Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Need help upgrading your Joomla! website or converting to Joomla! 3.x?

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Webdongle » Sat Aug 08, 2015 11:43 am

Try upgrading incrementally via the Extension manager http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/ (create an account and log in to see all the previous releases). Also use the full package zip instead of the update zip ... that sometimes helps.
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by boldee101 » Sun Nov 15, 2015 3:53 pm

I have followed this guide to the letter, I have removed all extensions/plugins with even a hint on incomparability leaving me with only two, I have JCE Editor and Kunena Forum both reporting they are the latest version and compatible.

My site has been copied so no problems can effect my live site, my problem is that after upgrade I just get a blank page, I have seen no solution or I have missed it although it has been reported by others.

What am I missing?

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by ribo » Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:47 pm

boldee101 wrote:I have followed this guide to the letter, I have removed all extensions/plugins with even a hint on incomparability leaving me with only two, I have JCE Editor and Kunena Forum both reporting they are the latest version and compatible.

My site has been copied so no problems can effect my live site, my problem is that after upgrade I just get a blank page, I have seen no solution or I have missed it although it has been reported by others.

What am I missing?
you must put error reporting to maximum to see the error of the blank page
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Webdongle » Sun Nov 15, 2015 4:50 pm

boldee101 wrote:... my problem is that after upgrade I just get a blank page, ...
Did you set a standard Joomla Template as default before upgrading ?
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by boldee101 » Sun Nov 15, 2015 5:13 pm

No I didn't but I did read that in you're signature link so I will try that, is that in the original guide because I can't remember seeing it, bet I missed it for all my meticulous reading doh.

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Webdongle » Sun Nov 15, 2015 5:54 pm

The original guide is the first post in this thread http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=710&t=793171 . Leo's post is the official guide and very comprehensive. The guides on my site are just emphasise/hi-light parts of the process and/or give alternatives if a user is having problems.
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https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by boldee101 » Sun Nov 15, 2015 8:36 pm

None the less very useful :)

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by sea-horse2 » Sun Nov 22, 2015 11:53 am

after pressing Update to Joomla 3 I get:

Code: Select all

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/masalefa/domains/taleshefarda.ir/public_html/libraries/joomla/database/database/mysql.php on line 375
and these on some other backend pages:

Code: Select all

JHtmlBehavior: :tabstate not supported.

Code: Select all

public_html/administrator/components/com_joomlaupdate/controller.php on line 35
I installed a fresh copy, my installation was problematic I guess.

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by boldee101 » Fri Nov 27, 2015 9:23 pm

Well I finally managed to get my site migrated but I do have one issue and that is my backend is all messed up and not formatting properly, I have isis as the default template as it should be. The front end is fine using Beez as suggested all the content is there, even my Kunena forum still works.

I deleted all of my modules/components/plugins just leaving Kunena, I also checked for and deleted any unwanted files and folders and also deleted redundant tables in the database, I am unsure on how to proceed to get the backend formatted properly so any advice is very welcome.

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by boldee101 » Fri Nov 27, 2015 9:50 pm

Ah never mind I fixed it I just unistalled the bluestork admin template left over from Joomla 2.5, I noticed in the source code that Joomla was still trying to load it instead of Isis.

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by havelovea18 » Wed Dec 16, 2015 8:44 am

Thank you for this guide

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by leolam » Fri Jan 01, 2016 6:08 pm

You are welcome

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by ultimezabdul » Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:47 am

Thanks leolam for posting this info.
Last edited by toivo on Mon Jan 18, 2016 12:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by leolam » Mon Jan 18, 2016 2:33 pm

ultimezabdul wrote:Thanks leolam for posting this info.
You are welcome

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by bbdoc » Thu Jan 28, 2016 10:33 am

Hi guys,

After upgrading my website from Joomla 2.5 to latest 3.4 version, I'm getting the same kind of errors people are having on this subject. HTTP 500 both on the public site and in the Admin interface. I still can access the Admin but most submenus are not working, returning an HTTP 500.

From reading the previous posts, I would guess one of my components is not supported under Joomla 3.x but I don't know which one, and most importantly, the componenent management page under my Admin is one of those returning an HTTP 500, so I don't even know how to disable components.

Is there any way I can disable components and start reinstalling them one by one in order to see which ones is causing the issue ? From the DB or SSH ? is there a way I could identify potential faulty components without disabling them all ?

Is there maybe a way to get advanced logs in order to see which components have been called and happened to return an error, so I could try disabling those ?

Thanks in advance

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Webdongle » Thu Jan 28, 2016 11:48 am

bbdoc wrote:....
Is there any way I can disable components and start reinstalling them one by one in order to see which ones is causing the issue ? From the DB...
Yes ... make a backup of your database
#__extensions Table >>> enabled field set 0(zero)

Suggest you disable all 3rd party extensions then enable one by one as it's quicker than turning one off then back on again to test with another.
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by bbdoc » Thu Jan 28, 2016 12:38 pm

Webdongle wrote:
bbdoc wrote:....
Is there any way I can disable components and start reinstalling them one by one in order to see which ones is causing the issue ? From the DB...
Yes ... make a backup of your database
#__extensions Table >>> enabled field set 0(zero)

Suggest you disable all 3rd party extensions then enable one by one as it's quicker than turning one off then back on again to test with another.
OK thanks... Looks like it's a bit more complicated than that unfortunately. I disabled all components and started reenabling them one by one testing on one page in the Admin. Found out 2 that were problematic, but then realized that another Admin page still had this 500 error even with those 2 disabled... so globally, this HTTP 500 error is generated by different components depending on the Admin page.

