’ve waited that long is because that’s how long it takes me to get around to backing up my blog. Not because i have some great foresight.
Annie Andre recently posted..2011 Annual Review Looking Back: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly!
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 4:07 PM
Hi Annie,
Even as I stumbled over my words? See, I don’t even know what to properly call certain things because I’m NO techie person. To me it’s “that thin”g and “that what you call it”, you know?
They suggest doing the upgrade after a week so they can work out all the kinks and then backup your blog on a pretty regular basis. I do mine weekly because if you’ve updated it and you haven’t backed up that update, you’ll loose those most recent posts along with everything included. I know I stay optimistic that this will never happen to me but I have lost lots of files before. Not a good feeling at all.
Hi Adrienne,
Great video! Now, that I’m making them a little more often now, I find myself delving into looking at every single detail that the pros are doing. In hopes that I’ll learn something new along the way.
I’ve already downloaded WordPress’s new version. Luckily, I was able to do it without any major problems or minor hiccups. I’m totally grateful for that!
I wanted to ask you however, is there a course on your Home Business BasicTraining.com, that teaches how to record the monitor with you giving the instruction, as you’ve done here on this video? Or is that a type of software that you’re using?
I find those type of videos to be quite helpful, but haven’t come across anyone teaching how to do them?
I’ll have to go through your video section to see what wonderful information you’ve provided for us there. But, if there’s a certain section there that I should concentrate in, that would be great to know.
Awesome post as usual, my friend. Very informative!
Deeone recently posted..Anthony Tony Robbins Helps In Four Days to Answer Five Questions
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 4:13 PM
Hi Deeone,
Glad the upgrade went smoothly, nice!!!
I do have something in the social media section titled videos that will show you which program I’m using. Of course I just now upgraded it so I have some upgrading to do on some of my videos that I’ll probably get to early next year. The software is Camtasia and you can use it for free for 30 days before you have to purchase it. The price is still at $299 and there is no affiliate link attached because they don’t have an affiliate program. It’s a fabulous piece of software and I highly recommend it if you are going to shoot a lot of these types of videos in the future.
If you want to shoot shorter videos like this without all the bells and whistles you can use CamStudio or Jing for this as well. I go over that on my training site as well.
Hope you find that helpful Deeone! Enjoy your week now…
Thanks Adrienne,
I’ll definitely make note of Camtasia. I’m not so sure it would a wise purchase right now, since I don’t plan on making many of those. It just really seems like a very cool program.
I have checked out the video links on your training site though. Those will certainly be helpful, for sure!
Thanks for all of your help! You Rock!
Enjoy your week as well.
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:37 PM
It’s a really cool program Deeone. You can always download the free trial and just use it for a month. Check it out but those other two might come in handy too.
You are so welcome and you enjoy your week as well.
Adrienne,
Awesome video here. I have already upgraded to the new version but luckily the transition went smoothly. At least I think so (O: No problems yet.
I really didn’t know that we should wait for at least a week before upgrading. Makes perfect sense though (O:
Thank you so much for the tip and the video.
You so rock my friend!
Adam Paudyal recently posted..9 Business Blogging Mistakes To Avoid Like The Plague.
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 4:15 PM
Hey Adam,
Glad everything went smoothly. Yey! It helps just to make sure they have everything fixed for us.
Glad you enjoyed these tips and thanks for sharing that with me.
You have a great week Adam!
Thanks for the always helpful video’s Adrienne. I waited about a week before I installed mine too because I read some where to do that.
I will have to go over to Barry’s blog and read that post about backing up WordPress the correct way. I think I am doing it the right way but it never hurts to double check.
Justin Mazza recently posted..How Is That Love
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 4:17 PM
Great news Justin, glad you waited a week just in case. I’m not the only one who took precautions.
The way Jeffrey explained it in his post at Barry’s made it so easy to do. So glad he was patient and explained it so well.
Hi Adrienne
I upgraded my blog the day after the release I think. I did not have any problems at all this time, but last time I upgraded Wordpress I had a lot of issues with my theme. Nice idea with a video about the process of upgrading and some very nice tips you provide as well.
Thomas recently posted..How I got from nothing to PageRank 3 in 7 months
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 6:01 PM
Hi Thomas,
Glad to hear this time was smooth sailing but sorry it wasn’t the time before. Can’t quite figure why some people have more problems then others with the switch. Just glad you didn’t have any problems and that you enjoyed my little video!
Thanks Adrienne
I don’t think two Wordpress installation ever is the same. People are using different themes (my issues the last time was related to my theme), people are having different plugins installed and some people have even done a little coding them self. The good thing about Wordpress is that there is so many installations out there and there are always someone out there that can help you. I guess that is another good reason to wait a week before upgrading. Let someone else solve the issues and find a workaround for the problem.
Thomas recently posted..How to check and improve Loading Times on your Blog
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:22 PM
Hi Thomas,
I will admit to you, I’ve never had an issue with any WordPress installations or upgrades. I’m knocking on wood as I say this but I guess I’m just fortunate. I do have the Thesis theme and have been told that’s it’s definitely one of the better ones to have to prevent any problems related to WordPress. I also know plug-ins can be the culprits too for any problems so you deactivate them and reactivate them and if there are issues, just find out which one it is.
