Upgrade Joomla 2.5.28 to Joomla 3.5.1/3.10.11 today? Topic is solved

[lavag2]

Sorry, I know this is a repeating subject but things have changed and I have a problem today with this.

The common recipe does not work. I mean, using: Components > Joomla Update, then set "Short Term Support" and then see Joomla 3.5.1 appear. It does NOT today. I only get "You already have the latest Joomla! version, 2.5.28".

My site is old and now PHP5.6 is beeing removed from my hosting provider. I must use PHP7.4 and my expensive theme supports only Joomla 3.x. So I plan on 3.5.1 og 3.10.11

So my question is simply, what upgrade method should I use?

I have found some hints like:
https://docs.joomla.org/Joomla_2.5_to_3 ... _Migration
BUT not for me as I get no "update was found"

Maybe this?
https://docs.joomla.org/Special:MyLangu ... ll_Method)

Get some tool to do it?
https://extensions.joomla.org/category/ ... onversion/

How about manually file copy? I have linux command shell access to server.

[sozzled]

This will take a while. J! 2.5.28 was released on 31 December 2014 (nearly 8 years ago) and needs PHP 5.6 to work; you need PHP 5.6 to update to J! 3.x. If you do not have access to PHP 5.6 you cannot update J! 2.5.28.

The references—the "hints" you found—are outdated and unreliable.

J! 2.5.28 can be updated to J! 3.x but it will take time; the update procedure can be run in a small amount of time (about an hour or two) but you will almost certainly not be able to use the site template you were using with that version. You are correct in writing that updating to J! 3.10.x must be done in several stages.

The solution:

1) Make sure upload_max_filesize = 64M and post_max_size = 128M.
2) Download the J! 3.4.8 installation package to your PC.
3) Use the Extension Manager » Upload Package File and enter the location of the J! 3.4.8 installation in the text box.
4) Click Install. You will be logged out when the installation is completed.
5) Login to the backend again. Go to Extensions » Manage » Update.
6) Click Clear Cache (top left of screen)
7) Now you can go to Components » Joomla! Update and you will see that J! 3.6.5 is the next available version.
8) Update to J! 3.6.5.
9) Then go to Components » Joomla! Update again, click Clear Cache (top left of screen), and you should see that J! 3.10.11 is the next available version.
10) Update to J! 3.10.11.
11) You can now use PHP 7.4.

This solution is not foolproof.

[lavag2]

Thank you so much for prompt and good reply. I will try it as soon as possible. First I'll do some good backups.

I did not know you could use "Extension Manager » Upload Package File" for system updates. Looks somewhat like info in my link number two.

Is there a reason you picked 3.4.8 and not 3.5.1 ?

I don't have access to that php.ini file at my ISP host provider. But cPanel 106.0.9. have this PHP Selector Options where I can change these two setting myself.

[sozzled]

Is there a reason you picked 3.4.8 and not 3.5.1 ?

Yes, there is a reason I chose that.

It works.

You cannot go from J! 2.5.28 to J! 3.5.1 in one step; you need to update to J! 3.4.8 first and then update to J! 3.6.5 and then update to J! 3.10.11.

[lavag2]

Thank you so much again for prompt and good reply.
I have cleaned up and made my backups. Then checked some on template, components and hosting.
The tip on 3.4.8 and not 3.5.1 looks very good.

[lavag2]

Quite a thrilling day! I think I made it in the last of the last steps.
It went like this:
- starting with PHP5.6, Joomla2.5.28 and a very fancy template version 3.0.0.
- my template is said to work on 2.5 and 3.x. Producers said it was ok on J3.10.11 but I needed the latest versjon 3.0.2. So I had to buy it all over again. ok.
- upgrade of template and one critical related plugin went ok
- then I discovered that you had linked to a Full-package and not Update-package 3.4.8. I got insecure. A mistype?
- anyway, I had my backups and did the J3.4.8 Full install package. It went fine.
- then clear cache and one click update to 3.6.5. It went fine.
- then I wanted to have a peek, so I changed to PHP7.4. No good: I got the white page of death. Nothing displayed! This J3.6.5 is supposed to work with PHP7x...
- so I wanted to get J3.10.11 but it did not show up. There is no option of source equal "Short Term Support". But one more clean cache and I got 3.10.10 in available updates. So I did that oneclick update. It went fine.
- but this is not latest 3x so again I looked and I got the option of 3.10.11. good. I did that oneclick update. It went fine.
- now I had the latest joomla. my template will not go further to 4x so it better work.
- so I changed to PHP7.4 and voila, it did! my pages are on PHP7.4, J3.10.11 and the fancy template is working.

Thank you again for valuable help.

[Per Yngve Berg]

I did not know you could use "Extension Manager » Upload Package File" for system updates. Looks somewhat like info in my link number two.

Is there a reason you picked 3.4.8 and not 3.5.1 ?

3.4.x is the last version you can use the Extension Manager to install with. Later versions need the Joomla Update Component.