Maybe another question: If I restart from a fresh install, is there any way I can recover my main data (articles, menu, users, ...) from a DB backup ? If yes, which table should I take over ?

Thanks

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Webdongle » Thu Jan 28, 2016 5:45 pm

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions ... port/j2xml (it is 3.x as well) there are others. If you can get your Admin working enough to import and use the extension then you can export Categories/Articles/users to import into a fresh Joomla

Suggest you use Xampp (or Mamp on a mac) to create a localhost ... you can experiment more easily then.
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by MahaSaraswati » Fri Jan 29, 2016 7:08 pm

Webdongle wrote:http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions ... port/j2xml (it is 3.x as well) there are others. If you can get your Admin working enough to import and use the extension then you can export Categories/Articles/users to import into a fresh Joomla

Suggest you use Xampp (or Mamp on a mac) to create a localhost ... you can experiment more easily then.

Hi! I've successfully installed J2XML but am not sure what I'm supposed to enter for:
Title
Server
Username
Password
AND I have no idea what steps to take to export and import - do I install on the NEW site, or the OLD site, or both? Then do I export from the old site and import to the new site? Or do I only need to install J2XML on the new site and import from there?

This extension was recommended by @leolam, but has no documentation whatsoever.
Please HELP!

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by leolam » Tue Mar 15, 2016 2:29 pm

MahaSaraswati wrote: Hi! I've successfully installed J2XML but am not sure what I'm supposed to enter for:
Title
Server
Username
Password
AND I have no idea what steps to take to export and import - do I install on the NEW site, or the OLD site, or both? Then do I export from the old site and import to the new site? Or do I only need to install J2XML on the new site and import from there?

This extension was recommended by @leolam, but has no documentation whatsoever.
Well Google is your best friend for sure. So use it https://www.google.com/search?q=J2XML+documentation

and see a multitude of articles and video's on 'howto' and yes you need to insert it on J25 and J3 (how would you otherwise import the J2XML data?)

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to 3.x - Admin Menus

Post by LawsonP » Thu Mar 17, 2016 10:42 pm

How to I get my Joomla 2.5.28 administrative back-end menus to match what the tutorials are telling me should be there?

Before I make the jump from 2.5.28 to 3.x, I have some anomalies related to my admin menus on the back end. Many of them don't exist as explained in the tutorials about making the upgrade.

For instance, there is no Joomla Update under the Component menu. Updates are done in the Extension Manager. There are other items I'll list below as well.

There are no places to change my Long Term Release (LTS) to STS.

Background. My website is hosted on GoDaddy. When I started this process my website was still at 1.6.1. I was able to move that up to 1.7.5 and then to 2.5.26 through the Installatron app that GoDaddy runs. I was never able to get to 2.5.28 in the Installatron. I had to make the 2.5.26 to 2.5.27 and the 2.5.27 to 2.5.28 updates manually using the Extension Manager/Install menu.

I have cleared the caches and also clicked on updates and Joomla says there are no updates to my version 2.5.28. The same is true in the Installatron from GoDaddy. Even though they go to 3.x versions of Joomla.

I tried to use phpMyAdmin to fix the Component menu issue. I change the #_menu to jos_menu. I replaced the # with jos in both instances. I ended up with an error #1146 - Table 'outxxxxxxxxxxx.jos_menu' doesn't exist. I stopped pursuing that menu item when I realized there were other settings that I didn't have in my Administrative interface.

I'll leave the questions there for now and see what answers I get. I have backed up the public.html folder and the databases each time I made it to a new version, so I have all my backups. My template is already 3.x comparable and I only have one other extension added Fancy Bookmarks with Google +1. Module version 8.1 and Plugin version 3.1.

Can I just manually do the update and skip all the prep and assume that all this will be fixed in the upgrade? I can revert easily. Just looking for a plan of attack. I have cleared all caches and updates and such. I just don't know where I lost the Admin backend upgrades. They didn't happen for some reason. Thanks.

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by ribo » Thu Mar 17, 2016 11:03 pm

Before every update or migrate, we create a back up, to restore it if something goes wrong. Now if an update failed the most possible is that something is wrong with our server. About migrate, many things can be the reason for a failed migrate and these are written in the guide of @leolam
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by debiky » Thu Jul 14, 2016 12:29 am

How do you tell from the Joomla extension directory whether an extension is 3.x compatible?

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by pe7er » Thu Jul 14, 2016 5:58 am

debiky wrote:How do you tell from the Joomla extension directory whether an extension is 3.x compatible?
All extensions currently listed at JED should be compatible with Joomla 3.x.

