You've come a long way little blog package
WordPress has come a long way, I remember back on version 1.x dreading seeing that there had been a new version released. It would mean a whole afternoon had to be put aside and all distractions like family, tv and fun stuff had to be cancelled and preparations made for sacrificing a couple of calculators to the geek gods of code just so that your blog could be manually updated to run the latest version of WordPress.
[shadowbox]Ms. Ileane recommends using BackupBuddy – WordPress backup, restore, migration plugin[/shadowbox]
Now though, you get a single click update. All you need (is love) is to click that ‘update now!' button and watch as the WordPress magic struts its stuff and downloads the latest version, unzips it and replaces all your old dusty core files with bright, shiny new ones. It'll even update your database to take account of the new structure….. that is, unless you have a crappy webhost!
Don't believe the tripe!
It's hard to believe but not everybody has the luxury of single click updates. Some unfortunate folks are presented with horrible errors when they try to update WordPress to the latest version automatically. Who are these people? do they live in Katmandu or high up on mountains in a Buddhist monasteries linked to the internet on wires made of yak fur?
Recommended reading: WordPress Plugins: Backing Up Your Site
Nope! they are people in high tech countries that are at the forefront of modern internet wizardry! USA, USA!
Some hosts will have you believe that it's a security risk to use the automatic update in WordPress, they'll tell you that it takes too much resources to download a less than 3MB file. They'll tell you kittens will be harmed if you try to unzip files on-the-fly.
Pah and double pah! They're just cheap and crappy web hosts.
What to do if automatic WordPress update wont work
Don't worry if you're one of those living in a monastery running yak 1.0 internet hosting. You can still go back to the good old days (yeah, right!) and update your WordPress manually via FTP.
It's what the old-uns used to do back in the day when Twitter was just a noise you made when you saw someones big bum when they bent down in front of you.
Here's a video I made at the request of Ileane when her daughter experienced the horror of a non functioning automatic WordPress update. This is one of my best WordPress tutorials that will show you the process of manually updating to the latest version of the software for your blog via FTP.
Duration : 8 Minutes 10 Seconds
language : English (British actually!)
Subtitles : English (UK spelling)
Format : HD 720 (use fullscreen)
You can view the subtitles / closed captions by pressing play and then click the arrow on the video toolbar and choose CC
Some useful WordPress download links :
Filezilla FTP Client – The FTP client of choice for newbies and pros