How To Upgrade To WordPress 2.6 In 5 Minutes

WordPress LogoIt is always a pain to upgrade WordPress to the latest version. Fortunately there are some great plugins to help you out big times!

Before you start any upgrade don’t forget to backup, backup, backup! Save your files local and use the great plugin WP-DBManager by GaMerZ

Check all your plugins you use, if it may have compatibility issues with WordPress 2.6 or not. Everybody who is upgrading from 2.51/2.5 to 2.6 shouldn’t have big problems with their plugins, since there were no really big changes to 2.6. If you get an error message for a specific plugin, please contact the author of the plugin directly to make sure if it’s working in the newest WordPress Version. Or just deactivate the plugin if it’s not really important for you website.

A good resource is the compatibility plugin list for WordPress 2.6, this list gets refreshed every day, right now it’s pretty short and sweet. You can also check the compatibility plugin list on WordPress 2.5, since most of these plugins are compatible with 2.6 too.

After you checked all your plugins, you should use “The Instant Upgrade plugin for WordPress” by Alex Günsche. Install and activate the plugin, deactivate all your other plugins. Run Intstant Upgrade and after just some clicks and connecting to your ftp server, it automatically upgrades your WordPress in about a minute or less. You don’t have to do anything. Just lean back :)

There is also another plugin out there, “Wordpress Automatic Upgrade“, but it looks like some people have major problems with it. It has some more features as the “Instant Upgrade” plugin, like automatically deactivating and activating plugins and backup the files automatically. But especially recently, people had a complete disaster with this plugin and the author unfortunately is not very responsive lately.

Just FYI, when I did the upgrade today, the admin page reloaded without a flaw but the website only showed a list of my files, that’s because the files were not uploaded yet. Just wait for a minute and don’t panic. After a minute my website worked fine again. :)

One person were commenting (No. 46) in my previous tutorial, that it took about an hour that the plugin updated everything. Reason might be loads of plugins, slow internet connection or the WordPress server was slow and he updated from 2.05 to the newest version. But this is the absolute exception. But after that, his blog worked fine.
Also don’t use any of these plugins when you installed WordPress via Fantastico.

Have fun upgrading your WordPress Website. As always, it’s worth it!

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55 Comments »

  1. avatar #2 - Jessica Says:

    Hey, good job! Keep on going! I don’t use wordpress, but people who use will like it!

  2. avatar #3 - Alex Says:

    Thanks Jessica, maybe you should use it to, but your website looks great anyways. :)

  3. avatar #4 - Suzanne Franco Says:

    OK … this is the time where I start to get major anxiety … time for the big WP upgrade. LOL Thanks for this great post … it has set my mind at ease … somewhat … and I’m going to give it a go in a few minutes here … I’ll post back and let you know how it goes. *SmiLes* Suzanne

  4. avatar #5 - Alex Says:

    Hey Suzanne, how did it go, hope it worked for you?

  5. avatar #6 - Suzanne Franco Says:

    This is awesome Alex! Thanks again for the great post … I’ve done 2 of my blogs so far and I have a handful of others to get done and I’m certain they will go just as smoothly. *SmiLes* Suzanne

  6. avatar #7 - Omar Says:

    nice tutorial, wish i found this tutorial earlier.

  7. avatar #8 - Alex Says:

    @ Suzanne, glad it worked out for you. Good luck with your other blogs. :)

    @ Omar, thanks for your compliment. Even if you did an upgrade the old way. At least you know how to do it next time. And if you want you can tell everybody else about this little tutorial if they didn’t upgrade yet. :)

  8. avatar #10 - OPNENGIGA Says:

    very upset to see this articles. Because you didn’t have 5 min to updates your version to 2.6. You’re still out of 2.5. How could you do that? Can explain?

  9. avatar #11 - Kiten Says:

    ????????? ?? ???????, ??????? :)

  10. avatar #12 - Alex Says:

    Hey Opnengiga, it´s true, this one is not on 2.6 but you have to consider that I administrate 6 other WordPress blogs and they are all upgradet. This is why I looked for a fast, secure and simple solution. Before that it took me ages to upgrade all blogs, now it was just about 30 minutes. I didn`t upgrade to 2.6 this blog, because I`m working on a new design and decided to do a completely fresh start. Even though it just take 5 minutes, I`m using a lot of old plugins, which are not available for 2.5 and 2.6. So I just skip the upgrade and go ahead with a new design on 2.6. I understand you are upset, but I hope I was able to explain it good enough to you ;) BTw, did you try it out? And even though I didn`t upgrade this blog by myself. Does it really matter? If I can help people with this article, who cares if I did it by myself? I tested throughoutly on other blogs, before I wrote this article and it worked perfectly! :) But thanks for your comment and I can understand why you were upset, you thought I just put something out and tell people crap without testing it. But that´s not the case :) @Kiten, hmmm, what do you want to tell me? ;)

  11. avatar #13 - Aaron Besson Says:

    i used your method recommended and now i get 500 Internal Server Error

    I would appreciate any help asap as i need my blog back up as soon as possible

    thanks

    Aaron
    Blogger and Fellow Trini

  12. avatar #14 - Aaron Besson Says:

    oh well starting over from scratch, what took me a year to get where i wanted was gone in a couple clicks..

