Downloading 4.7.3 - upgrade issues

[PiotrR]

My community is running on old version, 4.4.10. I am currently performing test upgrade to latest and running into multiple issues. I suspect a overdue upgrade and forced php 8 upgrade at the same are part of the problem. I would like to perform a staggered upgrade, going first to 4.7.3 (the last supporting PHP 7.4), then isolate the PHP8 issues and perform second upgrade to latest. I would need to access the 4.7.3 installation pack which I don't seem to find in the client area- which apparently only allows latest.

[Randy Calvert]

IPS does not make older versions of the software available. If you’ve not previously downloaded it, you can only upgrade to the latest version. 

[Marc]

There is no way in which to do what you are looking to do there unfortunately. As mentioned, we provide only the latest release of the software. I would advise doing the following

1. Backup fully
2. Disable all applications. plugins, and ensure you are on a default theme
3. Switch to PHP 8, and ensure you meet all requirements https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7046-invision-community-requirements-checker/
4. Upload a fresh set of files from your client area
5. Run the upgrader to get to the latest release
6. Upgrade any 3rd party items you have that are showing as needing updates, and address any which are showing incompatible with PHP 8 in the admin CP

[MNOfficial]

34 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

There is no way in which to do what you are looking to do there unfortunately. As mentioned, we provide only the latest release of the software. I would advise doing the following

1. Backup fully
2. Disable all applications. plugins, and ensure you are on a default theme
3. Switch to PHP 8, and ensure you meet all requirements https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7046-invision-community-requirements-checker/
4. Upload a fresh set of files from your client area
5. Run the upgrader to get to the latest release
6. Upgrade any 3rd party items you have that are showing as needing updates, and address any which are showing incompatible with PHP 8 in the admin CP

👍🏻 Yeah. I've got to do [some] of this... but my last experience was a bit scary, and I hate change haha.

[Marc]

21 minutes ago, MNOfficial said:

👍🏻 Yeah. I've got to do [some] of this... but my last experience was a bit scary, and I hate change haha.

In all honesty, leaving the upgrades for such a length of time will make for a scarier experience. There is simpy more to do, as you have seen here.

[MNOfficial]

On 12/21/2022 at 10:46 AM, Marc Stridgen said:

In all honesty, leaving the upgrades for such a length of time will make for a scarier experience. There is simpy more to do, as you have seen here.

HAha. That I am aware of.

[MNOfficial]

On 12/21/2022 at 10:46 AM, Marc Stridgen said:

In all honesty, leaving the upgrades for such a length of time will make for a scarier experience. There is simpy more to do, as you have seen here.

Do you still recommend upgrading? Honestly, my forum has been slow-loading for quite some time, but I guess there is no guarantee upgrading will cause that to cease.

[Jim M]

8 minutes ago, MNOfficial said:

Do you still recommend upgrading? Honestly, my forum has been slow-loading for quite some time, but I guess there is no guarantee upgrading will cause that to cease.

If you're having any issues, it is best to be on the latest release so that we can support you. I'm afraid, in addition to what my colleague mention, we also do not support anything but the latest release.

However, with that said, performance can be a very tough thing to troubleshoot from a self-hosted perspective as a large part of it is hosting-specific. None-the-less, upgrading to the latest release will provide you with the best improvements which we have to date and we can then provide suggestions from there.

[MNOfficial]

53 minutes ago, Jim M said:

If you're having any issues, it is best to be on the latest release so that we can support you. I'm afraid, in addition to what my colleague mention, we also do not support anything but the latest release.

However, with that said, performance can be a very tough thing to troubleshoot from a self-hosted perspective as a large part of it is hosting-specific. None-the-less, upgrading to the latest release will provide you with the best improvements which we have to date and we can then provide suggestions from there.

True. Very true. It's just biting the bullet that is scary. Like I stated previously, the last major update I did was scary and left me with a bit of lasting whiplash!

[Jim M]

5 minutes ago, MNOfficial said:

True. Very true. It's just biting the bullet that is scary. Like I stated previously, the last major update I did was scary and left me with a bit of lasting whiplash!

Not to scare you but the more time you wait, the more releases are going to come out so might as well bite the bullet 🙂 . Just take a full backup (files and database) and disable all third party applications/plugins/themes. 

If you want to be extra cautious, you can perform a test upgrade on your licensed test URL. Alternatively, you can hire a third party provider if you do not feel comfortable pulling the trigger.

If something goes wrong, we can help you from a support perspective. 

[MNOfficial]

Just now, Jim M said:

Not to scare you but the more time you wait, the more releases are going to come out so might as well bite the bullet 🙂 . Just take a full backup (files and database) and disable all third party applications/plugins/themes. 

If you want to be extra cautious, you can perform a test upgrade on your licensed test URL. Alternatively, you can hire a third party provider if you do not feel comfortable pulling the trigger.

If something goes wrong, we can help you from a support perspective. 