You are right though, there is always someone you can reach out to and get some help with this. You are never in this alone.
Hi, Adrienne,
Nice video and timely as well. I was just considering upgrading. And knowing my history… I think that I will be taking things slowly. Yes you are right, it is absolutely essential that you back before you make any changes to your data. My hosting provider does not use cPanel so things are a little bit clunky. That of course makes this more interesting.
Ed.
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Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 6:03 PM
Hey Ed,
Your hosting provider doesn’t use CPanel? You know I helped a lady out a few years back with her hosting provider and they didn’t either. It was a nightmare for both she and I. I wish you the best of luck with that Ed. I’m sure if you need any help, Jeffrey can come to your rescue. That man knows it all.
Hi Adrienne,
If you could come back in to your post and place a line at the bottom to your readers to read this comment I would appreciate it.
First, don’t be in such a rush to upgrade …….. there’s no money in it. So be patient.
Most of “The Bloggers Market Group” runs on 3.1.4. When I go to upgrade at the first of the year, I’ll upgrade to 3.2.1 not 3.3. Always try to stay a version or two behind, especially if you have a complex interactive Blog.
Actually, your plug-in step is unnecessary for the experienced and critical for the beginner.
While backing up; Back-up your file system as well as database. Do both manually ( avoid any easy one-step solution for back-up that might be provided by your host ) and download both to the desktop.
Most all reliable hosts will have a close to current MySQL version for you to work with so this should not be a problem while upgrading. You really will have next to nothing to worry about upgrading WordPress and upgrading your database.
Your problems come with the plug-ins. The older; the greater the chance for problems. While upgrading, WordPress will automatically disable any plug-in that causes problems from your upgrade dashboard. Beginners may be confused by this though as it happens automatically in the flash of a second. So de-activating them at the beginning and then activating them after upgrade will give you any warnings automatically while you are working with the plug-ins inside the plug-ins area. This makes it much easier.
If on the really odd chance ……. and I do mean really odd chance that the Blog totally collapses, remember this, that you can repair a database from your C-Panel dashboard area where your databases are listed. If this fails to work. Then you will have to import your old system and start over.
If on the chance that you have a weird glitch like all of your posts are missing and everything else is fine, then you will need to build a new database named “TEST” and import your entire database that you backed-up before beginning your upgrade process ( do not try to export tables from a Blog that is not working and then try to import these to solve your problem ) into this new listing.
You will then need to view all of the tables in your new “TEST” database and find the table named “Posts” and export that table to your desktop and then import that table and only that table to your Blog’s database that has the missing posts. Nine times in ten this will solve your problem.
One last word of caution; Adrienne upgraded on camera because she is experienced enough to know that to fail would be a really, really freak incident. So she felt confident that nothing outside of an old plug-in would have caused any problems. Had she been upgrading or changing her theme, she would not have been as brave. True pain and tragedy comes not with upgrading WordPress, but rather upgrading your theme.
If you are so inclined to upgrade your theme have a pro do this or build your new Blog in your spare time under a sub-domain with a new database. Install a fresh copy of WordPress. “DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE YOUR THEME WITHIN YOUR EXISTING WORDPRESS BLOG!. Do this under a sub-domain and then when you are ready to go all you will have to do is change the name within your new database while disabling your old Blog files and database.
With the above listed references within Adrienne’s post you should have few if any problems with any type of upgrading, whether it be with WordPress or your theme.
Jeffrey Morgan recently posted..A Glimpse Into The Future
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 6:15 PM
Thank you Jeffrey for your awesome follow up to this post. See, I just went and learned even more new things from you.
So seriously, you don’t have to rush each time and upgrade to the newest version? Then why are all these so called WordPress experts scaring the bejeevies out of us telling you it’s a must or else you are cursed for life? That someone will access your information and you are a very weak link? This is so confusing to me.
As you probably can tell by the way I write, I cater more to the beginner and the experienced probably already knows how to do all of this. They may find my information a little more elementary but that’s okay. I say better safe then sorry.
I know that when I went to MySQL section it wasn’t like what you explained in the post but I think I figured it out and downloaded the right files. You are right though, this is for safe keeping should anything happen to your hosting service and it has happened to my brother.
I’ll be sure and put a note in the post for them to be sure and read your comment and I appreciate you taking the time to do this. I’ll be back over to your place later, I have a meeting in less then an hour and have to finish some things before it starts. I’m rushing as I type. So, I’ll see you in a bit!
Thanks again Jeffrey, you are a doll for sharing this with my readers.
Definitely one to bookmark Adrienne – really helpful post for those who are not naturally technical! (ummm…….. like me!!)
Nicky
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Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 6:18 PM
Glad you found it helpful Nicky and I know the feeling. I’m SO not technical but I’m definitely learning by visiting all these awesome bloggers. They have definitely saved me numerous times now. Thanks goodness!
