Recommended upgrade route from v.4.1 to 4.7

[#SPu#]

I have a community that hasn't received upgrades to the forum software for a while due to an extensive list of customizations to the board, and it sits currently in v.4.1 of IPS Community Suite.

What is the best method to upgrade it to the latest v.4.7 branch?

The server runs still PHP 7, so that needs to upgrade to PHP 8, and actually we're switching to a whole new server too at the same time.

Mainly, is v.4.1 PHP 8.1 compatible? Since this way I could first move to the new server (old upgrade old server to PHP8) and then upgrade IPS to latest version. Making it the other way around seems rather difficult...

[DawPi]

First question - do you want to keep your 4.1 customizations? It yes then the answer is - hold with the upgrade and work with a upgrade but of these customizations first!

[Miss_B]

44 minutes ago, #SPu# said:

Mainly, is v.4.1 PHP 8.1 compatible?

I don't think that Ipb 4.1. is compatible with php 8.x.

As mentioned by @DawPi above, if you have a lot of custom apps and/or themes installed, most likely they will not be compatible with php 8 either. You will have to either upgrade them first as adviced above to be php 8 compatible and then upgrade your forum, or you should uninstall them before you upgrade your forum and upgrade them afterwards, 

[#SPu#]

Yea, mods aren't the issue, I will remove all of them and work them from the ground up, since for sure they aren't compatible.

Just wondering if it's then easiest to do a full fresh install for files, copy the database (to the new server), and finally run upgrader? (is that the correct sequence ..I have upgraded other forum softwares a lot but not familiar with such large changes in IPS)

 

[Marc]

If you are removing all 3rd party items, then you would be best just to do this

1. Backup backup backup 🙂
2. Switch off your site
3. Move your server over to PHP 8 (yes, your site will break)
4. Run the requirement checker to ensure you arent missing anything
5. Upload a fresh set of files from your client area
6. Run the upgrader at /admin/upgrade