Did you made any changes to theme files directly? We strongly suggest to save a copy of theme files first! Just go to wp-content/themes folder in your wordpress root folder. And save a copy of the current theme folder. Then proceed in updating theme automatically, using Envato Market plugin. Or manually.
I backed up the themes folder and ran the auto update using Envato Market plugin but unfortunately it completely broke my website and left hardly anything to see. I’ve now recovered my website by removing the new Specular theme and re-uploading the backed up copy from the themes folder backup.
Can you recommend another way I can safely upgrade to the latest version please?
This is not normal. Theme update should do no-change to your site. Since it only overwrites theme files and all the content is stored in the database. However, you can do the manual update.
-Download again theme from Envato > Downloads; This way you are getting the latest version uploaded.
-Unzip the main zip file and extract only theme folder;
-Go to wp-content/themes, rename the old theme. Then upload the new version.
-Check your site.