Very good advice, Adrienne. Backing up before any upgrade on Wordpress is a must. Hostgator is really great with that. They have all my blogs backup in case something happens.
It’s also a great idea to wait a while when the new upgrade comes out!
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Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:23 PM
That’s great to hear Sylviane, nice to know Hostgator is there for you. I know the feeling.
Twitter: alexandra_cath
December 19, 2011 at 6:35 PM
Hi Adrienne,
Oh wow, this release was definitely a DOOZY!
I’ll tell you what happened to me…see, I usually wait at least 3 or 4 days to see what people are saying about these releases. This is my general “rule of thumb” with this kind of thing. I don’t know what it was that came over me this past release, but I almost didn’t “go there” as usual and something inside of me (something silly, I might add) said, “Ah it’s always okay, just get it done.” So I did…and boy did I regret it afterwards because my entire site went blank from the Admin side.
I was so lucky that I got a sweet tech at my host. He took the time to go through it with me and shut off all the plugins and then we turned them on one by one to see what caused the conflict. It was Popup Domination. So we just kept that one switched off and I was fine.
And I RE-learned my lesson. lol
Anyway…I love how you broke this all down and showed people how to take the necessary precautions to prevent a negative site situation. It’s easy to take things for granted while it’s all fine and dandy, but I know firsthand that having a way to prevent problems and also to recover data once you’ve toasted yourself like a poptart is very important!
Thanks for the awesome share! I think this might save some folks’ hides! lol I’ll make sure I share it wide.
Cat Alexandra
Cat Alexandra recently posted..Prospecting Taboo: The Warm Market Kiss of Death
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:27 PM
Hey Cat,
Oh no! That’s horrible, you too? I’ve heard you aren’t the only person this happened to. Good to know it was just a plug-in so did you check to see what version it was? Hope they’ve upgraded that one for you now.
It’s a horrible lesson to learn because the first thing we do is freak out. Sounds like your hosting provider is as good as mine. They are so patient with me when I call in panic.
Thanks for sharing that Cat and I’m glad everything is back up and running smoothly for you. I need to stop by again soon. Will do that tomorrow I promise.
Twitter: alexandra_cath
December 20, 2011 at 12:25 AM
Hehehe yeah it was a little bit of a freak out moment for me when it happened, but all’s fine.
I’m lucky to have a competent host with great support, yes. They really did save my hide here…again. lol
I really just uninstalled Popup Domination for now. I’m using Super Popup now anyway, so it’s all good. I may put Popup Domination back at some point but for now, there’s really not a need for it.
And also I have corrected my behaviour. It was cavalier of me to assume that a problem wouldn’t arise and to play Russian Roulette with my blog which I tend to daily…so yeah, it won’t happen again. Doh!
See you around bloggerville, Adrienne! This chica’s hittin the hay!
Cat
Cat Alexandra recently posted..The Ode of the Perpetual Quitter | Do you start intending to quit??
Hi Adrienne,
I had my share of problems upgrading wordpress. I haven’t upgraded to 3.3 yet, I usually wait a while before I upgrade. A few of the problems that I experienced in the past was not being able to upload photos and not being able to preview my posts before I post them. However, thanks to God that for the last 2 upgrades that I did, they seem to be working fine.
Thanks for posting and sharing this with us my friend 
Dia recently posted..Lost interest in a relationship
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:29 PM
Hi Dia,
Sorry that you’ve had issues in the past. I hear that it can either be the theme or the plug-ins. Usually one or the other. I guess I’ve been fortunate to not run into any horrible problems. Keeping my fingers crossed as I say that.
Good luck to you when you take that plunge Dia! I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you but I have a feeling it will all go very well.
This is absolutely crucial and extremely useful! After upgrading, I experienced a significant amount of problems with my plugins. My header logo wasn’t showing up and the layout got completely jumbled up! I had to go into my own cPanel and deactivate all the plugins… Such a mess and something I don’t want to go through again. Going to definetly give the healthcheck plugin a shot! One of the things that are great for back up is just going into your cPanel and downloading your files and storing it into a external hard drive. That is an extreme way to to back up everything!
Happy holidays my friend!
Ryan recently posted..The Price of Being a Musical Genius-Derek Amato
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:36 PM
Wow Ryan, sorry you had problems too. Darn it, isn’t that the biggest royal pain ever!
I learned recently that I should just go into my CPanel and deactivate my plug-ins. I learned that when I had an issue with one some time back. But my hosting provide has always been so helpful to me whenever I do have issues.
I recently got an external hard drive so I back everything up and save it to there. It’s just so much easier.
Hi Adrienne
Thank you SO much for this. I’m a complete novice in Wordpress and a friend has built my template so I’m on a crash course in HTML and all things Wordpress. It’s a bit scary… I’ve been wondering whether the latest update would change my settings, widgets or affect my template. I haven’t done it yet… still need to do a back up. But I really appreciate your post on this. Thanks!
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 19, 2011 at 10:42 PM
Hey Kristen,
It might be a bit scary it’s great to learn too. I’m sure your friend is there for easy access.
