Upgrading Thesis to the current version can be a difficult task and confusing. Unfortunately, there are many users that fail to study the process or problem solve the directions. The forum becomes busy after a new release with problematic instillation problems. It is also important to note that there are different ways a person can upgrade Thesis. This tutorial is the method that DIY Theme Designer uses to effectively and appropriately upgrade Thesis. This also applies to any Beta releases.
First, and most importantly, through your FTP find your custom folder in the current active Theme and drag it to your desktop.
Location -> /wp-content -> themes -> thesis17 -> custom
Secondly, before uploading anything, go to “Manage Options” in WordPress and download “All Options” to your hard drive. If you are using a PC it is important to identify where the file is placed. On a Mac, most likely the file will be placed in your downloads folder.
Third, Copy and Paste the CSS and PHP you added in your file editor onto a word document. I do this as a backup, I always have the CSS and PHP added customizations copied onto a word document.
4. In the new Thesis release on your hard drive that you downloaded from the DIYTheme website, find the “custom-sample” folder and rename itcustom.
5. Upload the new release, currently it will be Thesis 1.8. By now I am guessing you know where to upload the theme, if not upload to the folder “Themes” within the WP-Content Folder. Then change the permissions on the layout.CSS to 666 and the cache to 775, if your thumbnails do not show try changing the cache to 777. You can change the permissions through your FTP, if using Transmit on the Mac, just right click and chose “Get Info”.
Activate Thesis: WordPress -> Appearance -> Themes
Quick Note: Check Site Options -> Custom Stylesheet Options and make sure the box is check for the Custom Style Sheet
6. GO to the file editor and copy and paste the CSS into the Custom.CSS and the PHP into the Functions.PHP from your word document previously (Step 3) and save.
UPDATE: If you added meta details to your categories and tags in Page Options, the meta information might not transfer on to the categories in wordpress. Page Options is discontinued for 1.8 but added in categories. You will want to copy and paste the meta information from Page Options to a word document before you upgrade as a back-up. However, the all meta information is suppose to transfer
7. In your custom folder that you dragged onto your hard drive (Step One) from 1.7, open the cache and drag “The Contents of the Cache” into the 1.8 cache that is located in your custom folder through your FTP.
7.a Drag the LAYOUT.CSS file from the old custom folder to the 1.8 custom folder.
8. Additionally in your 1.7 custom folder on your hard drive transfer the “contents” of your “rotator” and “images” folders over to the individual folders on 1.8 in the custom folder.
Important Note: If you have the full Domain Path for your images by using the images folder you will need to change the thesis17 to thesis18 or thesis18b1 for the beta. Path http://domainname.com/wp-content/themes/thesis17/images/7.jpg, change to thesis18.
It is important that all the files made it through the FTP, if one file is missing the entire system can error.
If your upgrade goes wrong and want to revert back to 1.7, do not deactivate and reactivate through wordpress.
Looking to Hire Someone for your upgrade, DIY Theme Designer is Available.
{ 11 comments }
Thanks for the informative information.
Thanks for the detailed instructions.
Thanks for the comments
I got an error in step 6.
Whoa there! The All Options you attempted to upload are from version 1.7 and are not compatible with Thesis 1.8b1.
any suggestions?
Did you double check to make sure you used the “All Options” uploader, because there are also the individual options uploading slots for Design Options and Site Options, if one of those are used instead the site will error.
I did this with about 4 different sites and the “All Options” in Manage Options worked very well.
By the way, if you are still having problems with “All Options” you can try to download “Site Options” and “Display Options” separately.
Getting the same problem but with 1.8 not the beta
Whoa there! The All Options you attempted to upload are from version 1.7 and are not compatible with Thesis 1.8.
Not only does this fail to work with All Options but also with Site and Design.
feeling completely screwed at this point, also this article (above) doesn’t jive with the upgrade instructions in the thesis user guide, which makes me think that I’m triple screwed because I followed the instructions in the user guide instead of the instructions on this random blog article.
from the user guide -> http://diythemes.com/thesis/downloads/upgrade/
So now that my exported settings seem to be useless, do I have any other options?
You can skip All Options, and just drag and drop the 1.7 layout.css from the custom folder to the 1.8 custom folder. I just undated the post and removed that section about All Options.
There are different ways to upgrade Thesis, I find this process to work best for myself.
The most important step is to back up the custom folder from the old and drag the contents into the new version.
Step 7 is the most important.
Thanks for this great step-by-step guide
Your Welcome, glad it helps.
i’ve upgraded my thesis to 1.8 but it only shows the latest 2 blog posts i have and the rest does not appear anymore. please refer to my blog, you’ll know what i mean.
the config is correct. but i don’t know what had happened here. please help.