How to know which version of WordPress you have?

Introduction

A question that we regularly receive from our clients is 'How to know which version of WordPress I have?' This is because knowing your version of WordPress is essential when you want to keep your WordPress site safe or when you install new templates or plugins .

Of course, there are those who simply want to know if they have installed the latest version of WordPress. In any case, discovering your WordPress version is quite simple. In this tutorial, we will show you 3 methods to know which version of WordPress you have.

So, with that out of the way, let's start by checking which version of WordPress you have installed.

What you will need

Before starting this tutorial, you will need the following:

• Access to the WordPress administration area or access to your hosting control panel

Option 1: Verify the WordPress version in the administration area

The first method, and the most convenient to verify your version of WordPress, is through the desktop. Simply log in to your WordPress desktop, and go to the Updates section located in the left bar. Here, you will clearly see what version of WordPress you are using, and also the latest version of WordPress available. If you discover that you do not have the latest version, be sure to make a backup of your site, before continuing with the update to the latest version.

In addition to the Updates page , you can also find your version of WordPress by scrolling down on any page of the administration area until you reach the footer. You should be able to see the text. Thank you for creating with WordPress , and right in front of it, the current version of WordPress. Note that this information is only available for WordPress version 4.1.5 and later. Mobile views are also not compatible at this time.

Option 2: Verify the WordPress version in the code of the page

There is a possibility that you may not be able to sign in to the WordPress admin area or lack the credentials to do so. This means that you will not be able to find information about the WordPress version using Option 1 . But do not worry: there is another method, although less reliable.

In general, sites created with WordPress carry version information in an HTML meta tag. This tag is inserted by default in the site by the WordPress template, but can be disabled by the site administrator if you are aware of the security. Still, it's worth trying if you do not have access to the administration area.

To find the WordPress version through the meta tag, simply open the website in your browser. Now, right click on any part of the site and select the option View source code . This will open a new tab in your browser, which contains the HTML code of the page.

Now simply type CTRL + F or COMMAND + F if you use Mac. This will open the browser search tool. Type generator in the search field and see if something appears. If the site administrator has not deactivated the meta tag "generator", you will see the tag like this:

<script type = 'text / javascript' src = 'http://hostinger-tutorials.com/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.js' > </ script>
<script type = 'text / javascript' src = 'http://hostinger-tutorials.com/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-migrate.min.js' > </ script>
<link rel = 'https://api.w.org/' href = 'http://hostinger-tutorials.com/wp-json/' />
<link rel = "EditURI" type = "application / rsd + xml" title = "RSD" href = "http://hostinger-tutorials.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" />
<link rel = "wlwmanifest" type = "application / wlwmanifest + xml" href = "http://hostinger-tutorials.com/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml" />
<meta name = "generator" content = "WordPress 4.8" />

As stated earlier, showing your version of WordPress for everyone to see is a serious security situation. If this is your own site, you must quickly deactivate this tag so that it does not appear. If you can not see this tag, it means that the subject you are using is already hiding it, which is good in terms of keeping your site safe.

You can follow these steps to disable the meta tag "generator" and not appear in the source code of the page:

1. Access your WordPress administration board.
2. Go to Appearance -> Editor .
3. Select your current template and choose the functions.php file to edit it.
4. Paste the following code at the bottom of the file:

remove_action ('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

• Save the changes by pressing the Update file button .

Option 3: Check the version in the version.php file

An alternative to the two methods mentioned above involves immersing yourself in the source files of your WordPress site. This is the most reliable method, but it also requires the most amount of time. First, you must connect to your hosting account through the file manager of your web hosting provider or through an FTP client .

Once connected, navigate to the WordPress installation directory (usually public_html ) and open the wp-includes folder. Here, look for a file called version.php and open it. This file contains the version of your WordPress installation on line 7, which should look like this:

$ wp_version = '4.4.2';

You may wonder if this file is safe or not. After all, if it is located in the same place in each WordPress distribution, then, could not the hackers simply write their route in the browser and see it? Well, the information about the version is in a PHP variable and not in the HTML part of the page, so nothing is shown when this page is opened in a web browser or when the source code of the page is seen.

conclusion

Knowing your version of WordPress can be important if you plan to update to the latest available version, or if you want to obtain a plugin / template that works on specific versions of WordPress.

In this tutorial, we have shown you 3 simple methods to find out which version of WordPress you have currently installed. If you want to avoid that your version of WordPress is visible to everyone, we recommend you to consult our tutorial on how to improve the WordPress securityand use plugins like Sucuri and Wordfence .