It sounds like your web designer based your theme on the default twenty ten theme and did not change the name of the theme or the folder it resides in. When someone upgraded WordPress the upgrade contains a theme called TwentyTen since it is the default. And most likely it wrote over the customized version of the theme you had. Thus your nicely customized theme turns into the default twenty ten theme because they had the same name and folder location. When customizing the 2010 theme the name and folder location should ALWAYS be changed for exactly this reason.
I suggest you downgrade your WP install files. In other words, download from the WP site WP version 3.0.5 and over write your existing WP files with the older version. MAKE SURE YOU DELETE THE FOLDER /wp-content/themes/twentyten and everything in that folder before you upload the 3.0.5 to your site. Otherwise the exact same thing may happen again.
The reason I am suggesting this:
WP would be saying it needs a database upgrade because the WP files on the disk are the 3.1 files from the upgrade someone did. The version # of WP and its matching database is saved in one of the WP core files. That is how it knows it needs to do a database upgrade. When you go back to the previous version it will stop trying to upgrade the database.
Before you do any of this go into your web hosting control panel and
1) backup your database, save the copy on your computer, and
2) back up all the files in the WP installation starting at the WP root, and save them onto your computer. If your hosting panel lets you zip them all into one file you can do that. (If you have FTP access to the site, you can use your FTP program to copy all the files to a folder on your computer instead of using the web hosting control panel).
After those two backups are made you can downgrade your installed WP files. The backups are so if anything goes wrong you can get back to where you are right now.
Thanks Steve! Really appreciated.
I’m going to give this a go but I need some clarification on one thing:
When this all happened, my webdev managed to get my theme back up very quickly (but as described, no backend access due to the update message) – are you saying he just re-uploaded our customized twentyten theme again, but left everything else from the 3.1 upgrade on the server? (and hence why it’s asking to upgrade?
So as I understand your suggestion, I need to replace all the WP files on the folder with 3.05 version to get WP back to where it was.
The problem then remains, how to I upgrade to 3.1 (as there has to be a reason to do so)?
Thanks again for your help.
I of course don’t know what actually happened on your server.
I would say the likelihood of the scenario you just wrote is high. There is a way you can check.
Open file /wp-includes/version.php and examine it in an editor. That includes the version of the WP files that are on your server. If it says 3.1 the above scenario is in place. If its says 3.0.something then the problem is different.
Here is another thing you can check – in the WP dashboard click on Appearances. See how many themes are installed on your site. If there is only one its quite likely the scenario I described is what happened. If there is more than one and one of them is your custom theme, something else is going on.
Rather than speculate on installing 3.1 find out first what is actually going on.
If it turns out I am correct, what I do is create a new empty folder under /wp-content/themes/ Make it the name of your site. Then copy all the files from the 2010 folder into the new folder. Open style.css in an editor and change the name of the theme that is in comments at the very top of the file. Then you have cloned the theme under a new name. Go back to Appearances and make the new theme your active theme. DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU FIND I WAS CORRECT, that there is only one theme in your Themes folder. (What I mean by correct is your customized theme was in fact in the 2010 folder)
If I was you I would just make back up of the database so you have copy and then just let the program update your database as there is nothing in database that will make any changes to theme.
You need to see if you can make twenty ten theme that your developer made for you and use that as child theme by renaming the theme and have twenty ten theme in themes folder so you do not have the same problem next time you update.
http://codex.ww.wp.xz.cn/Child_Themes
Thank you both for the help!
Here’s the version information:
* The WordPress version string
*
* @global string $wp_version
*/
$wp_version = ‘3.0.1’;
@steve – this makes me think the problem is something else but I have a feeling your scenario is still correct – I just want to make sure you understand the issue; I can’t actually get in to the WP dashboard. When I go to log in to WP, I can’t actually get in to the dashboard as I get that update message. Unless you have a another meaning for the word dahboard?
@gov – I do like the idea of the child theme – thanks for the link. It looks like I may be on my own with this.
Could either of you clarify exactly what you maan by datdabase?
There is a folder: root: /backup/sql/_db
With .sql files – is that my database backup?
Sorry for the noob questions, I’m fairly tech savvy, but want to make sure I’m getting the terms right as this isn’t my field.
