How to upgrade WordPress up to 5.1 and Also the Avada Theme.

WordPress’s upgrade to 5.0 and 5.1 broke many self-hosted WordPress themes. The Avada WP theme is the most popular theme on ThemeForest.com so I’ll also go over how to upgrade that also.

Below is a general outline of how to upgrade WordPress and the theme up to 5.1.

1. Back up the website files and database.
2. Check/update hosting software(PHP, MySQL) versions. PHP should be at least 7.0 and MySQL should be at least 5.6. You can check your current server setting by logging into cPanel and clicking the ‘Server Information’ link.
3. Update the WP memory requirements to current. Update the file: wp-config.php.
   Just under the line “define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);” place this code;
   //set execution time
   set_time_limit(300);
   //set memory limit 
   define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’);
4. Update the max input vars by adding a php.ini file to the wp-admin folder. In the php.ini file write this line:
   max_input_vars = 3000;
5. You might also want to add these limits in the .htaccess file also.
   php_value max_execution_time 180

Next steps are to auto update or manually update(version 4.0.3 or older) Avada.

Auto Update.

1. Register the Avada theme if you haven’t already. Login into WP > Avada > Registration. Follow the instructions to, input the key and finish registration
2. Next we will auto update WordPress. Dashboard > Updates. Follow the instructions for theme update.