Title: Updating custom wordpress theme
Last modified: March 2, 2017

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# Updating custom wordpress theme

 *  [anthonycolli](https://wordpress.org/support/users/anthonycolli/)
 * (@anthonycolli)
 * [9 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updating-custom-wordpress-theme/)
 * I have created a custom WordPress theme from scratch and am wondering the process
   of sending and running updates to that theme if I do not have access to FTP. 
   Right now I am doing it via uploading the zip file and updating the version number
   on the style.css file but I am getting the error “theme destination folder already
   exists”. So overall I just want to know the proper process of updating custom
   themes.
 * Any help is appreciated.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [Michael Kracke](https://wordpress.org/support/users/krack3/)
 * (@krack3)
 * [9 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updating-custom-wordpress-theme/#post-8867464)
 * There are 3 main ways to update a theme
       1. Upload it to the WordPress theme directory and manage updates there
    -  1. Link your theme to a repository like GitHub that will push the update for
          you
    -  1. Update the file via FTP/SFTP
 * Without FTP access your best bet is to upload it to the WordPress theme directory.
 * I guess you could delete the theme, and reupload it and reactivate it. As long
   as you don’t write code to erase whats in the database you’d only potentially
   lose widget content each time
 *  Moderator [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/)
 * (@sterndata)
 * Volunteer Forum Moderator
 * [9 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updating-custom-wordpress-theme/#post-8868598)
 * I’ve used this to trigger updates from within WordPress to a theme I’ve put on
   github: [https://github.com/afragen/github-updater](https://github.com/afragen/github-updater)

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Updating custom wordpress theme’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updating-custom-wordpress-theme/#post-8868598)
 * Status: not resolved

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