Need to Upgrade from 2.0 to 2.1.3

[Greyhound]

I use SMF for a fantasy league that I've run since 2012.  I have fallen behind on the upgrades, mainly because they stopped working in the package manager.  I have put this off for a number of years but it's time to upgrade. 

Reading through the instructions it says to use FTP or other tools your hosts CPANEL allows.  I use bluehost.  Does anyone have experience if you are able to just use the public html section on bluehost to upload all the files or do I need to download a FTP client to do this?  

I may have other questions but this is the first one. 

Thanks! 

[Diego Andrés]

You should be able to do so, just upload the large upgrade zip, and unzip in the root of the forum, should let you overwrite files and all that.
Make sure you backup your files and the database before attempting the upgrade.

[Greyhound]

Sounds good.  Do you feel the db backup from the forum is OK or should I download one from phpmyadmin? 

[Doug Heffernan]

if you are able to just use the public html section on bluehost to upload all the files

You should upload the files from the large 2.1.3. upgrade package inside whatever directory/folder your current forum files are at, overwriting them.

or do I need to download a FTP client to do this

That is the best way imo to do a large upgrade, to manually upload the files through a ftp program.

Additionally have a look at this link:

Upgrading SMF

Sounds good.  Do you feel the db backup from the forum is OK or should I download one from phpmyadmin?

That function has been removed in smf 2.1.x. That being said, it is better to use the backup function from the cpanel. If your database is medium size to big, it might result in ab incomplete backup if you back it up through phpmyadmin due to limits on file sizes that most hosts have.

[savo]

It's easier to use an ftp program because the File Manager in cpanel doesn't do drag and drop. But you would need to create an ftp account first, if you don't already have one.

[Greyhound]

Been a while since done this.  Is there a recommended FTP client? 

[Doug Heffernan]

Been a while since done this.  Is there a recommended FTP client?

Personally I use WinSCP and I am happy with it. You can check it out here.

https://winscp.net/eng/index.php

[savo]

Same, I use WinSCP also.

[a10]

...do not, ever, use \ trust the forum's built-in db backup 

Use phpMyAdmin, export.

[Illori]

...do not, ever, use \ trust the forum's built-in db backup 

Use phpMyAdmin, export.

it no longer exists in SMF 2.1.

[a10]

^^^ and thanks for that (if it would have been as useless as in 2.0.)

OP was asking about how to safeguard before upgrading. Should be emphasized to everyone, in big red letters, to never rely on any db backups done with 2.0.

[Greyhound]

Started the upgrade.  I now have a problem.   I transferred the files.  When I went to the .upgrade.php file I get the below error: 

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

My forum is now not populating.   

Any idea what I did wrong? 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Are you using 2.1.2 or 2.1.3 upgrade package?

[Greyhound]

2.1.3

[Sir Osis of Liver]

You started with a working 2.0 install, unzipped the 2.1.3 package, uploaded all files to forum root, linked directly to upgrade.php, and you get that error?  Upgrade doesn't run at all?

[Greyhound]

Started with 2.0, unzipped the 2.1.3 package and transferred the files to the forum directory overwriting the old files.   Once transfer was complete I went to url in the my browser to .php file and got the above message.  

Like I mentioned, now the forum doesn't populate at all.  I'm assuming something didn't transfer properly?  

[Greyhound]

One thing I noticed is there are two index.php and SSI.php files.  Looks like the old ones didn't overwrite or it left them with squiggly - next to them. 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Not sure what you mean by "doesn't populate".  You should be able to see if the files uploaded successfully.  The upgrader converts your existing 2.0 database to 2.1 structure.  If you uploaded the 2.1 install package instead of upgrade package, Settings.php has been overwritten with a scratch file, upgrader won't be able to connect to database.  You're getting a server error.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

One thing I noticed is there are two index.php and SSI.php files.  Looks like the old ones didn't overwrite or it left them with squiggly - next to them.

The files with a .php~ extension were left by mod installs, they don't affect the upgrade.

[Greyhound]

I used the upgrade package.

What I mean by won't populate is the website won't come up in the browser url.  I can see the files in cpanel.

I guess I'm not sure why the upgrader can't connect to the database?  All I did was transfer the files.