How To Update Companion
Every Companion license comes alongside lifetime updates from StylemixThemes
The Companion theme update is released regularly. Each theme update includes new features, improvements to existing options, security patches, and bug fixes. To be able to use them we recommend you keep the theme installation up to date. As soon as a new update is available, you will be informed via email from ThemeForest.
You can update the theme through the WP admin panel or via an FTP account. Let's have a look both ways so that you can choose a method that is convenient for you.
Before starting to update the theme we encourage you to walk through the following points:
- Perform a full site and database backup. Thus you’re able to revert the working version of your website if anything unexpected happens during/after the update process.
- Ensure that your server is configured to the minimum requirements for the theme. You can see the required minimums of the server limits on the System Requirements page.
- Reset browser and server cache after finishing the update.
- Have a staging version of your original website? Then just run the update process first on a test website to ensure that everything is working correctly.
An important step before update!
Before the release of any update, we conduct automatic and manual testing of our theme. However, during the installation/update process, there may occur unexpected issues related to the work of other plugins or problems with the server-side. In such cases, you can contact the support department for assistance.
According to the Item Support Policy of the Envato marketplace, technical assistance is available only during the item support period. Hence, it is recommended to check the support period before updating Companion and renew it if necessary.
Follow all the steps below to get notifications and smoothly update the theme directly from the WordPress dashboard.
The first thing you need to do is download and install the Envato Market plugin from the official website - https://envato.com/market-plugin/.
The Envato Market plugin is included in the theme and it can be installed in the Appearance > Install Plugins section.
The plugin adds the Envato Market section in the dashboard menu. Go to the Envato Market > Settings to configure the plugin.
Envato Market Plugin Settings
By clicking this link you can get an Envato API Personal Token with all the required permissions pre-selected. You should be logging in to your Envato account.
Alternatively, you can enable the required permissions listed below to get new updates:
- View and search Envato sites
- Download the user's purchased items
- List purchases the user has made
Enter a name for your personal token
Accept the Terms & Conditions and generate a personal token. Copy the key from the success message and click on the Woohoo! Got It. button to complete the process.
Personal Token Key
Put the token key to the Token field in the Envato Market plugin settings and save your changes
You will be redirected to the Themes tab where you can update the theme by clicking the Update Available link
When the theme update is done, you will get a notification message "There are updates available for the following plugins:...".
Navigate to Companion > Plugins and click Update Available. You'll need to update all the plugins in this section.
Sign in on the ThemeForest account that purchased the Companion theme. On the user's menu open the ‘Downloads’ section.
You will be taken to a page with purchased items. Here locate your Companion purchase. Click the Download button and select the Installable WordPress file only option. Thus the theme zip archive file (companion.zip) will be downloaded to your device.
Extract the companion.zip file which will give a Companion folder. Make sure your unzipping software does not create an extra directory with the same name nested into each other.
NOTE: Place your site in maintenance mode using a special plugin (WP Maintenance Mode, Maintenance, etc.)
Retrieve your FTP login information from your hosting admin panel. Login to your FTP account via an FTP software (FileZilla or similar) to access your website folders.
Once you access the FTP account, navigate to the WordPress theme directory YOUR_HOSTING_ROOT/YOUR_SUBDIRECTORY/wp-content/themes and remove the companion folder.
Upload by drag and dropping the previously unzipped companion folder into YOUR_HOSTING_ROOT/YOUR_SUBDIRECTORY/wp-content/themes directory.
Congratulations, you have successfully updated the theme! Also, don’t forget to update the required plugins under the Appearance > Install Plugins section.
Is it safe to remove the theme folder?
Removing the theme folder doesn't delete your current content and settings as they are located in the database. If you made custom changes in core files, then the update will override your modifications. Therefore, you should back up those files beforehand or use a child theme.
The child theme doesn’t need to be updated!
Whenever we make major changes to a certain part of the parent theme, you’ll have to check our release notes and compare the file from the parent theme with the modified one in your child theme. If necessary apply the customizations or modifications again. If you don’t do this, there’s a chance that your custom code (function, feature, etc.) might not work anymore.
SUPPORT POLICY ON CHILD THEMES
While child themes are a great way to add custom changes to the main theme, there are generally used to customize core code from the parent theme. Because of this, please be aware that customizations of this nature fall outside our scope of support and we will be unable to assist you with issues that may arise from it.