First of all, do a backup on your local computer. There is a lot of tool and plugins available to help you to do this. Just find one with a good rating and get it set up now, not later: https://wordpress.org/plugins/search.php?q=backup+wp

ALWAYS make a backup of your entire site before you update. Usually the update install within seconds and cause zero problems, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

How to upgrade ?

First thing to know is that if you have modified PHP, CSS, JS files into the core theme, the update will overwrite what you did (it's why we suggest to do your modifications in the child theme).

The update will NOT affect your content such as your blog post, photos, videos, option theme settings, wordpress settings. Basically, the update replace the php, javascript and css files of the theme, not your database, and not the wordpress core files.


OPTION 1:

  1. Download and Install the Envato Market plugin.
  2. Upload envato-market to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory OR go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin
  3. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.
  4. Click the 'Envato Market' menu in WordPress and connect to the API.
  5. Once your theme has been updated, make sure to reactivate the plugins by going to WP-Admin > Plugins. If one of your plugin has not been updated (ex: Visual Composer), go to WP-Admin > Plugins and delete the old plugin.
  6. Go to WP-Admin > Appearance > Install Plugins and reinstall the plugin. Make sure to "activate" them again.


OPTION 2: 

1. Redownload the theme files on ThemeForest (ThemeForest always have the latest version of the theme). So login into your Envato account, then go to Downloads, and download "Installable Wordpress file Only" package.

2. Go to Wp-Admin > Appearance >  Themes and activate another theme such Twenty Fifteen.

3. Delete the Theme you want to update. (Yeah, you must delete the theme before re-uploading the same theme).

4. Upload the theme file you have previously downloaded from ThemeForest.

5. Activate your theme by clicking the "Activate button".

6. Make sure to reactivate the plugins by going to WP-Admin > Plugins. If one of your plugin has not been updated (ex: Visual Composer), go to WP-Admin > Plugins and delete the old plugin.

7. Go to WP-Admin > Appearance > Install Plugins and reinstall the plugins. Make sure to "activate" them again.



OPTION 3:


If deleting a theme makes your nervous, or you have issue when uploading the theme via the WordPress dashboard, you can upload it manually by FTP.

1. Redownload the theme files on ThemeForest (ThemeForest always have the latest version of the theme). So login into your Envato account, then go to Downloads, and download "Installable Wordpress file Only" package.

2. Unzip the zip file on your computer

3. Rename the root folder for something like "themename-new".

4. By using an FTP software (such as FileZilla), connect to your FTP.

5. Upload the folder to .../wp-content/themes/ (so you should have /wp-content/themes/themename-new/)

6. Once everything has been uploaded, go to WP-Admin > Appearance > Themes and activate your new theme.

7. Make sure to reactivate the plugins by going to WP-Admin > Plugins. If one of your plugin has not been updated (ex: Visual Composer), go to WP-Admin > Plugins and delete the old plugin.

8. Go to WP-Admin > Appearance > Install Plugins and reinstall the plugins. Make sure to "activate" them again.