Update Site from 2.3.7 to Newmag 3.0

As a brief introduction, my name is Pari and I manage a website – http://www.everydaylegal.us – a site that uses your WordPress theme – Newsmag.

We have been on Newsmag for about a year now and have been very satisfied with the quality of your product.

Question:
We are considering updating the theme and WordPress version shortly. Currently, we are on Newsmag 2.3.7 and WordPress 4.5.4; the site is hosted by bluehost.com. Our target state is Newsmag 3.0 and WordPress 4.7. Is this a safe bet at this time? We ask this because we tried a similar update about six months ago (different versions) but had to revert since the site broke. Of course, we have read your update article:
https://forum.tagdiv.com/newsmag-how-to-update-the-theme/

But, we want to make sure we leverage your consult before we try this again. What is the best way to go about this to make for a smooth transition?

Thanks in advance.

Catalin:

Thank you. We have been able to update the Newsmag Version and the WP version successfully.

However, we seem to have an issue with special characters. For some reason, we see special characters (looks like Chinese) on the top right hand corner of the home page instead of social media icons. Looks like you have a fix for this; but i cannot seem that page.

https://forum.tagdiv.com/topic/strange-%3Cb%3Echinese%3C/b%3E-symbols-replaced-icons-and-arrows/

For some reason when I click on this page, your system asks me to register.

Can you please help solve the special character issue?

Thanks,
Pari.