Backup content from an old EE2.9 site
How Do I?
Our website is still running on EE2.9 but starting to have major issues and has over 100 add-ons. The process for updating to the latest EE is the same as building a new site. In order to do this we are looking at taking a copy of all content to ensure nothing gets lost. What is the best way to do this?
has over 100 add-ons
?
The process for updating to the latest EE is the same as building a new site.
What do you mean? You would not be building a new site just to upgrade. It sounds like refactoring might benefit you quite a bit, with that add-on load and issues though.
In order to do this we are looking at taking a copy of all content to ensure nothing gets lost. What is the best way to do this?
The best way would be to upgrade rather than build from scratch, but if you wanted to try on a new install, some have had success creating XML export templates of their content, and then importing it into ExpressionEngine with DataGrab.
Thanks Derek. We have been told by our support developer that with all the 3rd party add-ons and the very large size and scope of our website it will not be a simple upgrade and has advised against it.
Hence the reason to try and save all our content and look at our options.
“Not a simple upgrade” from software that is over 5/6 years old and three major versions apart is typical. I think the main challenge you have is how much content is locked up in add-ons. If you could provide a list, I’m sure some here can tell you what the big “gotchas” might be. If the content isn’t in channel entries and accessible with native tags, it may prove difficult exporting that content without help from the add-on developers.