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Upgrade Guide

Jake Bunce

Well-known member
This is a guide for upgrading your xenForo forum.

It is important to note that you can break your forum if you mess up the upgrade. If you don't feel confident running the upgrade yourself then you might consider paying some one else to do it, or setup a test environment where you can learn the process without risking your live forum.

Preparation

Backup

Always make a backup before you upgrade. You don't want to get into a situation where something goes wrong with the upgrade and you don't have a backup. Manually repairing botched upgrades is not fun.

Also, make sure you are able to restore the backup in the event that it is needed. A backup does you little good if you can't use it. For example, large backups often require shell access to restore.

Do A Test Upgrade

An upgrade can sometimes break custom styles and addons. You can do a test upgrade to identify and sort out these problems before upgrading your live forum. Doing a test upgrade requires that you duplicate your forum database and files. Then you can run the upgrade on the duplicate forum.

Running The Upgrade

Step 1) Download xenForo

Login to the customer area and download the xenForo zip file:

http://xenforo.com/customers/

Make sure Download the upgrade package only is checked. This option omits the data and internal_data directories to ensure you don't accidentally overwrite those directories when uploading the files:

download1.webp

Save the zip file to your desktop. Unzip the file. Find the upload folder inside.

Step 2) Upload The Files

The normal upload method is FTP. Your web host will provide you with a FTP login which you can enter into a FTP client. If you don't have a FTP client then I recommend FileZilla:

http://filezilla-project.org/
> http://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=client

I will use FileZilla for this guide.

Enter your FTP info (provided by your host) into the FileZilla window:

filezilla1.webp

Then click Quickconnect. If the connection is successful then you will see files listed on the right side for the Remote site:

filezilla2.webp

Now use the Remote site window to navigate to your xenForo directory. In my case xenForo is installed at public_html/community:

filezilla3.webp

Now you need to open the aforementioned upload folder on your computer using the Local site window on the left. Select all files from inside the upload folder and drag them onto the Remote site window on the right:

filezilla4.webp

You will be prompted to overwrite the existing files.

filezilla5.webp

Now you will see FileZilla uploading the files. This can take 5-10 minutes:

filezilla6.webp

Step 3) Run The Upgrade Script

Load the install URL in your web browser. For example:

http://www.yoursite.com/community/install/

It should automatically direct you to the upgrade system. You will be asked to login using your admin account (unless you are already logged in):

upgrade1.webp

Next you will see the following screen where you need to click Begin Upgrade:

upgrade2.webp

It will run the upgrade and then take you to this screen when it's done:

upgrade3.webp

Click Enter your control panel and you are done. The forum will be automatically turned back on now that the upgrade is finished.
 
It took you longer to write this than it takes most people to upgrade their site. This is NOT a dig on you or the people reading it - it's a compliment to XF and their software upgrade process.
 
Thorough guide Jake, I'm sure many will appreciate this and it's advice on good practice ( backups are worth they weight in kb for sure ), well done as usual.

Thanks for this.
 
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