Upgrading WordPress 2.0 for Dummies

Even though WordPress has this incredible 5-minute installation and a quick upgrade guide, DivertgentPoles is still looking for an easier step-by-step guide for upgrading to WP 2.0. Here’s my best effort at creating a guide to Upgrading WordPress 2.0 for Dummies.

• Upgrade your WordPress DB. If you have the BackupRestore plugin, download the DB backup (here’s a backup tutorial if you use the plugin). If you are on cPanel, download the raw SQL DB from the Backup section as shown below.
• Download WordPress 2.0 here (use the .ZIP version) and extract to a folder in your PC.
• Disable all your WordPress plugins first. A majority of the errors and failed upgrades are due to plugins not being de-activated before the upgrade.
• Prepare to upload the new WP 2.0 files into your blog. If you’re not familiar with any FTP client, check an earlier tutorial I made here for WS_FTP. You will need to upload and overwrite all files except the wp-config.php file.
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• We’re ready to upgrade. Run the upgrade script which you can find inside your /wp-admin/ folder so if your blog is in the main domain path, then it should be www.domain.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php. Follow instructions on that page.
• If all goes well, you can login to your new WP Admin panel and re-activate all your plugins. If you are not sure if all your plugins will work, check this compatibility list.

That’s it!

Note: I may ommit some parts of the original guide since my experience with numerous upgrades to WP 2.0 did not actually include those steps (and have not caused any failures whatsover and those are the steps which make the upgrade a little harder/confusing). However, bear in mind that those steps are still important and if you know how to implement them, please do so.