April 20, 2022 Corporate Team

Core update

What is a Core update?

A core update is a change to the core code of WordPress. These updates are released as needed in order to keep WordPress secure and stable. Core updates can be applied automatically or manually, depending on your settings.

How does a Core update work?

If you have set WordPress to automatically update itself, then a core update will be applied as soon as it is released. If you have chosen to manually update WordPress, then you will need to log in to your site and install the update yourself.

Core updates usually include security fixes and new features, so it is important to keep WordPress up-to-date. Failure to do so could leave your site vulnerable to attack.

Wonder if Core Updates Fail?

If you’re ever unsure about whether or not a core update is needed, you can always check the WordPress release schedule. This will show you the latest version of WordPress and whether or not it includes any major changes.

If you’re still not sure, you can always contact a WordPress support specialist for help.

Updates Schedule

WordPress core developers release new versions of WordPress approximately every two months. These releases are scheduled in advance and announced on the WordPress core development blog.

The schedule for upcoming core releases is as follows:

August 2018: Version 5.0

September 2018: Version 5.1

October 2018: Version 5.2

November 2018: Version 6.0

Upcoming Releases

The next major WordPress release is 6.1. As mentioned above, WordPress 6.1 Release Candidate 2 is available for testing. You can find the latest developer notes at the dev-notes-6-1 tag.

@audrasjb gave a triage report that we have 9 tickets in the milestone, and everyone is welcome to help move them toward a resolution before RC3.

@ndiego gave a triage report for the Editor that there is still a handful of issues/PRs that are being worked through.

@webcommsat shared that a couple more bug scrubs are scheduled in the coming weeks.

@jeffpaul emphasized the need for help on the outstanding Trac and GitHub issues and encouraged folks to continue testing RC2. We are less than 2 weeks away from release!

@pbiron raised an issue related to the 6.0.3 security release: #56855: Featured Image bug in 6.0.3. The full discussion on this topic is available in Slack starting here, which resulted in a patch being created.

Concerning the translation of the upcoming release, @audrasjb indicated that there have been some string changes. @webcommsat shared that translations for WordPress can be submitted via the related projects on translate.wordpress.org. The newest default theme, Twenty Twenty-Three, is also available for translation. The monthly polyglot newsletter will be out soon and have more information on this.

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