Is your site getting this WordPress error after trying to update automatically?
Warning: copy(/home/xxx/public_html/wp-cron.php) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/xxx/public_html/wp-cron.php Could not copy file: /home/xxx/public_html/wp-cron.php Installation Failed
Does this type of error look familiar? If so, this tutorial will help you fix that error!
Steps for Updating WordPress Manually
Until a few weeks ago, I had never updated my WordPress files AFTER my site was up and running. I was afraid that I would make a mistake updating the files and that my entire site would get ruined. But for security reasons, I needed to update. After reading a few tutorials, here’s what I found (and it’s easy than I thought)…
1) Download the newest version of WordPress to your desktop, extract the files, and immediately delete the wp-content folder and wp-config.php file. Then, zip/compress the new folders/files (without wp-content and wp-config.php). This will be the folder you use to overwrite existing content. We’ll get to that in a minute.
2) Back up your current site (including all files, folders, and database)
Typically you should check to make sure your backups actually work by installing them locally and testing them. However, I didn’t have any reason to suspect my files were corrupted so I did not test them locally.
3) Deactivate ALL current site plugins.
4) Delete ALL existing site files/folders except these below.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT delete these files:
– wp-config.php file.
– .htaccess file.
– robots.txt file.
– wp-images folder.
– wp-content folder. You should delete the wp-content/cache/ folder AND the wp-content/plugins/widgets/ folder.
– wp-includes/languages folder.
5) Upload and unzip the folders/files from Step 1.
6) Enjoy your newly updated WordPress site.
If you still have questions about how to update WordPress manually, please leave a comment below.