Be sure and read the comment that Jeffrey left. He said you don’t have to rush and make the upgrades. He’s a computer genius when it comes to building blog templates and all things computer related so I definitely trust his opinion. So don’t get in a panic to do it now. Find out first maybe from your friend if they think you may have any issues. But back everything up first. Rather be safe than sorry.
Thanks for stopping by and glad this was helpful.
Twitter: berget
December 19, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Adrienne,
I should have been watching your video before I upgraded. I always just click on the one button to upgrade, without thinking about it. And it has worked every time.. but one day I’m not going to be this lucky.
Next time I’ll wait for one week and listen to you
Jens P. Berget recently posted..All Teachers Are Marketers
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 7:59 AM
Well Jens, I’m so glad that it went well. Mine usually does too but I know with this upgrade so many people had major issues. I didn’t but you never know. I do hope you are backing up your blog though so if not, this process will really work great.
Thanks and have an enjoyable day!
Hi Adrienne
Thanks for this post. I haven’t updated my Wordpress yet. I had read a few horror stories from people, so I wasn’t in a rush to update. I had heard it was best to wait until they sorted out some of the bugs. I always back up before updating but I must admit I didn’t know you could turn all plugins off in bulk, so that was a handy hint to learn.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Cheers
Thea
Thea | Write Change Grow recently posted..The Shocking Truth about Christmas
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 8:04 AM
Hey Thea,
Smart move, waiting until things get all worked out. I know the plug-in creators have some catching up to do as well. That’s why I prefer just deactivating them all so if everything goes smoothly and you reactivate it and it’s a mess, you know why. Just bring each one back in at one time until you find the problem. That’s usually where it lies anyway.
Glad you learned something new here.
Thanks for your share and have a wonderful day!
Twitter: blogaks
December 20, 2011 at 3:38 AM
Hey Adrienne,
The video as usual was great full of information. I think the backup thing is very important. In case the blog breaks( not happened ever with me), not to panic , just replace the files from the previous installation. The problem may be more acute if something is broken in the database.
I though have the feeling that wordpress is well tested and most of the time never breaks down on upgrade.
It is also important to take the site backup and then maintain that for six months rolling. I often take the backup of backup on my machine and keep that backup away in a safe place. I once deleted an important table while testing a plugin. I was able to restore it immediately because I had backup script.
I hope I was able to add to the discussion
Ashvini recently posted..High cost of employee resignation
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 8:12 AM
Hey Ashvini,
You helped me earlier with understanding that I really needed to backup my blog from the CPanel instead of relying on plug-ins. So glad I took your advice and it’s not that I feel anything will happen but I’ve had horrible experiences of losing data in the past and not having it backed up. That’s not a great place to be. Then there was Dee Ann who lost her entire blog with no backup at all so you won’t catch me now being prepared.
Thank you for adding to this discussion and anything you have to offer I definitely will listen to.
even though i don’t use word press i can perfectly understand how it feels when you hear someone says that you can lose your blog if you made a mistake during the upgrade!
thanks for the post
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 8:13 AM
I think that your blog of course remains with your hosting service but it’s some plug-ins or your theme that were not compatible. At least that’s what I’m learning from this process Farouk. Not a fun place to be at all.
Twitter: danielsumner
December 20, 2011 at 7:41 AM
Thanks for sharing Adrienne, I am still guilty of not upgrading just yet, like you like to wait a while before I do any updates although WP will have rigorously tested beta before roll out.
I have my blog hosted with 1and1.co.uk who are a fantastic hosting company (US not so good). I don’t have cpanel as they have their own version of control panel which doesn’t have Fantastico, so you do have to create your own SQL database and install WP manually. I did read that using such installers can create security issues. I read that they use some generic table names and database names which hackers readily know.
You can Google Wordpress Fantastico Security. I have read articles at wpsecuritylock.com and on the Warrior forum. I am not sure how current this info is and if it’s been changed to use random database and table names but I feel it is worth mentioning.
Another tip that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned here in the comments is in the event of a blog failure, try asking your hosting company to roll back your server to a previous backup state. I killed my blog last year without a backup and 1and1 restored my server from a previous backup for me.
I will complete my end of year backups this wee then upgrade to the latest version.
Thanks for sharing Adrienne and for reminding my to backup (which I didn’t last time)
Dan Sumner recently posted..Will 2012 Be Your Year?
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 8:18 AM
Hey Dan,
I helped a lady who had that service and boy did I find it confusing. I couldn’t locate the files or anything.
I don’t use Fantastico, my service provided stopped using them some time back but I know a lot of people do use them. I mainly will upgrade my blog directly from my hosting account but since I cater mostly to the beginner, I didn’t want to freak them out since not everyone uses the same hosting service that I do.
I almost had to do that at one time too Dan, have my hosting service roll back my blog backup. I had some issues with it some time back but it ended up being a plug-in that was causing the problems so I didn’t lose everything like we had originally thought. I guess that’s another post altogether right!
