I have several wp blogs that I have heavily modified. All my modifications have been under the "theme" folder. I also have installed many of my own plug-ins. I really need to do an upgrade though. I am currently back at 2.0.1. Has anybody ever had a problem with their wordpress blogs no longer working right after installing an upgrade? What do you normally do to protect yourself ... make a complete duplicate copy of your installation before you upgrade? Any tips would be appreciated. Thank you.
I've screwed it up before. I had a fairly new install and did all my mods. A few days later WP brought out a new stable so I did the upgrade and completely screwed everything up. I haven't attempted one since. I have a blog that is heavily plugged too and it's back at 2.0.2. I'm absolutely petrified of updating it too. The best thing I think would be to back everything up in several ways to make absolutely sure.
Thanks for the comments. These blogs actually generate some revenue, so I really don't want to screw with them if possible. The problem I'm having is that I'm getting a ton of comment SPAM .. even though I have comments turned off. I believe I read where there was some sort of exploit in my verison of WP that is allowing these SPAMs to get through. It's really a pain-in-the-ass having to delete these every day. Anyway I think an update will close that hole. I guess I'll just take one of the lesser blogs and give it a try. Guess I'll do what you suggest and make several complete copies first. Thank you.
Hey there, I understand the pain in upgrading especially when you've done a lot of modifications to the code. Since you really need the upgrade and you need the plugins too, would it be good to disable all the plugins first and enable them one by one to make sure it all works? I mean.. having a tonne of spam is better than having your whole blog dysfunctional right?
Oh yeah, I get what you're saying. I was referring to Johnny's problem of comment spam rather than talking about any upgrading issues
Upgrading is important. List down all your plugin and check the version compatibility at the author site or WP codex. If found any plugin broken, try contact the author or join wp-hackers mailing list. Make sure you deactivate all the plugin before upgrade and reactivate one by one. If you don't modify the WP core files (not including themes), I think there won't be much trouble. Don't forget to backup your WP db. I can't see why u need to make several copies of your current files (except wp-config.php and wp-content folder). Move on and upgrade!