Upgrading Joomla

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Upgrading and Migrating

 

Upgrading from one version of Joomla to another version is often referred to as Migrating.  But this can be misleading because Mirating is usually associated with moving a site from one server to another.  This page deals with Upgrading Joomla from 1.6.5.  Upgrading Joomla versions lower than Joomla 1.6.5 are vastly complicated and usually take longer than starting the site from scratch.  This is because of the changes in the PHP code and the database structure.  Also many of the features in Joomla 2.5 perform tasks that Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 1.0 need extensions for.

 

Joomla 2.5 also has an enhanced A.C.L. which allows for better control of User permissions.  For those and many other reasons it is probably better to create a new site than Upgrade from lower versions.

 

Upgrading versions of Joomla from 1.6.5 to Joomla 1.7.0

 

The introduction of Joomla 1.6 brought in several new features, one of which was 'Automatic update', the 'Automatic update' will also automatically find upgrades as well.  Because of the changes made in the databases during the various releases of 1.6 and 1.7 'Automatic updates' is best not used for Joomla versions below 1.6.5.  Using 'Automatic updates' for 1.6.5, 1.6.6 and 1.7.0 has to be done twice to bring Joomla up to the current version.

        1. Login to the administrator control panel of your Joomla.
        2. Navigate to ... Extensions >>> Extensions manager ... and click the 'Update' tab.
        3. Then 'Purge cache' ... 'Check for updates', select the Joomla upgrade and click the 'Update' button.
        4. Log out then repeat steps 1 to 3.
        5. Log out and back in again.
        6. Navigate to ... Extensions >>> Extensions manager ... and click the 'Database' tab.
        7. If any errors show then click the 'Fix' button.

 

Upgrading versions of Joomla from 1.7.1 to 2.5.2

 

Upgrading from Joomla 1.7.1 onwards is much easier than updating or upgrading from other versions of Joomla.

        1. Login to the administrator control panel of your Joomla.
        2. Navigate to ... Extensions >>> Extensions manager ... and click the 'Update' tab.
        3. Then 'Purge cache' ... 'Check for updates', select the Joomla upgrade and click the 'Update' button.
        4. Log out and back in again.
        5. Navigate to ... Extensions >>> Extensions manager ... and click the 'Database' tab.
        6. If any errors show then click the 'Fix' button.

 

 

Updating versions of Joomla between 2.5 and 3.3.6

The introduction of Joomla 1.6 brought in several new features, one of which was 'Automatic update'.  Because of the changes made in the databases during the various releases of 1.6 and 1.7 'Automatic updates' is best not used for Joomla versions below 1.6.5.  Using 'Automatic updates' for 1.6.5, 1.6.6 and 1.7.0 has to be done twice to bring Joomla up to the current version.

Upgrading to Joomla 3.3.6 is relatively easy ... the difficulty depends on the 3rd party extensions that you have on your site.  Some 2.5 extensions are not compatatable with 3.3.6 while other extensions are compatible but require a different zip file to be installed.

Preparation

      1. Use Akeeba Backup to create a copy of your site in a new folder or locally on your computer and use the copy to do the migration.
      2. Make sure you Joomla version is 2.5.7 and that all the 3rd party extensions are up to date.
      3. Disable the 'Remember me' Plugin in the Plugins Manager.
      4. Make a list of all you 3rd party extensions and note which are compatible with .3.3.6
      5. Uninstall all the non compatible 3rd party extensions and disable all the other 3rd party extensions.
        1. Check with the authors of the 3rd party extensions to see if they have upgrade instructions specific to their extension.  Some extensions may require uninstalling the files but leaving their database tables intact !!!
      6. Back up your changes.

 

Completing the upgrade

      1. Navigate to Components >>> Joomla! Update.
        1.  If Joomla 3.3.6 does not show then purge cache ... if still No Avail then set the Options to LTS.
      2. Click to update.
        Note:  You can also upgrade by installing the Joomla 3.3.6 full package zip via the Extension manager.
      3. Install the latest versions of your 3rd party extensions (taking care to follow any instructions specific to each extenstion).
      4.  Re-enable all your 3rd party extensions.
      5. Re-enable your 'Remember me' Plugin.
      6. Move your active site to a subfolder
      7. Move the upgraded site to your website root (edit the paths in the configuration.php and .htaccess if necessary).

 

 

Other information

 

There are manual methods to upgrade from Joomla 1.6.0 onwards but if the above methods do not work then you will probably need to examine your server setup.