How To Update The Avada Website Builder

Last Update: February 25, 2026

Updating your WordPress website is essential for keeping it secure, stable, and performing at its best. Updates often include important security fixes that protect your site from vulnerabilities, as well as bug fixes that prevent errors or unexpected behavior. Staying up to date also ensures compatibility between WordPress, Avada, and plugins, reducing the risk of conflicts or broken features.

In addition to security and stability, updates bring performance improvements and new features that enhance how your site works and how easy it is to manage. For a feature-rich Avada setup, regular updates help ensure everything runs smoothly, giving you access to the latest tools while maintaining a reliable, professional website.

There are two ways to update a WordPress website. The first method is to auto-update via WordPress, which requires you to register your Avada website. The second is to manually update via FTP. Before you update, it’s best practice always to check the Important Update Information help file, which is updated with each new version.

To make a full site and database backup, please see this help file. This ensures you can revert to a working version if anything unexpected occurs. Read on to find out all there is to know about updating Avada, and watch the video below for a visual overview of the auto update method in WordPress.

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Updating Your WordPress Website: Best Practices

  • Before processing any update, be sure to take a full site and database backup. That will ensure you’re able to revert to a working point in your site if anything unexpected happens.
  • Before updating, we also recommend that you run a health check on your installation and ensure your server meets the minimum requirements for Avada. You can find details on what you need to check in this help file.
  • It is important that you ensure your server limits are set to the required minimums for the update/install to complete. Check the details on server requirements and click here for information on checking and increasing those limits.

Avada Important Update Information

Before updating Avada to a new version, it’s important to check the Important Update Information help file. This article is regularly updated and updated whenever a new version is released.

Updating From Much Older Avada Versions?

If you have not updated your Avada website in a very long time, you must update it in a sequential process to avoid potential issues. The link below provides detailed information and the steps to follow.

Method 1: Update via The WordPress Dashboard

Providing that your Avada website is registered, you will receive update notifications in the WordPress Dashboard > Updates section of your installation, and the update will require user confirmation to complete.

How To Update Via WordPress

  • Step 1​​​​​​ – Make sure that Avada is registered.
  • Step 2​​​​​​​​ – Navigate to the WordPress Dashboard > Updates section of your installation.
  • Step 3​​​​​​​ – Under the “Themes” section, you’ll see the Avada update notification. If you don’t see the update and know one is available, click the “Check Again” button at the top of the page to refresh the updates list. Make sure you also have a second, default WordPress theme installed (not activated), such as Twenty Twenty Three.

  • Step 4​​​​​​​ – Check the checkbox beside the Avada update, then click the “Update Themes” button to start the update.

  • Step 5​​​​​​​​ – Wait for the update to complete. A success notification will be displayed once Avada is updated successfully.
  • Step 6​​​​​​ – Once Avada is updated be sure to also update Avada’s required plugins.
Check for latest Avada updates

Method 2: Update Manually via FTP

With this manual method, you can upload the Avada theme files using FTP to the web server. Before you can update manually, you have to download the Avada theme files from Themeforest as explained below.

Download The Latest Avada Files From Themeforest

  • Step 1​​​​​​ – Log in to your Themeforest account, navigate to your “Downloads” tab and locate your Avada purchase.
  • Step 2​​​​​​​​ – Click the “Download” button and select “Installable WordPress file only”.

  • Step 3​​​​​​ – After downloading the Avada files you can now go ahead and update via FTP.
Downloading Avada from Themeforest

How To Update Via FTP

When updating via FTP, you must delete the old Avada folder (not replace or overwrite it). If you only overwrite the folder, any files removed in the new version will remain in your site’s theme files. This is because it only updates files with exactly matching names. This will cause issues in the theme, including fatal errors.

  • Step 1​​​​​​ – Log into your server using FTP and navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ folder. Here you’ll find a folder called “Avada”.

  • Step 2​​​​​​​​ – Make a backup the “Avada” folder by saving it to your computer (in case you need to roll back). Thereafter, you can delete the folder from the server. Deleting the theme folder won’t remove the content from your site. However, any customizations to the theme’s core files, such as PHP files, will be lost unless you’re using a child theme.
  • Step 3​​​​​​​ – Retrieve the Avada theme files you’ve downloaded from Themeforest. If you’ve downloaded the “Full Theme Package”, you must extract it once to access the secondary ‘Avada.zip’ file, and then extract the secondary ‘Avada.zip’ file to get to the ‘Avada’ folder.

  • Step 4​​​​​​​ – Once extracted you can drag and drop the new Avada theme folder into the /wp-content/themes/ directory. Make sure the Avada theme folder is named Avada and not Avada.zip.

  • Step 5​​​​​​​​ – Once Avada is updated on the web server be sure to also update Avada’s required plugins via the WordPress Dashboard.
Adding/Updating Avada via FTP

Updating The Avada Required Plugins

Avada has two required plugins – Avada Core & Avada Builder. Without these plugins, Avada won’t work properly. With every Avada update, the required plugins need to be updated as well to avoid compatibility issues. To learn how, please follow the link below.

Troubleshooting

“Are You Sure You Want To Do This?” Error Message

If you get the “Are You Sure You Want To Do This” message when installing the “Avada.zip” file via WordPress (Method 1), it means your server has an upload file size limit set by your host. If this happens, contact your hosting company to increase the limit. The recommended upload minimum limit is 32M.

Theme Install Failed “Destination Folder Already Exists”

You may be getting this error because you have a duplicate “Avada” folder. This error occurs because WordPress only allows you to upload one theme with the same name when using the WordPress Dashboard.

When a plugin or theme’s installation fails, it leaves behind an empty destination folder. The same happens when an old plugin or theme’s folder isn’t removed properly due to an interruption. This rogue folder stops WordPress from completing the installation.

To resolve this, delete the “Avada” folder using FTP or using your web host’s cPanel interface. Alternatively, you can update the theme using FTP.

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