I’d probably say the biggest issue with updating is the risk of compatibility / conflicts more often than not with the plugins over the theme itself, of course this comes down to the coding standards used.
Best tip I’d give is duplicating your site and database into a sub directory and running a test update there so you’re not making any changes to your live site in the event it doesn’t quite work out.
If you didn’t touch the core wordpress files, it shouldn’t break anything, do make a back-up before.
I recommend you set up a localhost and duplicate your site and test it first to be sure.
https://managewp.com/how-to-create-a-local-copy-of-a-live-wordpress-site
There should be no risks, but it is always possible that a developer of a plugin or theme never bothered to test during the month-long public beta period before the release of WordPress 4.4, or the following 3-week period before the release of 4.4.1. It sounds silly, I know, but it happens. 🙁
I recommend that you backup first: https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
Then, hit that update button. 🙂
If anything goes wrong, please let us know!
Edit: Two replies while I’ve doddled with the tab open, that’s a new record for me. 🙂
Thread Starter
jssdt
(@jssdt)
Thank you guys, this is awesome! Though I’m an ex-IT person, I don’t have the time or will to fiddle with backups etc. Is there someone I could pay to do this? I’m happy, if this is OK with this forum’s rules, to take to conversation offline.
JS
There are many plugins that can do scheduled backups, both of your files and your database.
BackUpWordPress I used to use this one, but there are many more.
