On December 11, 2012, WordPress released version 3.5, naming it after Elvin Jones. Elvin Jones was a jazz musician who played the drums. If you wish to learn more about him, you can read up about Elvin Jones on Wikipedia.
WordPress 3.5 comes with several great updates. One of the ones I have been really rooting on what the development of a better Media Library. Previous version was a multiple drag and drop upload ability that still had somewhat the same flavor as even older media library version’s within WordPress. The upload interface after clicking add Media from a post or page is much different.
As you can see, the area of the upload when you click to add new media is a lot bigger, spanning most of the screen.
When you add new files, instead of a one column, the images are shown in several columns, as well as file type.
Other user interface have been tweaked to be cleaner. For developers, there are some goodies like a new importer from Tumblr to WordPress, and installing blogs faster and better in multi-site.
WordPress has also introduced a new theme that is not your usual blog format theme. Not everyone runs a blog for the focal point of their site, and so, since WordPress is a full content management system, so the theme Twenty Twelve is a great example of a basic CMS type site. Twenty Twelve is also mobile responsive!
If you are worried about updating your site to the new version due to hearing some upgrades gone a little hairy, it might not happen to you. It may be a conflict from a plugin or theme you are using. Each release is tested by many people, from user to intermediate code savvy, and to even hard core developers.
As a reminder, before you upgrade your site, back it up!!!
If you are not sure, either install a beta version of your site and try the upgrade, or install it locally on your computer and try it out. If you are having issues you can use the WordPress Support Forums to submit the issue. Those who are developers, and the issue is deeper, like a bug found, you can submit a ticket in WordPress Core Trac.
You can find out more on WordPress 3.5 release at from WordPress.org.
Nice way to describe the plugins.
I updated all my blogs to 3.5 last night, I do love the new media system, so much better, also, not sure if it’s me, but the blogs do seem tad faster with the latest update 😉
I have to agree… mine seems a little speedier. I am not complaining 🙂
Just updated my wordpress site. 🙂
Thanks a lot for sharing this interesting post and I will be waiting for other great news from you in the nearest future.
I’ve made my own blog on blogspot, but thinking of buying a domain and putting wordpress on it. There seem to be a lot of cool stuff on WP. I’ll keep an eye out on this site and look for more information.
Hi Bobbie! The awesome thing about WordPress is there there is even an importer to easily move your posts from Blogger to WordPress 🙂
Along with backing up your blog first, I’ve also heard it’s a good idea to deactivate all your plugins before upgrading. Then activate them again, one at a time, making sure everything seems to be working okay. That way if there is a problem, it will be easier to pinpoint the problem.
Any thoughts on that, Nile?
Willena
Hi Nile,
I haven’t updated yet but I plan to do so this weekend.
Justin from Dragon Blogger did a nice video walk through of the media manager and I’m looking forward to seeing what else is new.
Thanks!
I am finishing up my video walk through for my collection as I’ve got to have them for my clients. 🙂 Happy updating when you do.
Though I don’t like updating my blogs with every WordPress update but I recently tried WordPress 3.5 and was quite impressed by the much improved media library.
Just finished updating all my WordPress sites, everything’s running smoothly 🙂
When it came out i update to the latest version and it did too much mess with my plugins so i had no choice but to install the earlier version and hope WordPress will release an update and or the plugin developer will.
i had updated immediatly but this version is showing many bugs
Hi Hamid! It might be a plugin or theme conflict…. try de-activating and then re-activating each plugin one by one. Also, if you have a cache plugin installed, when you upgraded, you should always remember to clear the cache.
Updated last night. Didn’t see the “deactivate plugins”message until too late. had problems, but with bluehost tech support got through them all. Now I’m happy. make sure you deactivate plugins, or better yet, UPDATE your pugins before downloading the 3.5 Should be okay then.
It is not always necessary to de-activate all plugins before updating your WordPress site. However, if you find that you are getting errors, and if you were smart enough to get a backup of your site, then you can de-activate plugins as a secondary precaution before updating. However, usually the plugins I have encountered on client sites that have this issue are using plugins that are either premium or not available in the WordPress plugin repository.
wordpress is great and it will remain forever. i really like it.
Thanks for the interesting news.
Hi Nile,
I’ve also upgraded to 3.5, I’ve had some issues with the size of the pictures in the posts. They kept resizing to thumbnail size. I don’t know if this has to do with the new version, but it’s very frustrating.
One quick question….what do you think about the ThemeFuse themes. I’ve won 2 giveaways and got the Writer theme and Qclassic. But there are a lot of bugs I can’t figure out.
Merry Christmas, Nile.Take care.
~Philip
WordPress 3.5 is awsome 🙂 i love it thnks for ur post man !
Hi Sony! I am a female…. not a man…lol
HI Nile,
Thanks for ur post, coz ur explanation about plugins and bugs are really helpful for new blogger like me. However, now I’m using WordPress 3.4 , but I’m gonna update this version soon.
Thanks.
The new wordpress update (like WordPress 3.5) truly awesome.
More responsive and user friendly on dashboard page.
But i get some problems after updating wordpress to the new update.
They have compatible issues with some plugins that I use, especially for plugins that are not updated by the author.
when i update to 3.5 do i have to reset my media settings?. and how the plugin? I’m afraid some essential plugins do not work in wp 3.5.