Well, I have the backup my host has, and I upgraded my PHOP, and my site is immediately down. Cannot access it. I should've just not touched anything. ughhhh.

[Randy Calvert]

If you are upgrading from a version of IPB older than 4.7, when you upgraded to PHP8, it would have stopped working. That’s expected. Old versions of IPB don’t work on PHP8. 

You need to download the latest IPB files from the client area, upload them to your site and run the upgrader (domain.com/admin/upgrade) as noted earlier. 

[MNOfficial]

4 minutes ago, Randy Calvert said:

If you are upgrading from a version of IPB older than 4.7, when you upgraded to PHP8, it would have stopped working. That’s expected. Old versions of IPB don’t work on PHP8. 

You need to download the latest IPB files from the client area, upload them to your site and run the upgrader (domain.com/admin/upgrade) as noted earlier. 

Oh thank goodness returning to PHP 7.4 worked, haha. That was scary for a long minute. Pretty sure I'm on the release right before 4.5.4.2, as that's the first update warning I see. I could access my Admin CP under PHP 8.1, so could I upgrade to that and then run the upgrade via Admin CP for the latest IPS/IPB?

Sorry. I'm not the brightest person in the world. Ha. I'm surprised I even got IPS/IPB installed hahaha.

Also wish I knew how to run test upgrades. Gosh. Y'all must think I am pathetic.

[Jim M]

Upgrading from that long release, you will likely need to do a manual upgrade anyway because 4.5 is not compatible with PHP 8 and 4.7 is not compatible with PHP 7.4 so you're in a bit of a pickle.

What I would recommend

1. Turn your site offline.
2. Do a complete backup, files and database. Contact your host to ensure it's there and up to date when you turned your community offline so you don't lose any data/posts/etc... Not to be rude to hosting providers but seen a few clients get hosed so relying on your host sometimes can get you into trouble. 
3. Disable all third party applications and plugins. Switch to an unmodified theme.
4. Download files from the Client Area (don't upload yet).
5. Switch to PHP 8, check to ensure you have all modules enabled: https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7046-invision-community-requirements-checker/
6. The files you downloaded from the Client Area, extract those to your computer and upload the contents of the "ips_***" folder to your server, overwriting what is there.
7. Go to [your community's base url]/admin/upgrade . Run the upgrader.
8. Upgrade your third party applications, plugins, themes to be compatible with the Invision Community and PHP versions. Investigate these to ensure they are compatible with PHP 8 before you enable any. 
9. Check everything and open the community back up 🙂 .

[MNOfficial]

16 minutes ago, Jim M said:

Upgrading from that long release, you will likely need to do a manual upgrade anyway because 4.5 is not compatible with PHP 8 and 4.7 is not compatible with PHP 7.4 so you're in a bit of a pickle.

What I would recommend

1. Turn your site offline.
2. Do a complete backup, files and database. Contact your host to ensure it's there and up to date when you turned your community offline so you don't lose any data/posts/etc... Not to be rude to hosting providers but seen a few clients get hosed so relying on your host sometimes can get you into trouble. 
3. Disable all third party applications and plugins. Switch to an unmodified theme.
4. Download files from the Client Area (don't upload yet).
5. Switch to PHP 8, check to ensure you have all modules enabled: https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7046-invision-community-requirements-checker/
6. The files you downloaded from the Client Area, extract those to your computer and upload the contents of the "ips_***" folder to your server, overwriting what is there.
7. Go to [your community's base url]/admin/upgrade . Run the upgrader.
8. Upgrade your third party applications, plugins, themes to be compatible with the Invision Community and PHP versions. Investigate these to ensure they are compatible with PHP 8 before you enable any. 
9. Check everything and open the community back up 🙂 .

Why did I wait so long? Ugh. This is going to be painful, but I definitely have to begin looking into the process of upgrading at this point.

[teraßyte]

It might look scary but as long as you follow the steps mentioned above there shouldn't be too many issues. Hopefully none at all. Good luck with the upgrade. 🙂

 

And, as mentioned above, you can also hire a 3rd party provider if you need help. Here's the link just in case: https://invisioncommunity.com/third-party/providers/

Edited January 19, 2023 by teraßyte

[MNOfficial]

6 minutes ago, teraßyte said:

It might look scary but as long as you follow the steps mentioned above there shouldn't be too many issues. Hopefully none at all. Good luck with the upgrade. 🙂

 

And, as mentioned above, you can also hire a 3rd party provider if you need help. Here's the link just in case: https://invisioncommunity.com/third-party/providers/

I might just have to, because it is scary, hahahah.

[Randy Calvert]

It's always scary the first time.  But like riding a bike...  once you've done it, you become an old pro at it.  🙂 

(Yes...  I'm showing my age here apparently.)

Also...  if you keep up with upgrades going forward, it becomes MUUUUUUCH easier.  

