How do I update a Mongo document after inserting it?

In pymongo you can update with:
mycollection.update({'_id':mongo_id}, {"$set": post}, upsert=False)
Upsert parameter will insert instead of updating if the post is not found in the database.
Documentation is available at mongodb site.

UPDATE For version > 3 use update_one instead of update:

mycollection.update_one({'_id':mongo_id}, {"$set": post}, upsert=False)

mycollection.find_one_and_update({"_id": mongo_id},                                  {"$set": {"newfield": "abc"}})

should work splendidly for you. If there is no document of id mongo_id, it will fail, unless you also use upsert=True. This returns the old document by default. To get the new one, pass return_document=ReturnDocument.AFTER. All parameters are described in the API.

The method was introduced for MongoDB 3.0. It was extended for 3.2, 3.4, and 3.6.

I will use collection.save(the_changed_dict) this way. I've just tested this, and it still works for me. The following is quoted directly from pymongo doc.:

save(to_save[, manipulate=True[, safe=False[, **kwargs]]])

Save a document in this collection.

If to_save already has an "_id" then an update() (upsert) operation is performed and any existing document with that "_id" is overwritten. Otherwise an insert() operation is performed. In this case if manipulate is True an "_id" will be added to to_save and this method returns the "_id" of the saved document. If manipulate is False the "_id" will be added by the server but this method will return None.