The Joomla! Project frequently announce the availability of new releases of the Joomla! CMS.
These could be bug fix or security fix releases, or a combination of the two.
Developers of 3rd Party Extensions do likewise.
It is critical that you keep your Joomla! CMS and its extensions up-to-date.
Not doing so may result in your website being compromised.
It is also critical that you perform a full backup of your website (database & files) before updating it.
Update routines can break websites for lots of different reasons.
Tips:
- stay informed - see below,
- always use the latest version or release of the Joomla! CMS and any 3rd party extensions,
- act on the assumption that every new release is a security fix,
- update your Joomla! CMS promptly.
Stay informed
Frequently visit the Official Joomla! website to check for new releases at www.joomla.org
Subscribe to Joomla! RSS News Feeds at https://www.joomla.org/rss.html
Frequently sign into your Joomla! website's Dashboard.
Always check the Dashboard for updates when you do.
If there are no updates then the update buttons will appear as in the images shown below.
If updates are available then the buttons will highlight this fact.
Home Dashboard
Notifications Panel
System Dashboard
Update Panel
Automated Updates
The Notifications Panel of the Home Dashboard of Joomla! 5.4.0+ websites includes an Automated Updates button.
By default it will state: Automated Updates are disabled.
You may wish to enable Automated Updates.
Before you do, we recommend you read our separate article.
Read more: Automatic Core Joomla Updates.
Contents include:
How to manually update the Joomla! CMS.
How to update 3rd Party Extensions.
Checks after updating Joomla!
Warnings and Installation Messages.
