Updating Old EE Site

Forgive a bit of copy/paste, but:

First upgrade to the latest v2. Then to v3. And once you’re on v3 you can get v5 and go to it.

Both the last release of v2 and v3 are available on github (https://github.com/ExpressionEngine/ExpressionEngine).

https://github.com/ExpressionEngine/ExpressionEngine/releases/tag/2.10.1

https://github.com/ExpressionEngine/ExpressionEngine/releases/tag/3.5.17

See the v3 (https://docs.expressionengine.com/v3/installation/upgrade_from_2.x.html) and v5 (https://docs.expressionengine.com/latest/installation/updating.html#updating-manually) docs on upgrading. There’s also a good overview of the upgrade process if you need a quick refresher: https://expressionengine.com/blog/make-upgrades-easy-with-these-simple-tips.

The biggest factor in how long and how difficult it is are the third party add-ons. All of those must be upgraded going from v2 to v3 and many may need upgrading going from v3 to v5. You’ll want to get all of the versions you need collecting before proceeding with the upgrade.

It’s not difficult if you don’t have a ton of add-ons and all have v5 compatible versions.

I’ve done a few EE2-EE5 upgrades recently. Sometimes they aren’t simple - especially when you have plugins involved. And there are some quirks of EE I’ve found that can make the process a bumpier ride. Which 3rd Party Plugins/Modules etc. do you have on your EE3 setup?

Thanks so much These responses are very helpful. The site did not make use of extraneous plug-ins except that we imported an Access database that was substantial but not huge. That is the part of the site we are trying to preserve.

I will look into these links and get ready to do the upgrade. Wish me luck!

OK - so I have gotten as far as upgrading to 3.5.17 - and upgraded to PHP7 and have hit a few snags.

1. The root path to the themes folder is not connecting so the control panel css is not working.

2. There is a note that says this license is not registered - though the original site was a purchased license and now the CMS seems to be a free download with tech support a paid service. When I go to the Purchases page my license is there but I can’t find a place to download the license file so I can upload it to the site. I’m not sure how to proceed and/or if this is a source of the problem.

3. The live pages get a 500 internal server error. Though the css is not working in the control panel all the data/entries/custom fields appear to be showing - but no output on the live site.

I have followed the instructions but clearly I don’t have the correct path in one or more places. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If you go to this page: https://expressionengine.com/store/purchases When you click on Download for your purchase, it should give you a dropdown menu to download the licence, or the whole package.

If you’re going on to v5 don’t worry about the licensing warning though - unless it’s preventing you from doing anything?

Have you checked all the directory paths are correct in your config.php file? I’ve found that editing these through the CMS doesn’t always save them, so I have to edit manually on the server.

OK - well it may have been a caching thing, but the live site is working. Yay!

Now I just have to get the css to work in the dashboard and figure out the license issue - if there is one.

I went to https://expressionengine.com/store/purchases and I found the relevant license. The only options to download are the earlier versions. When I download the zip file there is no license file included. If I try to upgrade to the current version might this make the problem go away?

I have checked and double checked system/user/config/config.php and can’t find the error there. Am I looking at the right file?

I know am close to wrapping this up!!!

Yeah I would just continue to upgrade and the Licence issue should just go away anyway. To be honest, the same could be said of the Themes CSS too.

Backup the files and SQL database where you are (just in case) and proceed to update to v4 and then v5 if you think you’re clear to do so.

I have gotten some of the the updating done.

I had thought I had gotten up to version 5. I could log in. Everything looked fine in the control panel home page - but when I went to the edit list (which looked fine) and tried to open an existing entry it was not using the css.

I went back to the homepage, and there was now a message to run the updater again. So I scrolled down and used the updater button. A bunch of error messages began showing though it seemed to be continuing the updater. When it finished when I try to access the admin.php page I got this message:

> The updater folder is still present. Delete the folder at system/ee/updater to access the control panel. >

So I changed the name of the directory (in case I still needed it later) and then I got this message when I try to access the admin.php page:

> A PHP Error was encountered Severity: 2

Message: require_once(ee/installer/updater/EllisLab/ExpressionEngine/Updater/Service/Updater/RequirementsChecker.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory

Filename: ee/installer/controllers/wizard.php

Line Number: 356

Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required ‘/hermes/walnaweb09a/b2202/moo.oceancitylsmuseum/cms2019/system/ee/installer/updater/EllisLab/ExpressionEngine/Updater/Service/Updater/RequirementsChecker.php’ (include_path=’.:/usr/local/lib/php-7.0.15-precise/lib/php’) in /hermes/walnaweb09a/b2202/moo.oceancitylsmuseum/cms2019/system/ee/installer/controllers/wizard.php on line 356

>

I am stumped. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

That sounds to me like the latest Update you did didn’t finish it’s run. Can you go back a step and try again.

On another note, is your server running the correct required versions of PHP and MySQL? Have you correctly set all the file permissions too, as per the installation instructions? Also, double check you have every single EE file correctly uploaded in all the directories (I’ve run into this problem numerous times before).

Hi, I’m running an old EE site, using v3.5.17. It has been working fine for four years, but suddenly it’s not connecting to the main PHP. I thought it might be an incompatibility with my host’s PHP, which updates every now and then. However, I see that it’s running PHP 7.2, which should be compatible. But it’s not connecting. Thoughts?

Are you able to manually roll-back your PHP version on your hosting platform? Or do they force you to use 7.2?

I can choose between 7.2 CGI, 7.2 FastCGI, 7.3 CHI, 7.3 FastCGI, 7.4 CGI, 7.4 FastCGI, 8.0 CGI, and 8.0 FastCGI.

My host’s tech support can manually override this to another version. They currently have me on 7.1. Ideally, what should it be to get 3.5.17 working? Then I can troubleshoot based on what it SHOULD be.

Thanks!

I’ve just looked at the few v3 EE sites I have (mostly they’re on v5 these days) and they’re all running PHP5.6. I’ve had issues in the past with using PHP7 on any EE installs older than v4, so maybe try switching back to PHP5.6. Or upgrade your EE install to v5?

I’ve reverted back to PHP v5.6, yet the problem is the same—a 404:

 Not Found
 The requested URL was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

This is the same issue I had with 7.1 and 7.2. For some reason, my EE (renamed) index.php, plus every page after [index.php] in a URL, is not being accessed.

Again, this was working fine a couple weeks ago, and then suddenly it wasn’t working. I only suspected PHP might have something to do with it since my host updates versions from time to time, but perhaps it’s not a PHP version issue at all. Anyone have the same issue where all files within EE are not being found/accessed?