The steps are mostly from this Codex article, Updating_WordPress#Manual_Update, but in this case a prior database backup is essential.
This is what I do:
-
Upload the latest WordPress version to a temporary folder,
/public_html/new-wp
-
This upload should not contain the folder
/wp-content
nor the filewp-config.php
. -
If you can, create another database and import the old backup. And in such case, prepare another
wp-config.php
with the newDB_NAME
information. -
If another database is not possible, backup its contents just in case, drop all the tables and import the backup.
-
Move all WordPress files (the nightly build) to a temporary folder, e.g.,
/public_html/old-wp
. Don’t move the folder/wp-content
nor the filewp-config.php
. -
Move the new version (
/public_html/new-wp
) to the root. -
Confirm everything is working and delete the
/old-wp
folder.
Important notes:
-
Decide for step 3 or 4 beforehand.
-
Backup everything before starting, plugin suggestion: BackWPup. Or if your cPanel supports it, zip the whole
/public_html
folder or the files you deem necessary. -
I prefer to move files instead of deleting, this is faster when using a FTP client. And when everything is done, I proceed to deletion. Note that WebFTP is much more faster for deleting files than a regular application.