Edited January 19, 2023 by Randy Calvert

[MNOfficial]

7 minutes ago, Randy Calvert said:

It's always scary the first time.  But like riding a bike...  once you've done it, you become an old pro at it.  🙂 

(Yes...  I'm showing my age here apparently.)

Also...  if you keep up with upgrades going forward, it becomes MUUUUUUCH easier.  

Yeah; I was pretty consistent in updating till the last one I did, and then that update caused my layout to break and I wasn't able to post anything on my board for one-month till someone pointed out how to fix it, hahaha. So that scared me.

[Randy Calvert]

You might just setup a test board then.  Use the same theme you have now, along with the same plugins, etc.  Upgrade it first just for a sense of comfort before upgrading your live site.  It will help you figure out if you're going to have problems before pulling the trigger.

I would also suggest learning how to take a full backup RIGHT before you start an upgrade.  That way if things go wrong, just restore and you're back in business with no loss of data.  

[MNOfficial]

2 minutes ago, Randy Calvert said:

You might just setup a test board then.  Use the same theme you have now, along with the same plugins, etc.  Upgrade it first just for a sense of comfort before upgrading your live site.  It will help you figure out if you're going to have problems before pulling the trigger.

I would also suggest learning how to take a full backup RIGHT before you start an upgrade.  That way if things go wrong, just restore and you're back in business with no loss of data.  

I'm going to sound super stupid, but how do I go about setting up a test site, then?

[Randy Calvert]

14 minutes ago, MNOfficial said:

I'm going to sound super stupid, but how do I go about setting up a test site, then?

It's not stupid at all.  What you would do is install the site in a different location (such as test.yourdomain.com).  Create a different mySQL database, username, password...  and upload all of the files into that location.  When you run the installer, call test.yourdomain.com (or www.yourdomain.com/test).  Enter the new blank database info for it.  For the license key, just enter your existing key plus "-TESTINSTALL" at the end.

Meaning if your key was 123456-789012345, you would enter 123456-789012345-TESTINSTALL as your key.  

See the following guide for details.  

 

Once it's installed, you have a new/vanilla IPB install.  Just install the same 3rd party resources, themes, etc.  You can use it to test things before doing it on your live site.  

[MNOfficial]

8 minutes ago, Randy Calvert said:

It's not stupid at all.  What you would do is install the site in a different location (such as test.yourdomain.com).  Create a different mySQL database, username, password...  and upload all of the files into that location.  When you run the installer, call test.yourdomain.com (or www.yourdomain.com/test).  Enter the new blank database info for it.  For the license key, just enter your existing key plus "-TESTINSTALL" at the end.

Meaning if your key was 123456-789012345, you would enter 123456-789012345-TESTINSTALL as your key.  

See the following guide for details.  

 

Once it's installed, you have a new/vanilla IPB install.  Just install the same 3rd party resources, themes, etc.  You can use it to test things before doing it on your live site.  

Thankfully, I have the domain I believe. Just need to set it up, I guess! I'll have to go in and see how it works out! Thank you for the assistance! 🙂 I'll have to test this out shortly, because it makes me wonder if this'll also determine if my site's speed is because of how outdated my IPS/IPB is.

[MNOfficial]

On 1/19/2023 at 2:17 PM, Jim M said:

Upgrading from that long release, you will likely need to do a manual upgrade anyway because 4.5 is not compatible with PHP 8 and 4.7 is not compatible with PHP 7.4 so you're in a bit of a pickle.

What I would recommend

1. Turn your site offline.
2. Do a complete backup, files and database. Contact your host to ensure it's there and up to date when you turned your community offline so you don't lose any data/posts/etc... Not to be rude to hosting providers but seen a few clients get hosed so relying on your host sometimes can get you into trouble. 
3. Disable all third party applications and plugins. Switch to an unmodified theme.
4. Download files from the Client Area (don't upload yet).
5. Switch to PHP 8, check to ensure you have all modules enabled: https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/7046-invision-community-requirements-checker/
6. The files you downloaded from the Client Area, extract those to your computer and upload the contents of the "ips_***" folder to your server, overwriting what is there.
7. Go to [your community's base url]/admin/upgrade . Run the upgrader.
8. Upgrade your third party applications, plugins, themes to be compatible with the Invision Community and PHP versions. Investigate these to ensure they are compatible with PHP 8 before you enable any. 
9. Check everything and open the community back up 🙂 .

So, I have two different back ups available: one directly from my host (GoDaddy.com) and one from my cPanel. I'm assuming my cPanel one is the one I should download, yes? And I'm confused about how to re-upload it if I don't enjoy the update!! Ugh. So many steps. Once updated, I'm never missing one again!

[teraßyte]

You're confusing the backup with the files of the new version. You can (and should) download a copy of the backup, but what you need to upload (#6) are the files of the new Invision Community version (downloaded from your IPS Client Area; #4).

Re-uploading the backup files is NOT what step #6 is about.