Update from version 1.8.3!

[wizard247]

OK, don’t bash me. I’ve got a very old X version running on one of my sites. Version 1.8.3!

Up until now it was still working marvellously well but PHP upgrades are forcing me to upgrade as it is not PHP7.x compatible.

How do I go about this? Where can I find the upgrade versions/steps to take?

Thanks,
Wizard247

[friech]

Hi Louise,

Thank you for writing in, we understand your site situation but please keep in mind that since a lot of things change from that version, not only with the Theme but to the plugins and the Wordpress itself, this will break a few things on your site (depends if you have customization). So my first advice is you set up a Staging server and clone your site, this way we can work through the Staging site (updating) while keeping your live site active.

How to Easily Create a Staging Site for WordPress (Step by Step)

After you successfully cloned your site, let us update the Wordpress. If you have a lot of outdated plugins, I would advise that you deactivate those first so we can avoid having a conflict between outdated plugins and updated Wordpress (Yes, X - Shortcode plugin included)

Updating WordPress

Remember to clear all your caching features (plugin, server-side, CDN, and browser’s cache) after updating so that the code from the latest release is always in use. This will help you to avoid any potential errors. It would be better if you can deactivate all your caching features at this stage

After you successfully update the Wordpress, Next is to update the X theme, the current latest X theme is 7.1.1. The Automatic Update feature more likely will not work anymore with your version, so please follow the Manual Updates guide instead, see the following link there is an instruction there, also a link where you can download the latest X zip file.

Updating Your Themes and Plugins

After you successfully updated the X theme, we need to install the Cornerstone, with the latest X installed, installing the Cornerstone should be easy. On your admin dashboard navigate to X > Validation, you should see a notification prompting you to install and activate Cornerstone.

At this stage, you don’t need the X - Shortcode anymore, please delete it.

After you successfully update X and install Cornerstone, re-validate your X theme. This is to make sure that you can re-install the latest version of Extensions in the next step.

Product Validation

To update the Extensions to the latest versions that are supported by the latest X and Wordpress:

• Ensure your theme is validated so Extensions can be installed automatically
• Deactivate and delete the extensions, from the plugins panel.
• On the X > Validation > Extensions, locate and re-install the extensions that you need.
• Visit “Plugins” panel in your Dashboard to activate the newly installed version.

You can see all the latest compatible versions here.

After that update all your 3rd party plugins.

How to Properly Update WordPress Plugins (Step by Step)

Again, remember to clear all your caching features after updating.

Then activate your plugins one by one and see if something is causing an issue/error.

Let us know if you’re stuck in something, and we’ll be happy to provide you a guide.

After you can confirm that your updated site is working fine, then the last step is to migrate your Staging site (updated) to your live site (outdated).

Cornerstone / Content Builder - Migration

Let us know how it goes,
Cheers!