Thanks for sharing that Dan. Really appreciate you mentioning that! Hopefully no one will need to take your advice but as I always say, better safe than sorry.
Enjoy your day!
Twitter: danielsumner
December 22, 2011 at 12:35 PM
What did I say. I will update at the end of this week. Ahhhhhh I just knew it, an epic plugin fail! I backed up all files from FTP disabled all plugins and still my blog broke. I was worried for a few minutes, apparently disabling my plugin wasn’t enough so followed some instructions here: famousbloggers.net/getting-ready-for-wordprss-3-3-solve-fatal-error-call-to-undefined-function-is_rtl.html
I took a look guess Adrienne that it was Popup Domination plugin and it appears I was right. I removed it from the plugins file and it’s back phewww
Dan Sumner recently posted..10 Inspirational Quotes that I love
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 22, 2011 at 1:02 PM
Oh my word Dan… Cat also said that she had problems with the Popup Domination plug-in as well. Sounds like it needs to be updated bad. Sorry you had that problem but glad all is well now. Boy, doesn’t that just seem to get under skin?
Hi Adrienne,
Very helpful post. I did upgrade before reading your post. I had some difficulty afterwards getting into my blog to edit for a short period of time, and that was a bit of a panic, but all seems well now. I will follow your advice through for waiting a week next time and your other suggestions.
Cathy | Treatment Talk recently posted..Find Joy This Holiday Season Even When Your Family is Addicted
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 11:20 AM
Hi Cathy,
Sorry you had a few hiccups along the way. It’s usually the plug-ins that need to be updated so waiting will give them a week to catch up. At least for most of them. Glad it’s all resolved now though. That can be rather scary wouldn’t you agree?
Woh, I have never followed any of these steps before an upgrade. I guess I have been lucky so far. Some of my blogs take a huge amount of work to put together. I’m not just talking about posting, I have whole databases that had to be posted manually. I’m glad I continued reading this article, it may save me a lot of issues that I could do without.
Frank Bowes recently posted..Simply Whispers Review
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 1:35 PM
Hey Frank,
I have never had any problems either with upgrades but I have been hearing the horror stories of things that have gone wrong with this particular one. I just decided that I would rather be safe than sorry so these are precautions you can take just in case. If you have whole databases that you post manually that would be horrible to lose that all. But backup my friend and all will remain well in your world.
Thanks for stopping by today.
That’s a great suggestion about waiting for a week before upgrading. One of the best things one can do with WordPress is to look at their help and community forums. That way you can see what users reports are on upgrades and many other issues.
This is a good practice with upgrades in general.
Thank you again.
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 1:38 PM
Those are good recommendations as well.
I guess I follow so many blogs that are experts when it comes to WordPress that I mainly just take their advice. They know this program so they can be the first to let us know when something is up, released or great improvements have been made. Either way, I definitely listen to what they share. They’ve yet to steer me wrong.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on this.
Well if only you’d written this post a few days ago, I only just updated my blogs to wordpress 3.3 last weekend, thankfully I followed most of your steps and all my updates went smoothly.
It’s a useful routine to remember for any wordpress update though
Rob recently posted..Holly Jahangiri Interview – We Blog Better Winner!
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 1:14 PM
Hey Rob,
Well, I didn’t write it earlier because I also waited a week until I did mine so this all just took place this past weekend. I was kind of freaking out too which is why I said I can’t believe I’m doing this live on a video but here it goes.
Glad to know that all went well with your switch over Rob. You are right, it’s a great routine to have for any and all updates.
Twitter: carpathia16
December 20, 2011 at 2:32 PM
Adrienne, your upgrading live on a video was about the bravest thing I’ve ever seen. I watched Man on a Wire about the guy who walked on a tightrope between the two World Trade Center buildings in the 1970′s. He had nothing on you!
But I am 100% certain, Adrienne, that if everything went haywire, you would have shown us that, Adrienne. I mean, it’s scary enough to upgrade without being on camera. You rock.
Now that I know what to do and how wrong it can go, I will definitely be checking this post before I upgrade next time!
Thanks for being brave enough to guide us through, Adrienne. I had no idea how wrong it could go until I read this post and the comments.
Hey, maybe you could include this upgrade video in your upcoming reality TV series?
Carolyn | The Wonder of Tech recently posted..Fiverr: What Can You Get for $5?
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 3:10 PM
Actually, I was keeping my fingers crossed that by following everyone’s advice and having waited a week plus done all my backups that everything would go smoothly. I had updated all my plug-ins so it was do or die. I still think the tightrope guy has me beat my millions of miles. I’d never attempt something that extreme.
I was thinking about that Carolyn before I shot the video and told myself if something goes wrong, we’re in this together. At least some of my computer friends can help me and my readers understand what when wrong. Jeffrey has already come to my rescue and added even more information that I was unaware of.
Brave, nah!!! I had faith it would all go smoothly. I’ve yet to have any problems with any upgrades but I think that has a lot to do with my theme and that I don’t have tons of plug-ins. Plus I always keep everything as up to date as possible.
