Visual Composer is a powerful plugin that gives unlimited flexibility when it comes to laying out pages of content in WordPress. You can purchase themes that come with this plugin already included or you may purchase it as an add-on and get a license for it. If you purchase a license for it then it will notify you automatically if there is an update to it but if you don’t have a license then you wont get notified. Unfortunately sometimes when a new version of WordPress comes out it may not be compatible with your version of Visual Composer. If this is the case then you’ll notice right away when you go to edit your content that you won’t be able to. Here’s what you’ll need to do in order to update the unlicensed version of your plugin.
- Verify through the Visual Composer website if there is an updated version of the plugin compared to your current one
- Check with your theme’s developer if there’s any update to the theme with the new version of Visual Composer and download it
- In WordPress go to your plugins > Add New and look for “Easy Theme and Plugin Update” and install it. This plugin allows you to easily create a back up of your theme before updating it as well as easily update plugins.
- Update your theme if you like or skip to the next step (I’ll cover theme updating in another article)
- Deactivate then delete the WP-Bakery Visual Composer plugin on your site by going to Plugins > Installed Plugins
- While in the plugins page click “Add New”, then “Upload Plugin”
- Go to your updated theme’s files that you got from the developer and look for “js_composer.zip” inside inc > plugins which you will then upload
- WordPress will proceed to install the new version of the plugin and will let you know when it is finished.