What's the best way to update Wordpress?

CMS & WordPress
1

Whats the best way to update Wp?

Update Wp first and plugins later
Or
Vica versa?

Also when u update do deactivate the plugins?

I faced one issue that long time back I updated Wp and then was never able to login back

2

Personally I let Wordpress update first as it’s the most important aspect then the plugins but I honestly don’t think it matters.

The only thing that matters is ALWAYS make a back up first by copying the entire install folder (htdocs or wherever it is) that way if it goes wrong you can just delete the updated version and copy the original back in. I’ve been caught out with an update wiping out someone else’s dodgy hack before so be careful.

3

There are two schools of thought, depending on how mission critical your website is.

  1. backup the database and all the files on the server
  2. install the update
  3. test
  4. Fix anything that’s broken, but if that fails, delete the files and database tables, and restore your backups.
  5. Wait a few weeks for developers to address the issue, then try again.

OR

Have your own staging server/subdomain where you can set up a private copy of your wordpress site and do all the testing you want without affecting the live site. I tend to do this on a local workstation, rather than a live server (just in case there are issues).

4

When you click on the link within WordPress to perform a plugin update it automatically deactivates the plugin, replaces it with the new one and then reactivates again.

When you update WordPress itself using the supplied link it does the same thing.

Evertything is taken care of for you automatically within WordPress now since the automatic update plugin got built into the core WordPress product several versions back. Each update is now only a single mouse click.

5

The most important thing is to ensure WP is up to date. Plugins will have to follow suit but they will often take advantage of new changes in the WP core.

Your workflow should be such that any Wordpress update can be updated immediately without worrying what other things it will effect. There may be the case for holding off while a critical plugin updates but most of the well supported plugins will already be tested and know whether they are compatible with the latest WP release.

Do be sure to have a back up system in place that includes your WP database as Force Flow mentioned above.