Well, you do know how to crack me up Carolyn. Reality TV series…
I have a pretty good blogging friend now that I have given the title of “Reality Rockstar”. He’s actually won a reality TV show so we can only aspire to achieve what he has. Brave soul for sure.. You’ll never catch me on one of those.
Adrienne, I’ve been sitting on this for a few days and waiting to watch your video (which, as always, was so helpful and easy to understand). I followed the steps, and was all ready to upgrade, but then I read your note about Jeffrey’s comment. And after reading his comment, I sort of felt that there wasn’t much reason to upgrade. Why not wait? What is the value in upgrading? So that I can have popups on my menu? So now…I’m sitting on it all over again
Thoughts?
Ruth – The Freelance Writing Blog recently posted..Check Out My Glorious Guide to Crowdsourcing Content – and Help Me Win a Car
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 20, 2011 at 8:58 PM
Hi Ruth,
I’m still wondering myself and Jeffrey hasn’t responded to my comment asking him why everyone panics to upgrade if he’s saying it’s not a necessity. He’s got a launch going on right now so he’s probably really tied up. Heck, had I known that I probably wouldn’t have done it either but oh well. It’s done now.
In all honesty, I doubt you’ll have any problems now so you do whatever is the most comfortable for you. According to him it’s not necessary to rush and do it each time and he’s the computer guy. He builds wordpress themes so he would know a whole lot more than me. I just follow directions!
Hi Adrienne,
Really good video there and the resources you mentioned are invaluable.
Personally I’ve not upgraded because I discovered when I tried upgrading a day after the new upgrade was available, that it was in conflict with some plugin like Digg Digg. I did that upgrade with my test blog (I created a test blog where I do most of my tweaking before making them alive on my blog) As soon as I discovered those conflicts I decided to hold on till things are steady.
I agree with Jeffrey that I is really advisable to stay, maybe a version or two behind! For me, that’s good advise since it doesn’t really harm you any way. Going through the pains and frustration of re-installing when things go wrong (even when you have a back-up) is not what anyone wants to go through. I’ve witnessed it a couple of things. So, for those who are doubtful of what to do right now, stay with the previous version except you know what you’re doing!
Thanks for the video.
Chadrack recently posted..Seasonal Greetings to all our Esteemed Readers and Friends!
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 21, 2011 at 2:06 PM
Hi Chadrack,
I’ve learned so much with this latest upgreade. Not only to wait awhile before upgrading but now Jeffrey has informed us that it is okay to remain behind. I still scratch my head with why everyone tells us that our blogs can be at risk if we don’t upgrade immediately when that’s obviously not the case. I think if you have the necessary precautions in place to prevent hackers or things going wrong then if you don’t immediately upgrade to the current version you are not as risk. Or so I am learning.
Thank you for sharing this Chadrack and it’s good to know you also are doing this very same thing with no problems at all. That’s always good to know and be reassured.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
Great of you to share the videos. Whenever there is a new version, I usually wait a week or so to see what others are experience before I go ahead and upgrade. A lot of time knowing what can happen before hand, is a great way to prepare and ensure you dont mess things up.
satrap recently posted..Get Paid to Take Surveys
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 21, 2011 at 2:07 PM
You are definitely doing the right thing Satrap. Glad I’ve learned the same thing and also very pleased that I’ve never had any major issues myself. My heart just goes out for all those who have. That’s never fun.
Twitter: ITSergioFelix
December 21, 2011 at 4:21 PM
Hey Adrienne,
So it all went good then, I’m glad!
Hahaha I loved the finger crossing comment, I’m going to attempt my upgrade to 3.3 after all I am using Thesis as well and I don’t think I use many plugins or any weird thing.
So I’ll be backing stuff up and will do that tomorrow I guess.
Thanks for the video too, it IS really helpful!
Sergio
Sergio Felix recently posted..2012 Goals And Perspectives
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 21, 2011 at 5:58 PM
Hi Sergio,
Wouldn’t that have been a nightmare if I’m video taping this switch and my blog disappears? At least I would have found the solution and included it in this video which or course would have been to call my hosting service and plead for their help!
Yep, I’m bad like that…
Thank goodness for Thesis Sergio! Best decision I ever made so that is definitely one product I have never regretted spending the money on.
So, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you too but I’m sure it will all go smoothly! Let me know now…
Have a good one.
Twitter: janetcallaway
December 21, 2011 at 6:23 PM
Adrienne, aloha. As always, your tutorial was excellent and I was putting it on my “to do” list. However, what I liked best about this post is Jeffrey’s comment not to rush into doing it. Love receiving permission not to do something.
Adrienne, I always appreciate the discussions in your comments section because it seems that no matter the topic, you have readers who can add even more value or expand your post even further. Congratulations on building such an awesome community.
Until tomorrow, aloha. Janet
Janet Callaway recently posted..The Lizard Brain, the Flinch and You
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 21, 2011 at 6:39 PM
Hey Janet,
I’m glad Jeffrey came back and shared that with us. Would still like to know why all these experts say it’s so crucial to update when Jeffrey definitely knows what he’s talking about. He’s my resident computer genius… He would never steer us wrong.
