We want to ensure your Phox update goes as smoothly as possible. We’ve created a comprehensive guide to help you with this process, regardless of which Phox version you’re currently on. Please read this in full so you’re informed of how to best update your Phox site. Take note of our Overview area below to help guide you through this post’s content.

There are two ways to update your theme. The first method is our Auto Update feature which requires you to register your purchase via Token Registration. The second is to upload the theme manually, either via FTP or WordPress. This is the traditional method and requires you to download the theme files from ThemeForest first.

Before you update, it’s best practice to always check our Important Update Information article which is updated for each new version and to make a full site backup and make a database backup. This will ensure you can revert to a working version if anything unexpected occurs.

Overview

• Best Practice: A list of important points to check before updating your site.
• Auto Update Method: Information on how to update using WordPress’s auto-update feature.
• Manual Update Methods: This covers uploading through the WordPress admin and how to do a direct FTP installation.
• How To Update Required Plugins: Covers details on updating Phox’s required Core and plugins.
• Troubleshooting: Some common issues that you might encounter and what to do to fix it.

Best Practice

• Before processing any update, be sure to take a full site and database backup. That will ensure you’re able to revert to a working point in your site if anything unexpected happens.
• Before doing an update, we also recommend you give your installation a health check and ensure that your server is configured to the minimum requirements for Phox. You can find details on what you need to check here.
• It’s also very important that you ensure your server limits are at the required minimums for the update/theme install to complete.

Auto Update Method

The easiest way to update your theme is to use the Envato Market Plugin Automatic Update feature, which will require you to register your product by Token Registration. Once you have registered the product and a Phox update is released, you will receive an update notification in the WP Dashboard > Envato Market of your installation and requires user acknowledgment to complete the update.

How To Update Via The Auto Update Method:

Step 1 – Register your purchase by Token Registration.

Step 2 – Navigate to the WP Dashboard > Envato Market section of your installation.

Step 3 – If there is an update, the plugin will notify you. and you need to click UPDATE NOW, by clicking on Dashboard > Updates. From here you can process your update per usual by selecting and updating your item.

Manual Update Method

With the Manual Update Method, you can either choose to upload the theme files manually via FTP or WordPress. Before you can update manually, you have to download the theme files from ThemeForest. Continue reading below for instructions on how to download the theme files and how to upload them.

Downloading the theme

How To Update Phox Via FTP

If you update via FTP, it’s important that you delete (not replace or overwrite) the old Phox theme folder. If you only overwrite the folder, then any files that were removed in the new version will remain in your site’s theme files. This is because it only updates exactly matching file names. This will cause issues in the theme, including fatal errors. When you update via the WordPress admin, the folder is automatically deleted first in the installation process.

1. Log into your server using FTP and navigate to the wp-content > themes folder. Here you’ll find a folder called ‘Phox’.
2. Backup the ‘Phox’ theme folder by saving it to your computer. Once that’s completed, you can delete it from the server. Deleting the theme files won’t remove your content. Your content such as pages, options, images, and posts will not be lost or erased by doing this. However, any customizations to the theme’s core files, such as PHP files, will be lost unless you’re using a child theme.
3. Retrieve the theme files you’ve just downloaded. If you’ve downloaded the installable WordPress file, then you only need to extract it once to get to the ‘Phox’ folder. If you’ve downloaded the Full Theme Package you must extract it once to access the secondary ‘Phox.zip’ file, and then extract the secondary ‘Phox.zip’ file to get to the ‘Phox’ folder.
4. Once extracted you can drag and drop the new Phox theme folder into the wp-content > themes directory. Make sure the Phox theme folder is named phox and not Phox.zip.
5. Don’t forget to update the required plugins.

How To Update Phox Via WordPress

When you update via WordPress, your old theme folder will be deleted automatically, so you won’t need to do that yourself.

1. First, you need to deactivate your current Phox theme located in the WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Themes section. To deactivate, simply switch to a different theme. For example, the default WordPress” twentytwenty” theme.
2. After deactivating you can go ahead and delete it. To do this, hover over the theme thumbnail then click ‘Theme Details’. In the bottom right corner of the window, click the ‘Delete’ button. Your content such as pages, options, images, and posts will not be lost or erased by doing this. However, any customizations to the theme’s core files, such as PHP files will be lost unless you’re using a child theme.
3. Retrieve the theme files you’ve just downloaded. If you’ve downloaded the installable WordPress file, then you do not need to extract it. If you’ve downloaded the Full Theme Package, you have to extract it once to access the secondary installable ‘phox.zip’ file.
4. To install, navigate to the WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Themes section of your installation and click the ‘Add New’ button near the top of the page. Then click the ‘Upload Theme’ button.
5. Click on the ‘Choose File’ button and select the installable ‘phox.zip’ file and upload it. Once uploaded, click ‘Install Now’.
6. When this has completed successfully, re-activate the theme by clicking the ‘Activate’ button.
7. Don’t forget to update the required plugins.

Updating The Required Plugins

Phox has a required plugin, the ‘Phox-Host’ plugin Without this plugin, the theme won’t work properly. With every theme update, there’s always update for the required plugin. Make sure you update the required plugin after updating the theme to ensure that you don’t run into any compatibility issues. To learn how, please click the button below.

Troubleshooting

‘Are You Sure You Want To Do This?’ Error Message

If you get the “Are You Sure You Want To Do This” message when installing the ‘Phox.zip’ file via WordPress, it means your server has an upload file size limit, which is set by your host. If this happens, install the theme via FTP, or contact your hosting company and ask them to increase the limit. We recommended an upload limit of 32M.

Theme Install Failed ‘Destination Folder Already Exists’

You may be getting this error because you have a duplicate ‘Phox’ folder. This error happens because WordPress only allows you to have one theme with the same name when uploading the theme via the WordPress admin. We recommend updating the theme via the Auto Update method to get around this, or you can update the theme via FTP.