Upgrading to Thesis 1.6 can be a daunting task, especially if you have little experience with WordPress, FTP programs, or file permissions. Thesis 1.6 has a new file structure that makes the upgrade especially confusing.

It is doubly important that you upgrade to Thesis 1.6 correctly, since the WordPress database is updated with many new bits of data during the installation, and you cannot go back to Thesis 1.5.1!

But upgrading to Thesis 1.6 is not hard if you understand each task, and this guide offers step-by-step instructions along with plenty of illustrations to help you. Although each step has its specific requirements, none of the steps is difficult individually.

Before you start the installation

1. Download the Thesis 1.6 zip file from DIYthemes and unzip it on your computer. There will be a Thesis_16 folder after you do so.
2. Be sure you know how to change file permissions. If you’re uncertain, read the article “How to Change File and Folder Permissions.”
3. Make sure you know how to upload files. (I’m not being silly. There are a number of support questions in the Forum from upgraders who can’t upload files!) If you use an FTP program on your computer, usually you can just drag the folder from your computer onto the proper place in your FTP program and drop it. If you are using cPanel or a similar host program, refer to “File Management Using cPanel.”

If you haven’t thought about an FTP program for your computer yet, maybe it’s time to do so. Check out the articles “FTP Programs and Text Editors for Windows Users” or “FTP Programs and Text Editors for the Mac” for free FTP and editor programs. They will make file operations and customization a lot easier.

4. Read all the instructions below before you start. This tutorial follows the standard Thesis upgrade process as found on the DIYthemes Thesis download page.

Important changes to the /custom folder and Thesis file structure

Chris Pearson, the developer of Thesis, has made some logical changes to the Thesis file structure that make a lot of sense. In Thesis 1.6 all the user-related files and folders are now in the /custom folder. He has also moved some files and folders out of the Thesis root directory that were confusing to users.

Here is a summary of the changes to the file structure:
1. As shown by the big arrow in Figure 1, the /rotator folder has been moved to the /custom folder.
2. The layout.css file has been moved to the /custom folder, as well.
3. The /images folder and the language translation files thesis.mo and thesis.po have been moved to the /lib folder. In particular the images folder was confusing users, since there’s also one with the same name in the /custom> folder.

Now, for the DIYthemes instructions and my comments:

Step 1. Back up the /custom and /rotator folders

The full instruction states:

1. Back up the /custom folder from your existing Thesis installation to your hard drive. Also, if you’ve uploaded your own images to the /rotator folder, then you’ll want to back that up, too. After you’ve done that, you should move the /rotator folder into the /custom folder on your hard drive.

1. Create a folder on your computer to hold your /custom folder and /rotator folder.

2. Copy the entire /custom folder on the server to your new computer folder. If you have your own images in the /rotator folder, copy it, too. Do not copy individual files!

3. Move the /rotator folder into the /custom folder. You will now have only a /custom folder on your computer.

Step 2. Upload the new Thesis 1.6 folder to your /wp-content/themes folder

1. Locate the /wp-content folder in your root directory. Inside it will be a folder called /themes. The folder structure will look like Figure 2.

2. Upload the entire Thesis_16 folder you unzipped on your computer to the /themes folder. Do not upload individual files! There are many problems reported on the Thesis Support Forum where people have uploaded individual files instead of the entire Thesis folder. It just doesn’t work, especially with this upgrade!

3. When you are finished, you will see the /thesis_16 folder within the /themes folder, as in Figure 3.

Step 3. Rename the /custom-sample folder to /custom, and do not overwrite this folder with your existing /custom folder!

If you have upgraded before, you will immediately recognize that this step is different. Note that you will not replace the renamed custom folder! Figure 4 shows the /thesis_16/custom-sample folder before it is renamed. Figure 5 shows the /thesis_16/custom folder after it has been renamed.

Step 4. Copy the contents of your backed up /custom folder to the /custom folder on the server

The full instruction states:

Instead of overwriting the new /custom folder with the one you just backed up (as you are probably accustomed to doing with previous versions), copy the contents of the /custom folder you backed up in Step 1, and paste it all into your new /custom folder, which should also contain layout.css.

Refer to Figure 5. It shows the contents of the /custom folder in Thesis 1.6. Note that it contains the layout.css file and the /rotator folder that used to be in the /thesis_151 directory.

1. Copy the contents of the backed-up /custom folder on your computer to the /custom folder on your server. You will get error messages asking if you want to overwrite the /cache, /images and /rotator folders, as well as the custom_functions.php and custom.css files. Reply “yes” to these these overwrites. Personally, I find these error messages annoying and delete the folders and files to be overwritten on the server before copying anything. Call me superstitious, but I think doing so makes the copying less prone to copy errors!

Do not copy the old layout.css file from your Thesis 1.5.1 directory! The structure of the Thesis 1.6 layout.css file is different, and you will definitely get errors if you copy over the old Thesis 1.5.1 file!

Step 5. Set the permissions of your new layout.css file to 666

1. Find the layout.css file within your /custom folder and highlight it.

2. Most FTP programs allow you to right-click on the file to bring up a dialog similar to the one in Figure 6. Choose “Get Info,” “File Properties,” or similar wording. Refer to the cPanel article mentioned above if you are using that program.

3. A file properties dialog will pop up like the one in Figure 7. Choose “Permissions” or similar wording.

4. If there is a box that you can enter the file permission numbers, enter 666. If not, set file permissions to Owner: Read, Write; Group: Read, Write; and Others: Read, Write. “Owner,” “Group,” and “Others” may be worded differently, but they will be close enough to figure out.

5. Click the “Apply,” “Save,” “OK” or similar button to save your changes.

Step 6. Make sure your /cache folder’s permissions are set to 775

1. Locate the /cache folder. Open up your /custom folder.The /cache folder is within the /custom folder within your /thesis_16 folder as shown in Figure 5.

2. Use the same procedure you did when changing the layout.css file’s permissions: Highlight the /cache folder, right-click on it, and get to the “Permissions” panel in the file dialog.

If there is a box that you can enter the file permission numbers, enter 775. If not, set file permissions to Owner: Read, Write, Execute; Group: Read, Write, Execute; and Others: Read, Write, Execute. “Owner,” “Group,” and “Others” may be worded differently, but they will be close enough to figure out.

3. Click the “Apply,” “Save,” “OK” or similar button to save your changes.

Step 7. Inside your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance -> Themes, and then activate Thesis 1.6

1. Click on the Thesis 1.6 theme image shown in Figure 9. You will be taken to a simulation of how it will look (but believe me, it never looks right!). Click on “Activate Theme” in the upper right corner to make Thesis 1.6 the active theme.

2. You will be taken to the Thesis Options panel, as shown in Figure 10. In previous upgrades, this was the last step, but you still have one more to go!

Step 8. Go to the Design Options page and hit the save button

The full instruction states:

Visit the Design Options page, ensure that Thesis is not giving you a warning about the file permissions on your layout.css file, and then hit the Big Ass Save Button.

The settings on the Design Options page are stored in the layout.css file. If you have not set the permissions correctly on this file as outlined in Step 5, you will not be able to save any of your Design Options settings. Therefore, Thesis will display an error message if this file’s permissions are not correct.

You’re done!

I hope these instructions have been clear and helpful. Feel free to make a comment, or if you want to email me, click on the “Contact” button in the nav bar.
©2009 Michael L Nichols. All rights reserved.

Tags: , Thesis 1.6, Upgrade

Tagged as: Thesis 1.6, Upgrade