Support » Fixing WordPress » Best way to upgrade to PHP 5.3 or 5.4

  • I have at least one client site that is still running PHP 5.2, but I’ve been seeing problems with other sites when their server upgraded to PHP 5.3+. In one case it was a Joomla site that went a bit crazy when the server did an automatic PHP update, so I’m concerned about what might happen with WordPress.

    I think I should upgrade the sites under my care to a higher version of PHP but I really want to avoid spending the next week (or month!) trying to put the site(s) back together if they crash.

    The one I’m most concerned about has a complex stack of plugins installed (I didn’t put it together, just maintaining it for the client), so I dread the thought of trying to piece it all back together if something goes wrong. The site is fully up to date with WordPress 3.9.1. She’s running 5.2 on her GoDaddy account but it seems I could upgrade her account to 5.3 or 5.4.

    Will her WordPress site break if I do that? What’s the best way to do this with the least amount of hassle and damage control?

    Thanks in advance for help with this.

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  • First: lessen your worries by making a backup of your website (files and database) before you change anything.

    Second, try installing your backup somewhere to get familiar with reinstalling a backup.

    Then update the server (php version etc) (I would make sure you can rollback that as well)

    Normally upgrading php version should not break your site, but there is no guarantee. (A plugin could be using an outdated function etc.)

    Thread Starter Evolvingdoor

    (@evolvingdoor)

    Hi Mike,

    Thanks very much for your reply. I am using a good plugin that backs up everything (database, pages, settings, plugins, etc) and I had figured to do that for sure. I just wasn’t sure if a different version of PHP would upload/import the files that were created in an older version of PHP correctly.

    I like your idea of doing a test install on a staging site. That way I could test it and see how well the import works.

    Thanks too for the suggestion to ensure I can roll it back if necessary. I’ll have to see if GoDaddy will even allow that.

    Many thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try to remember to report back how it goes and what I did that did/didn’t work, in case someone else could use the information.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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