Update WordPress in the dashboard
Updating WordPress to the latest version improves your site's performance and security. You can update to the most recent version from the WordPress dashboard. The instructions below are for websites running on cPanel, Plesk, VPS, or Dedicated servers.
Warning: You should always back up your site before updating.
- Sign in to WordPress.
- At the top left corner of your dashboard, if there's a notification that the new WordPress version is available, select Please update now.
- Select Update Now. Your WordPress site will be put into Maintenance Mode until the update is complete. After the update, Maintenance Mode is deactivated automatically.
Note: If you don't see the notification, your site is already running on the latest version of WordPress.
Related steps
More info
- Check out the official release notes on wordpress.org to see the list of the improvements in the latest version of WordPress.
- If you can't update WordPress from your website dashboard, try updating WordPress with FTP.
- If you use an old PHP version on your hosting account, it may not be compatible with the latest version of WordPress. Here's how to update PHP on your server.
- You can use tools like the ones available in GoDaddy Pro to update WordPress on multiple sites at once and automate updates.