Updating ClassicPress

If you’ve previously installed ClassicPress 1.0.0-alpha1 or an early nightly build (20181120 or older), then you’ll need to follow the manual update process in order to update ClassicPress to the latest version.

Once you are on ClassicPress version 1.0.0-beta1 or higher, the ClassicPress update mechanism will take over and prompt you to keep your site updated. (If you’re not sure which version of ClassicPress you’re running, you can find out by visiting any page in the admin dashboard of your site, and scrolling down and looking in the bottom right corner.)

Automatic updates from web hostsLink to this section

Some hosting providers do not recognize ClassicPress automatic updates yet! Until this is resolved, hosting providers may prompt you to update your site to the latest version of WordPress instead.

After installing ClassicPress, please contact your hosting provider and ask them to disable automatic WordPress updates, and add support for ClassicPress automatic updates. The more users we have requesting this fix, the more quickly hosts will be able to get it done.

  • SiteGround: Contact support and ask them to disable automatic WordPress updates and add support for ClassicPress automatic updates. More info on their support site.

If you have more information about how a specific host handles automatic updates, please start a thread on our support forum so that we can update this document.

Updating ClassicPress manuallyLink to this section

Before doing anything else, back up your site files and database. This is especially important when you are updating files by hand.

  1. Download the latest ClassicPress zip file from our GitHub releases page.
  2. Unzip the file on your local computer.
  3. On your local computer, remove the wp-config-sample.php file and remove the entire wp-content folder.
  4. Upload what’s left over to your server, replacing the existing files (using either SSH or an application like CyberDuck or FileZilla).
  5. Visit your newly upgraded ClassicPress site.
    You may also want to have a look at the corresponding WordPress update page. These instructions are mostly still relevant to ClassicPress, and there are some helpful tips there: https://codex.wordpress.org/Updating_WordPress#Manual_Update

Updating ClassicPress automaticallyLink to this section

If your ClassicPress version number is 1.0.0-beta1 or higher, then you will be automatically prompted to upgrade to a newer release if one is available.

If your ClassicPress version number is 1.0.0-rc1 or higher, then your site will automatically upgrade to later versions in the 1.x release series by default.

You can modify the behavior of automatic upgrades setting using the same method as in WordPress (by defining the WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE constant in your config file, or by installing plugins that modify this functionality).

NOTE: If you disable automatic updates, you may be leaving your site vulnerable to hackers.

Automatic updates help us ensure that your sites are safe after we release new security fixes and the details become available to the public. To put it another way, you want the window between public release of a security issue and the fix being live on your site to be as short as possible.

ClassicPress automatic upgrades are guaranteed not to contain breaking changes by our versioning policy, and ClassicPress will never upgrade between major versions that may contain breaking changes (e.g. 1.1.0 to 2.0.0).