Backing Up Files Before Upgrade

  • Resolved missadventures

    (@missadventures)


    17 years ago

    Hi there,

    I tried upgrading a long time ago and lost all my files. But, as I currently have 2.0.1 and am encountering themes and syntax that doesn’t work, I’m looking to try upgrading again.

    I’m reading the upgrade codex more carefully this time, and I wanted to get clarification on backing up files.

    In the three-step upgrade, there’s this note:

    NOTE The wp-content folder requires special handling, as do the plugins and themes folders. You must copy over the contents of these folders, not the entire folder. Copying the entire folder overwrites all your customizations and added content.

    What does it MEAN to copy over the contents of the folders, not the entire folder? Does this mean that I need to go into each file, copy&paste text, or what? Shouldn’t the files be the same? If not, then what specific files should I copy over contents?

    If anyone has a clearer answer than what is in the codex, I’d appreciate it.

    Thanks!
    Melanie

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • moshu

    (@moshu)

    As it happens often, the Codex is written by people who doesn’t take into account the non-technical users…

    Here is the plain version of it.
    From your earlier WP installation you have your themes and plugins + uploaded files in your wp-content directory. And you DO NOT WANT TO OVERWRITE them…

    What I do: I never delete and never upload the wp-content folder during an upgrade.

    What I do after I’ve uploaded the
    wp-admin folder
    wp-includes folder
    + all the files in the WP root

    I check the new wp-content folder on my computer and from there I upload only what is necessary:
    the akismet plugin into wp-content/plugins in order to get the newest version
    the default and classic into the wp-content/themes folder to have at least 2 themes that work with the latest WP.

    Basically, that’s all.

    Note. Most likely, some plugins and themes will NOT work when you upgrade from 2.0.x legacy branch to the latest 2.3.3 – so you will have to update them.

    Thread Starter missadventures

    (@missadventures)

    OMG! I can’t believe it – that worked! Oh happy day!

    It appears that everything is working well now, so I think I’ll go try to upgrade my other blog, too.

    Only problem, though, is that I can’t get Akismet to work anymore. I realize I probably need to install a newer version but I can’t get a new WP.com API key. The problem? I live in Turkey and WordPress.com is BANNED! So, do you know any way around that quagmire?

    Other than that, this problem is resolved. Thanks for your help, Moshu!

    P.S. The Upgrade Codex should be amended with your advice. Perhaps they can change it to:

    NOTE DO NOT DELETE the wp-content folder. It requires special handling, as do the plugins and themes subfolders. You may wish to copy over individual files (e.g., /wp-contents/plugins/akismet.php) in order to have the newest version of a plugin or theme.

    Thread Starter missadventures

    (@missadventures)

    Uh oh…I spoke too soon. Last night, I was able to get to my admin panel. But when I went to the admin page today I got the message that I needed to upgrade my database. After I click on the link to upgrade, it says “You’re database is already upgraded” and gives me a link…back to my blog homepage. It’s an unstoppable loop and I can’t get back to the admin page. Any ideas?

    Thanks!

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    Is this about the blog linked to your profile here?
    It also has some permalink issues: the internal links don’t work.

    I remember some similar cases (asking for upgrade again and again) – just can’t find what the solution was.
    It’s late here (CST) but I can take a look at it tomorrow morning, if you don’t fix it till then.

    (if you have already an API key you don’t need a “new” one)

    email me at transycan [dot] net

    Thread Starter missadventures

    (@missadventures)

    Thanks, Moshu.

    Actually…I figured this out myself. The previous link that I had bookmarked for my admin page was https://missadventures.com/blog/wp-admin/ but now I can access my dashboard at https://www.missadventures.com/wp-admin/. I don’t know why/how, but at some point my blog was in its own directory “*/blog/” but now it works in the root. I can see all internal links fine now. What about you?

    Would you suggest that I delete all WP files in the /blog/ directory now and/or do an upgrade like I did in the root, just to be safe?

    Thanks again for your advice!

    Melanie

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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