  13. avatar #15 - Alex Says:

    Hey Aaron, sorry but I didn’t see your first comment before. It didn’t work or what happened. As I can see know your website is online. Did you just use your backup or did it work finally. Let me know. You are the first person who had any problems with it. Sorry for that.

  14. avatar #16 - Luxury Homes For Sale Says:

    That is really awesome, I’m looking forwards to learn more about Word press.

  15. avatar #17 - Alex Says:

    There is a lot you can do with WordPress

  16. avatar #18 - Milan Petrovic Says:

    I upgraded my blogs to Wordpress 2.6 and there was no problems. Also, I have updated plugis I made for Wordpress, and working on upgrading my Starscape theme. Unfortunetly, there are some changes in 2.6 that have / will force plugins and theme developers to issue fixes to their work.

  17. avatar #19 - Alex Says:

    Hey Milan, what changes in 2.6 are forcing to change the plugins, thought there is not a lot to change, at least not so much as after 2.5 released.

  18. avatar #20 - Yuen Says:

    Hi!
    I can’t see “post slug” in Wordpress 2.6
    And because I want to make manual slug for my post.

  19. avatar #21 - Alex Says:

    Hey Yuen,

    since 2.5 they already changed the position of the post slug option, which can be overseen if you don’t look closely. After you wrote your title it will show your permalink right under it with a link to edit the permalink. But this option will only show if you use the post title in your permalinks. Otherwise if you have your permalinks on standard, it won’t show up, since in the standard permalinks aren’t include the post titles. Hope that helps.

  20. avatar #22 - Yuen Says:

    @Alex
    Hmm, right now I don’t know how to setup a link in localhost to look like your site with .htaccess (But I did it in a host).
    When I choose permanent link as “Day and name” http://localhost/wp/2008/07/21/sample-post/
    And visit my site, it show me that:
    “Not Found” The requested URL /wp/2008/07/20/post-name/ was not found on this server.
    But I remember that we have to include “index.php” in somewhere, I can’t remember how did I do that before… is structure “index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/” ???
    When I use this structure, the problem comes with Error 404 – Not Found.
    Agh, I really have big problem about this permanent… Please tell me how to configure it in localhost in anyway.
    Thanks.

  21. avatar #23 - Yuen Says:

    @Alex
    Hmm, right now I don’t know how to setup a link in localhost to look like your site with .htaccess (But I did it in a host).
    When I choose permalink link as “Day and name” http://localhost/wp/2008/07/21/sample-post/
    And visit my site, it show me that:
    “Not Found” The requested URL /wp/2008/07/20/post-name/ was not found on this server.
    But I remember that we have to include “index.php” in somewhere, I can’t remember how did I do that before… is structure “index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/” ???
    When I use this structure, the problem comes with Error 404 – Not Found.
    Agh, I really have big problem about this permalink… Please tell me how to configure it in localhost in anyway.
    Thanks.

  22. avatar #24 - Alex Says:

    Hi Yuen, I don´t know if it helps but this is what I put in my permalinks field: /%postname%/%post_id%/
    Or just check this page, there is all information about the permalink structure. I hope that helps.
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

    If you have further question, let me know.

  23. avatar #25 - Yuen Says:

    Hi Alex!
    Finally I did it… Thank you.
    I didn’t sleep and stay with computer to wait for you until 5AM and was very tired…
    Agh…

  24. avatar #26 - Alex Says:

    Hey Yuen, sorry that you had to wait so long, if I would knew I would have responed earlier but I had to fetch some dinner first. :) . But I´m happy to hear it works out for you know!

  25. avatar #27 - Yuen Says:

    If you still there, welcome to explore my PC. It still doesn’t work (permalink) in Localhost, but in a Hosting plan it works…
    Haha, whatever, my site will runs on a Hosting plan but not localhost…
    If you have free time, contact me now… I’m still online untill next two hours.

  26. avatar #28 - Shyju.K Says:

    Permalink structure other than default one is not working for my wordpress blog.Can any one help me to tackle the issue ?i am using a WMAP environment in my local pc.

  27. avatar #29 - Yuen Says:

    @Shyju.K
    Yes, I don’t know what happen with these new WordPress version. I also can’t tweak my permalink of WordPress in localhost (It only works with default; ugly permalink. But in hosting it’s all very simple to do.
    Ask me if you need host to test with your permalink.

  28. avatar #30 - Alex Says:

    Hey Yuen, thanks for helping Shyju. Sorry guys that I can’t help you neither. :(

    But if you find out, let us know how you did it.

  29. avatar #31 - Yuen Says:

    @Alex
    Lol, You are following me about flag… Can’t stop laughing when seeing you are from Vietnam.
    I found a great IP database on Internet… May be useful for you to explore.
    I’ll give you a copy soon if you have interest.