I enjoy the discussions as well Janet. This is where I learn a lot too, here in the comment section. The one thing about me is I’ve never claimed to be an expert with some of what I share, I just enjoy sharing what I have learned. Which is why I ask so many questions because if someone can pipe in and give me more information, that’s just going to help me in the long run right! It will help my readers too!
Glad you found this one helpful and when you do get ready to upgrade, I’m sure it will go smoothly.
Have a beautiful night young lady!!
Twitter: janetcallaway
December 21, 2011 at 6:25 PM
P.S. Adrienne, I’ll bet that when I return to comment on your next post you will be below the 50,000 mark. So, in advance, CONGRATULATIONS!
Janet Callaway recently posted..The Lizard Brain, the Flinch and You
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 21, 2011 at 6:41 PM
Don’t know if it will happen that fast but I’m definitely keeping my fingers crossed that it will by the first of the year! I’m SO excited. I don’t think I’ll ever catch up with Christian but I’m going for it. Thanks!!!
I usually wait a week as well to make sure I know what the issues are with updates. This time around I kind of accidentally hit update without thinking about it early. Luckily, I haven’t noticed any huge problems that I wasn’t able to fix right away. I did notice that my feedburner feed stopped updating, but I was able to apply a simple fix with a plugin to redirect my wordpress feed. Prior to the update that wasn’t necessary, but now it is… go figure. Other than that minor hitch, I got everything on my blog running smoothly. I also took the opportunity to clean out unused plugins and speed up my site load time a bit.
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Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 21, 2011 at 6:43 PM
Hi Richard,
That’s good to hear that you usually wait although you did jump the gun this time. Huh, that feedburner issue, sorry to hear about that. So you had to include a plug-in now, one I’m sure you didn’t want to included but give it a few weeks and see if everything is back in normal working order. I like to think it will be that easy.
Hi Adrienne,
I have upgraded and so far nothing major has happened. Should have seen this video first.
Now that you mentioned about backing up wordpress, I think I better do this. What will be the most damaging consequences if we do not back up word press? What are the chances of things happening? Again is the newbie talking about technology stuff.
Happy Holidays my friend!
Jimmy recently posted..Beginners Guide to NLP – Part 2 (Pattern Interrupt in NLP)
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 21, 2011 at 9:50 PM
Hey Jimmy,
Most of the time they should go rather smoothly. I think that WordPress made more major changes with this upgrade so some themes and plug-ins could really mess this transition up. It’s turned into a nightmare for a lot of people I’m afraid.
There are several reasons you should backup your blog on a regular basis. One of them is if something happened with your server. I’ve been using the problem that happened with my brother at the first of this year as an example. He was with a very reputable hosting service and my brother has his own business as well. It doesn’t pertain to what we’re doing but it all runs off his website. He even paid his hosting service to keep extra backups of all his information. Well, earlier this year they had a major crash on some of their servers so not only did everyone’s sites go down, all their backup information was lost. He had to build his entire site starting with earlier backups he had kept himself. Does this type of thing happen often? No, but can it happen? Absolutely. It was a nightmare.
The other reasons would be because of security threats. Since WordPress is the most popular blog platform right now, hackers love to cause problems. That’s one of the reasons WordPress wants us to always update to the newest version because they are constantly improving these types of threats.
The other reason would be if you happen to get a virus on your computer, it can affect your blog. I know a few people this has happened to as well. It’s best to keep a back up on a regular basis just in case because we have all put a lot of hard work into our blogs to lose everything because we never expected the unexpected to happen.
Hope that helped Jimmy and thanks for the message. Happy Holidays to you as well my friend.
Hi Adrienne
Just happened to stumble across here from other websites. I can’t really stream the videos as the VPN is working a bit slowly here in Beijing.
I updated to 3.3 last week as my website designer was finishing the touches of the new design of the blog. All was ok until it came to the Qtranslate plugin. As my site is in Eng and Chin, I use Qtranslate. It made a mess as QTranslate wasn’t updated yet and I had to resort to posting with HTML editor (I usu prefer Visual)… but now I think it’s updated and should work fine
I’m no tech expert, but thought i’ll just share my little experience
Take care. HAppy HOlidays
Noch Noch
Noch Noch recently posted..a pat on the back for 2011
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 22, 2011 at 4:37 AM
Hi Noch,
Glad you hopped on over and shared with us your experience. Some of those plug-ins can really be a pain at times like this wouldn’t you agree? But what on earth would we do without them! We’re kind of stuck really but glad everything was resolved.
I enjoy hearing non-techie’s experiences because it just goes to show us that we all can do this. It just takes a lot of trial and error sometimes.
Thank you for your comment, it’s always appreciated. Happy Holidays to you as well.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne
I’ve been planning to upgrade my wordpress blog to the latest version after Christmas season, and I’m very grateful that before taking some step to upgrade it. I’m blessed to visit your video tutorial about the latest version. It surely pays to wait rather than jumping into it right away. Your video really am a great help to me and to every body who are using wordpress. Stay lovely as you are and Merry Christmas.