Thanks again!!!!
Your database is in PhpMyAdmin you will not find it in files folders
You can export your database from there and will be .sql file.
Hi
The full scenario I write about is not correct if the version is 3.0.1
What are the names of the folders in your /wp-content/themes/folder?
by default you will only have one theme that twenty ten theme in themes folder.Any other themes you install will go in themes folder and with plugins folder all plugins you install will go in plugins folder.
Thanks guys. Really appreciate the help!!
@steve – All I have in that folder: twentyten (folder) and index.php
@gov – I take it by phpmyadmin, you mean the software/program?
Any pointers on where to go from here would be most useful – I can’t figure out what is wrong.
Hi
that you have only one theme in your theme folder is the sign of what I said in the first place, that your site designer modified the 2010 theme to make your custom theme but kept the same folder and name for the 2010 theme. Then when WP was upgraded to 3.1 the latest version of the 2010 theme was installed as part of that upgrade. Because it was installed in the same folder as your active theme, it wrote over your custom theme.
You can either do what Govpatel said and turn your custom theme into a child theme, or you can do what I suggested and move your theme into a different folder and change its name in the style.css stylesheet comments. Either way will work.
If I was you, at this point I would try contacting my webhost, explaining what happened and what is happening, and ask them if they are willing to help you sort this out. Good hosts will sometimes do that. That would be my next step. If they won’t or can’t, then you can ask further questions here. If they will, that will be the simplest solution.
You do need to have the copy of your custom theme that your web designer gave you for them to be able to help you. And it needs to either be renamed or made into a child theme so this doesn’t happen again, which it will if you don’t do one of those things.
PhpMyAdmin is a server program that is required to use wordpress and all servers have the program installed on server.
Just wanted to say thanks to both of you!
I contacted my host and then sent me info on how to backup my database.
I’ve now done a database backup both to the server and to my computer (the suffix is .sql.zip – hopefully this is the correct file).
The Root folder on my server just has three directories:
backup
cgi-bin
htdocs
So I’ve done a local backup of the entire htdocs folder which contains the three WP folders (WP-ADMIN, WP-CONTENT & WP-INCLUDES) along with everything else for the site.
I’ve also locally backed up the backup folder, as well as the most recent backup version just by itself.
I think I’m ready to change the twentyten theme as instructed, but do I need to do anything else in terms of backups or precautions before I proceed?
Also, which is the best way to go: Child theme or move my custom theme in to a different folder and edit the style.css?
The “best” in my case may be simplest, however, I’m having some issues with the site/pages taking a long while to load so if one has a advantage of being more efficient/optimized then I’d like to do that.
Thanks again for all your help guys – I can’t tell you how much this has stressed me out and I’d be lost without the advice.
To me moving the theme and changing its name is the simplest, which is why I suggested it. Your designer already hacked the 2010 theme to create your present theme. Making that hacked theme a child of the default 2010 theme potentially involves restyling parts of the theme. Moving it requires none of that.
However that is just my opinion and others would no doubt advise differently. Both approaches are valid. Child themes are easier when they are created as child themes from the beginning.
Glad you are getting it straightened out
Thanks Steve. I’ve done the following as suggested by you:
“create a new empty folder under /wp-content/themes/ Make it the name of your site. Then copy all the files from the 2010 folder into the new folder. Open style.css in an editor and change the name of the theme that is in comments at the very top of the file”
I assumed that by “2010 folder” you meant twentyten.
So, in my themes folder, there’s now the twentyten custom theme that my webdev did, and a cloned custom theme that has all the copied files from
twentyten folder, with just the style.css top comment edited to be the new theme name.
Can I now assume that I’m safe to go in to the WP admin, and allow it to do the upgrade?
Then after that, I can select the my theme under appearances in the WP dashboard?
Hi
“Yes” on what you assumed about twentyten folder
Before you do the upgrade, go to Appearance and under Theme activate your new (copied) custom theme. Make sure when the activation completes that the active theme says it is located in the new folder you created and has the new name.
Then you can do the update. After the update the 2010 theme will no longer be your custom theme. It will be the default 2010 theme from the WP 3.1 update. That’s why I suggest switching themes before you update. I don’t think you again want the experience of watching your theme change to the 2010 right before your eyes!