  30. avatar #32 - Alex Says:

    Strange that my flag is not showing when I’m home. Maybe I’m under cover. ;)

  31. avatar #33 - Shyju Says:

    I changed httpd.config and for my localPC ,It is working fine.But for my hosting server(WINDOWS SERVER),I have to contact them and they should do some thing there

  32. avatar #34 - Yuen Says:

    @Shyju
    Thanks, Shyju!
    Now I also did.
    Here is what I do with httpd.config:
    Can found it from “[your localhost folder]\bin\apache\apache[version]\conf\httpd.config”
    And I modified these two lines:
    ———————
    1/
    Before: AllowOverride None

    After: AllowOverride All
    2/
    Before: #LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
    After: LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
    ———————
    Now it works very cool in localhost.

  33. avatar #35 - Alex Says:

    @Shyju and Yuen, glad you figured it out. :)

  34. avatar #36 - Peter Says:

    Alex,I try to follow upgrade Installation Instructions but fail.I don’t sure no.5 of Installation Instructions, its copy from wp-DBManager2.31 right.I did copy but my dashboard remain message “A new version of WordPress is available! Please update now.” any suggest me .Thank you

  35. avatar #37 - Alex Says:

    Hi Peter, sorry for the late answer, but your website is still working on the old version? You don’t have to copy anything from wp-DBManager, just backup your database with it and then start the update. Install the plugin Instant upgrade, follow the instruction and the rest will do the plugin. If you have more question, please let me know.

  36. avatar #38 - dokidok Says:

    Thanks! It works great!

  37. avatar #39 - Alex Says:

    @dokidok, glad it works out for you great!

  38. avatar #40 - Rickymarsh Says:

    I need this information for create more impressive wordpress blogs.

  39. avatar #41 - sapimoto Says:

    Thanks for nice information. It’s very helpfull…

  40. avatar #42 - Alex Says:

    @Rickymarsh, good luck creating impressive WP blogs :)
    @sapimoto, glad the information is helpfull for you

  41. avatar #43 - Peter Says:

    Alex,

    I do very much appreciate you to help me. Until now I don’t success upgrade my blog. I try to follow you step “just backup your database with it and then start the update.” My question is -start the update-that you mention. What I need to update? The script don’t automatically create a folder called backup-db and I create it. I did copy File: .htaccess from wp-DBManager to folder backup-db and I can see my back up DB now.I reload page 2 times my blog still remain old version v2.3.1 I dont have any idea to fix this.Thank you

  42. avatar #44 - Peter Says:

    Alex,

    I can fix my update wp blog. I use fantastico from my host to upgrade just used time 30 seconds . My host just updated wp to new v2.6.1 too. Thank you

  43. avatar #45 - Alex Says:

    Hey Peter, glad it´s working for you. The upgrade plugin doesn´t work with Fantastico, you always have to go with it, when you use Fantastico the first time. Otherwise it will break your blog.

  44. avatar #46 - Peter Says:

    Hi Alex,

    I upgrade wp v2.3.1 to v2.6.2 my second blog. Just use fantastico for the initial setup then leave it alone and use this plugin to upgrade.
    - Backup all file , download to local
    - Back up DB
    - Deactivate all plugin
    - Upload it into your WordPress plugins folder
    - Change cmod this folder to 777
    - Activate the plugin
    - I use HTTP
    - done!

  45. avatar #47 - Alex Says:

    Hey Peter,
    thanks for your step by step tutorial. I hope that will help some people. Glad it helped you.

  46. avatar #48 - Penny@Penny Saving Says:

    Scary stuff. I need to move five WP blogs from one host to another AND upgrade them. Working on the first one now and figured I should do the move and then the upgrade. D’you think that’s the best route?

  47. avatar #49 - Alex Says:

    Hey Penny, either way is ok, I think. But first backup. I probably would suggest to upgrade first and then move it to another server. Good luck!

  48. avatar #50 - Penny@Penny Saving Says:

    Actually, I tried the move to the new host and failed at that so upgrading is on the back burner. I had to go back to previous nameservers and don’t know where to begin to work out where i went wrong. Not to worry, I’ll get there eventually. :)

  49. avatar #51 - Oliver Says:

    Nice howto, Alex! Since I didnt use WP 2.6 I thought i let you know that since version 2.7 you dont have to worry about updating any more. There is a nice new feature which let’s you update from within the WP control panel. ;)

  50. avatar #52 - Alex Says:

    @Oliver -
    Thank you for your notice, but I already mentioned it in my latest How To Upgrade To WordPress 2.7 in 5 Minutes. ;)

    http://notaniche.com/how-to-up.....utes/1009/

    Glad you like the howto. :)

  51. avatar #53 - marc Jacobs Says:

    That is really awesome, I’m looking forwards to learn more about Word press.

  52. avatar #54 - Alex Says:

    @Marc, I’m sure you will have a lot fun with it.

  53. avatar #55 - Azim Says:

    I do not use WP yet, but I’m still learning how to use it. Thanks for share


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