Thankfully yours
Ruth Sayson
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Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 22, 2011 at 8:13 AM
Hi Ruth,
Glad you found my video helpful so at least when you are ready, these are some of the steps that you may find helpful. I have no doubt though that all will turn out fine.
Thanks for your lovely message and happy holidays to you as well.
~Adrienne
Thanks Adrienne, for creating this video. I didn’t even think about all the mishaps behind it, but thankfully I didn’t have any issues at all and I also added the health check to be on the safe side. All is well and I am good to go. I passed your video on to others I know as a precaution as well. Priceless information!
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Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 22, 2011 at 3:57 PM
Ah, glad you found it helpful Sonia. I thought I’d take my chances and just upgrade online. What the heck right!
Hope your other friends will find it helpful as well.
Take care and Happy Holidays!
My upgrades went smooth except that there’s a plugin that kept displaying notifications. But that was a minor and is fixed now.
Just sharing my own experience. I delayed upgrading Wordpress and I got my sites compromised :p
So I’ll keep updating Wordpress as soon as possible. Usually problems that occur after upgrading is solvable by disabling some plugins until there’s a new version of the plugin available.
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 23, 2011 at 9:35 AM
Hey Louis,
Glad to know that for the most part everything went well. Sorry you had that one hiccup with a plug-in but glad it’s all resolved now.
I do appreciate you sharing your experience with us. I think that you have to have other plug-ins for security purposes that will protect your blog so I honestly believe that is the reason some people’s blog get compromised. I don’t believe it’s just because we didn’t upgrade. When you have the proper security in place, hackers can’t access your blog. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that you don’t run across this problem again.
I appreciate you uploaded a video to show it all. I usually wait more than a week for the final version to come. Reading other peoples reviews saves me from experiencing the same problems. Its not just with wordpress but I tend to remain cautious with all new launches from softwares to mobile phones and other gadgets. The iphone 4s caused a great unrest among its users and I’m glad I was not among the ones who complained. Unless all matters are solved I’m sticking to my BB and as for wordpress I’ll upgrade it tomorrow after I took a look at your video again.
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 23, 2011 at 9:42 AM
Thanks James, it sounds like you definitely are waiting which in turn is not causing any problems upgrading your blogs. That’s what I do as well, find out from others what kind of problems they are incurring so that I can make sure I have none of those myself. Smart move!
Good luck with your upgrade. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Twitter: ITSergioFelix
December 26, 2011 at 4:18 PM
Well I finally did the Sonny upgrade and all went smooth thank God! hahaha
I was sweating bullets because I did back up at the server layer, then ran the health plugin, deactivated the plugins to give it a go and then I just remembered I didn’t backed the database in the middle of the update LOL
(databases do get backed up from the server layer backup though)
But all went good so whew… gave me a little bit of rush but everything’s fine now (or at least the blog’s still up! LOL)
Anyway, take care Adrienne, it was fun to follow your guide to some extent (will do at the 100% level next time) all the best and looking forward to this 2012!
Sergio
PS. I’m starting to feel like 2012 is taking FOREVER to come!
Sergio Felix recently posted..Seven Link Challenge
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 26, 2011 at 4:49 PM
I’m so pleased to hear that it all went so smoothly. I had a feeling that it would if you waited this long. But then again, you are a computer guy and know what to do if I’m not mistaken.
With the way time is flying by Sergio, it will be here before you know it. This gives me this week to get caught up on a lot of things so I’m happy that it’s not quite here yet. But, it will be all good my friend.
Take care!
~Adrienne
thanks for sharing your experience.
I still haven’t upgraded! I rarely upgrade right away, even weeks after it is released because generally there isn’t any new updates that I am dying to have. Unless there is a good reason to upgrade right away, I tend to wait maybe 2-3 months, just to be safe
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Paul L recently posted..Who has Access to Your Facebook? Clean it in 1 Minute.
Twitter: adriennesmith40
January 11, 2012 at 7:26 AM
My friend Jeffrey said that we don’t have to rush for the upgrade although everyone always scares us into thinking its detrimental. I guess I’ve just been use to going with the flow but with this last upgrade I think a lot of people got a little more wake up call then they expected. Glad to know you are a little slower on the gun.
Thanks Paul… Have a great day!
Hi Adrienne,
I am so glad I found your article, I am a mobile car mechanic from Sittingbourne kent, I am very new to Wordpress and SEO.
The new update 3.3.1 has been sitting waiting for me to pluck up the courage and press the update button. Now after reading and watching your video I feel confident to perform the upgrade.
Thanks once again for taking the time to share your experience.
Twitter: adriennesmith40
January 27, 2012 at 1:07 PM
Hi Richie and welcome to my blog.
I think it’s pretty safe to hit that button now Richie. Heck, if I waited a week and it was okay then I’m sure yours will be too. But if something should go wrong you can bet it has to do with a plug-in. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you though. I’m sure it will be smooth sailing.
Have fun!