Update safely

  1. Back up the database, uploads, theme, child theme and plugins. Test the update on a staging copy first.
  2. Upload the installable grace-video.zip in Appearance > Themes and choose to replace the existing version. The outer ThemeForest download is not an installable theme.
  3. Update the companions from this release at the same time: Grace Church Core 1.6.20, optional Sermon AI Tools 1.0.19 and Grace Church Bible 1.2.3. Use Appearance > Install Plugins; bundled plugin ZIPs are inside the theme's inc/tgm-plugin-activation/plugins directory if manual upload is needed. Updating the theme alone does not update active plugins.
  4. Keep existing option names and content. This update does not consolidate or reset your database settings and does not convert or delete original uploads.
  5. Purge host/CDN/page-plugin caches after installing the matched theme and companions. Exclude signed-in, preview and password-protected pages from caching. Refresh open browser tabs. The old Grace service worker is retired and only its own versioned caches are removed; unrelated caches are not cleared. From theme 1.8.1, Core 1.3.1 owns this cleanup so it also works after a theme switch. Keep Core active while existing visitors receive the cleanup update.
  6. Keep Core active: it owns the sermon layout editor and its REST metadata; saved Classic/Theater overrides retain their original keys. The control is shown only by themes that declare support for these layouts. Switching to another theme preserves the value but hides an unsupported layout control.
  7. Verify the homepage, sermon playback, sharing, giving link, footer, search and a protected sermon while signed out. Test an editor account separately from an administrator.

There is no automatic Envato updater bundled. Use the download from your own account and preserve customizations in the included child theme. Never edit the parent theme to customize it. The child theme requires Grace Video installed; its screenshot is illustrative, not a separate demo import.

After a theme switch

Church content after changing themes

The centered desktop search field is available with Sidebar Menu. Top Menu and mobile use a compact search icon so the field cannot cover navigation links. The saved search preference is preserved if you switch back to Sidebar Menu. Long top menus wrap between menu items rather than splitting short labels into vertical word stacks.

Keep Grace Church Core active for Sermons, Events, Staff, Ministries, series/books, media metadata, podcast feeds, view counts and church settings. Use Settings > Church Settings, Sermons > Sermon Tools and user profile headshots independently of Grace Video. Theme-specific layouts do not transfer to another theme.

Keep a recoverable database-and-files backup. To roll back a failed update, use your host's documented restore process on a staging copy first; do not assume replacing theme files reverses database/content changes.