Steps to Update Thesis for WordPress

Recently I was adding content to a website that uses Thesis for WorldPress, and was surprised to get the following error: Warning: Illegal string offset ‘type’, with the warning that there was an error in the options options_post.php file. After researching the possible reasons for this new error, which came out of nowhere, everything seemed to indicate that the error could be corrected by updating the version of Theses I had. Since, I thought some of you may also bump into this error as well, I decided to write down the steps to update Thesis for WordPress.

In my case I had version 1.8 and to updated to 1.86.  I studies the updating process suggested by diythemes.com, and here is a summary of the steps I followed:

Steps to Update Thesis for WordPress

1. The first step was to back up the complete website, using a FTP tool, just in case things did not turn out as expected.  Prevention is better than cure!
2. Under the Thesis option, go to Manage Options and click on All Design Options to download on the computer the current configuration for Thesis.
3. Download from diythemes.com the new version of Thesis
4. Upload the new Thesis file to the server and put in the themes file. After this step, the themes file will include the old and new versions of Theses.
5. Upload to the server the custom file of the old version and replace with the custom file of the new version.
6. In the custom file, change the permits for:  cache (file permissions) to 775 (instead of 755).
7. In the custom file, change the permits for:  layout.css (file permissions) to 666 (instead of 644).
8. On the WordPress dashboard click on Appearance>Themes and activate the new version.
9. Click on Design Options and upload the backup file that was installed in the previous version.
10. Upload the page again and everything should be functioning now!