If the description on the right side says "Compatibility: 3", then it's compatible with Joomla 3.x.
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Noob13 » Tue Jul 19, 2016 3:00 pm

OK, my hosting company changed their mind and decided that they DO have the necessary servers, databases, and software to support Joomla 3.x so I am proceeding with the migration from 2.5.28.

I think I'm going to uninstall pretty much anything (modules, plug-ins, etc) that isn't essential before attempting the migration again after what happened last time (I had to get the hosting company to restore the website because Joomla administrator was inaccessible and Akeeba Kickstart wouldn't function).

Have downloaded all the 3.x versions of components, plugins etc so I have them ready after the migration. I'm going to have to take the entire site offline though to disable/uninstall anything that might interfere with the migration as this process will seriously affect the website's functionality (sliders, document uploaders/viewers, slideshows, etc.)

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Webdongle » Tue Jul 19, 2016 7:12 pm

The problem with some 2.5/3.6 compatible extensions 3rd party extensions is that they use different install files. Even when a 2.5/3.6 compatible extension uses the same zip is that some will detect the version of Joomla and install the files accordingly. One way to avoid 3rd party extension files corrupting the update is to update the database and 3rd party extension files separately.
  • Update the database with files from a fresh Joomla 2.5.28 install
    Install the 3rd party extensions into a fresh Joomla 3.6.0 install
    Then connect the 3.6.0 Joomla and 3rd party extension files to the updated database.

You might consider installing xampp on your PC (mamp on a mac) and performing the migration locally. That way you can try an alternative method of migrating.
  1. Install a fresh Joomla 2.5.28
  2. Create a new database and export/import the data from the database of your live site
  3. Edit the configuration.php (of the fresh 2.5.28 install) to use the new data.
  4. Go to the Joomla update component and run the update
    This allows you to update the database with fresh Joomla files without files from 3rd party extensions interfering with the process.
  5. Install a fresh Joomla 3.6.0 in a separate folder to an empty database
  6. Install your 3rd party extensions into the fresh 3.6.0
    This creates the 3.6.0 Joomla and 3rd party extension files
  7. Edit the configuration.php (of the fresh 3.6.0 install) to connect to the updated database (that has your sites data)
    This connects the 3.6.0 Joomla and 3rd party extension files to the updated database (that has your sites data)
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Noob13 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 2:11 pm

I am unable to disable the "System - Remember Me" plug-in as per step 5 of Leo's guide.

Is it safe to attempt the migration?! I have already taken the website offline and already disabled or uninstalled all other non-Joomla 3 compatible components. Website functionality is now heavily compromised without these modules/extensions/plug-ins so I cannot go back!

The error message I receive is "Edit state is not permitted"

Please help!

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Noob13 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 2:21 pm

I dont know how to do steps 2,3,5, and 7...

Webdongle wrote:The problem with some 2.5/3.6 compatible extensions 3rd party extensions is that they use different install files. Even when a 2.5/3.6 compatible extension uses the same zip is that some will detect the version of Joomla and install the files accordingly. One way to avoid 3rd party extension files corrupting the update is to update the database and 3rd party extension files separately.
  • Update the database with files from a fresh Joomla 2.5.28 install
    Install the 3rd party extensions into a fresh Joomla 3.6.0 install
    Then connect the 3.6.0 Joomla and 3rd party extension files to the updated database.

You might consider installing xampp on your PC (mamp on a mac) and performing the migration locally. That way you can try an alternative method of migrating.
  1. Install a fresh Joomla 2.5.28
  2. Create a new database and export/import the data from the database of your live site
  3. Edit the configuration.php (of the fresh 2.5.28 install) to use the new data.
  4. Go to the Joomla update component and run the update
    This allows you to update the database with fresh Joomla files without files from 3rd party extensions interfering with the process.
  5. Install a fresh Joomla 3.6.0 in a separate folder to an empty database
  6. Install your 3rd party extensions into the fresh 3.6.0
    This creates the 3.6.0 Joomla and 3rd party extension files
  7. Edit the configuration.php (of the fresh 3.6.0 install) to connect to the updated database (that has your sites data)
    This connects the 3.6.0 Joomla and 3rd party extension files to the updated database (that has your sites data)

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Noob13 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 2:52 pm

Well, the migration failed for a second time and I have now lost access to the administrator page...again. :(

I must be doing something right because the last time it failed at 69.7%. This time it made it as far as 81.1% before crashing and locking me out.

Because I cannot access the administrator page I dont think I can use Akeeba to get the website back. So once again I am going to have to contact the hosting company to see whether they can restore it from a snapshot.

This migration is beyond me. I'm going to have to recommend that we budget for an IT person or continue to use 2.5.28 even though the site is being hacked regularly. Except as a non-profit we can't actually afford an IT person so I really don't know what we're going to do.

Thanks again for trying to help guys. Sorry I couldn't make it happen. :(

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Re: Practical Guide Upgrade Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x

Post by Webdongle » Mon Jul 25, 2016 5:21 pm

Try setting up a localhost on your computer and restore your back there ... then update
http://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/
https://www.weblinksonline.co.uk/updating-joomla.html
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