How To Update MasterStudy

The MasterStudy 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.

To avoid critical errors after updates, please disable automatic plugin updates. Despite rigorous testing, unforeseen issues may arise. To disable automatic plugin updates, go to the Plugins section of your WordPress dashboard and click on Disable auto-updates next to plugins.

You can update the theme through the WP admin panel or via an FTP account. Let's have a look at all 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:

Best Practice

• Always check our release notes - Changelog
• 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 MasterStudy and renew it if necessary.

Update the theme via WordPress

Follow all the steps below to get notifications and smoothly update the theme directly from the WordPress dashboard.

Stage 1 - Update the theme

The first thing you need to do is download and install the Envato Market plugin from the official website - https://envato.com/market-plugin/.

Since MasterStudy update, 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.

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.

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

Stage 2 - Update all plugins

When the theme update is done, you will get a notification message "There are updates available for the following plugins:...".

Updating the plugins can be done in two ways:

• via MasterStudy Ecosystem Update Notification Banner
• via the Update Plugins tab in the WordPress Dashboard

How to Update Plugins via MasterStudy Ecosystem?

We have introduced the MasterStudy Ecosystem, which includes both free and Pro versions of MasterStudy LMS Plugins and other integrated plugin updates.

MasterStudy seamlessly integrates with dozens of plugins. After each update, our team tests the compatibility of the new versions to ensure smooth performance. This rigorous testing allows users to confidently update their plugins.

Therefore, updating via the MasterStudy Ecosystem is the best way to keep your plugins up to date.

Once you have an update, on any WordPress page you will get a special notification banner:

MasterStudy Ecosystem Update Notification on Plugins Page

To begin updating, just click on the Update All button and wait patiently for the confirmation message:

Update All button

During updates NEVER close the page and wait patiently. You can close the page if and only if you see the success or error message!

Closing the page during the update makes the WordPress move to Maintenance Mode!

How to Update Plugins via Dashboard?

When the theme update is done, you will get a notification message "There are updates available for the following plugins:...".

Navigate to MasterStudy > Plugins and click Update Available. You'll need to update all the plugins in this section.

NOTE: License code for WPBakery Page Builder, Slider Revolution, and Subscriptio is not included. However, you can use them freely or activate your personal license (if you have one) to get plugins updates. This is the Envato policy, also authors of these plugins do not allow any theme developer to provide Purchase Code for third-party plugins. Some of them might have messages requiring activation, but they are already activated on our side. Anyway, we provide plugins' latest version within theme update so your website will always be updated and secure.

Update the theme via FTP (Expert)

Sign in on the ThemeForest account that purchased MasterStudy theme. On the user's menu open the Downloads section.

You will be taken to a page with purchased items where the MasterStudy theme is located. Click the Download button and select the Installable WordPress file only option. Thus the theme zip archive file (masterstudy.zip) will be downloaded to your device.

Unzip the masterstudy.zip file which will give a Masterstudy 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 masterstudy folder.

Upload by drag and dropping the previously unzipped masterstudy 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.

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.