One of the best things about WordPress is its easy customization options that you can try with its plugins and theme upgrades. Here you can also try these customizations. Take your website to another level by adding CSS style and own code snippets to the WordPress themes. The problem comes to the fore when any update is available for them. And in case you are not careful, then the chances are high that you will lose some of the newest changes made to the theme. And it can be challenging if you are migrating, restoring, or maintaining the original customizations from one server to another.
Also, Read Why is WordPress better than other cms for your Business?
Let us learn how a theme update can have a huge effect on customization:
There are many ways that WordPress allows you to add customization to the site. More importantly, you need to know beforehand about the ways it can negatively affect your theme update. Many plugins are included along with the theme and complement regular functioning. The choices you made and the various plugins will never be affected by the update of the themes. The settings for plugins used on the website are protected against the theme update. Any type of customization made by you in the website plugins will always be intact. It includes all edits on the pages done with the help of page builders, plugins for contact forms, and various other plugins offering custom shortcodes that can drag and drop for creating relevant page content.
The menus will not be affected by the update and neither will there be any widget used by you on the site. The core reason for customizations to remain unaffected by the theme update as they are safeguarded in the database. As long as you do not change your database, customization will stay the same.
It brings us the type of customization that is being affected by the theme updates. While updating the theme files can be seen overwritten by the newest versions of themselves and for any customization that is added inside and the older files are lost. It includes any JS, PHP, or CSS code that you have tried adding directly inside the theme files.
How can you properly update the WordPress theme without losing the customization?
As you are very much aware of the benefits of updating the theme and the various customization being affected by the update. Now let’s know how you can update your WordPress theme properly. Here we can divide the update process into two halves known as preparatory steps and also the update. They are essential for ensuring that there is no customization done to the website that is lost.
Using the WordPress Child theme
Yes, you have heard this right. Adding a child theme is the safest way to securing theme customizations. All new functions, custom CSS, and JS should be stored in the Child theme files. The parent theme should remain intact with the original file. So when the update comes, it is most likely to come in the parent theme files while the child theme remains separate for each website. Thus all the WordPress theme customizations remain unaffected. Most of the WordPress Experts recommend using this smart combination of Parent and child theme combination to have longer stability for websites running in this age of high cyber activity.
Also, one of the safest options is to set up your staging website and then perform the updation process on the same. Here we recommend that you choose the right option to protect all your WordPress customizations in every aspect. You can connect with RSTheme experts to have stable customizations on the WordPress platform and enjoy keeping the latest.