Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › Is it necessary to always be on the latest version of WP and Genesis?
- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 3 months ago by Summer.
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December 31, 2013 at 1:01 am #82238FabioParticipant
I have just noticed that some of my websites are not using the latest WP version, not even the first one though 🙂
Do you upgrade to the new WP or Genesis version as soon as it comes up?
When do you decide it's time for an upgrade?Happy 2014 to everybody
December 31, 2013 at 5:24 am #82247Brad DaltonParticipantAlways update WordPress as soon as there's a new release for security reasons.
You may also find that the best coded plugins only support the latest WordPress version and one prior release of WordPress for security reasons.
December 31, 2013 at 8:34 pm #82427Gary JonesMemberNecessary? No.
Strongly advised by everyone? Yes.
WordPress Engineer, and key contributor the Genesis Framework | @GaryJ
January 1, 2014 at 1:52 am #82448FabioParticipantCool,
is the same thing true for plugins?
Do you always update to the latest version of each plugin you use?So basically between plugins and wordpress updates you are backing up and updating, backing up and updating, backing up and updating... at least twice a month (considering the average amount of update notices I get) per each website you have?
January 1, 2014 at 4:49 am #82455Brad DaltonParticipantYou should always update because plugins generally are supported for the latest version. Otherwise, you run a security risk.
January 1, 2014 at 4:02 pm #82544SummerMemberIf a WP update resolves a security fix, then I'll update immediately. If not, then I tend to wait until things shake out, because I've been bitten more than once when an update broke something on several of my sites... either a plugin wasn't compatible (happens more often than you think), and I've even had a theme break on my (a Revolution Two theme from here, actually).
I have memories of great pain from updating to WP 3.3 and 3.5, so when going to new major version numbers, I wait, see what everyone else in the WP.org support forums is cataloging as not playing well with the new version. Their thread for Known Issues gets to be a fun read around that time, too 🙂
I've had problems with Genesis updates in the past... going to either 1.7 or 1.8 caused some problems, and even updating Genesis 2.0 broke things, caused a few minor theme display issues on me. That's why I have several sites still on 1.9.2, until I get a chance to look through the code and fix those issues.
So on my major sites, I'll wait to update WP, or test out a few things on some smaller sites or on a dev site first, unless it's a security related issue. And since those also tend to be minor version updates, I'm a little more likely to apply them soon after release.
Immediate plugin updates can be a crap shoot. There are several plugins I have that I can't update to the latest version because the plugin dev just plain broke how the plugin functioned, so I'm stuck on the previous version until they fix the fix, or until I find a replacement. It wasn't a security related fix either, it was a styling update, and the entire plugin just ceased to function properly. So same deal here... unless it's an immediate security risk fix, I wait and see.
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkJanuary 1, 2014 at 5:57 pm #82576FabioParticipantThanks Summer,
yeah that's right, I have also had troubles in the past especially from WP3.3 to 3.5. I remember that my Visual editor disappeared and I wasn't able to upload media files...Then there was another problem with a plugin update, I don't remember what exactly... this is why I always think 10 times before updating.
Yesterday I have updated to WP3.8 and everything seems to work fine, but generally speaking how do I find out if the plugin/WP upgrade is to fix a security risk? Where does it say that?
And also, having the latest WP version and an older plugin version does immediately mean that there is a "security risk"?Thanks,
hope your physical work went well 🙂January 1, 2014 at 11:01 pm #82615SummerMemberWhenever new versions of WP or plugins are released, I read the changelog, typically in the Codex under the version: http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.8
It's easiest to get to from the versions page: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Versions, but the main blog post on wordpress.org whenever a new version is released will say pretty prominently if there's a security issue that's been resolved with the new version.
I also read through the forums, they'll usually have a sticky thread with a list of plugins or "known" issues/conflicts whenever a new version is released.
Updating WordPress will not resolve a security issue in a plugin, separate code that's not part of core. You'd have to look at the changelog for the plugin in the repository to see what's what there.
And as for going well, I guess so... I spent the past week moving. I'm bushed!
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
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