How I Upgraded To WordPress 2.5.1 Manually!

Praise God! I successfully upgraded at last. This morning, I decided to upgrade to WordPress 2.5.1 since I was advised by friends that it was necessary for security reason (that got me scared enough to change my prior decision. I do not want my blog hacked!).

Unfortunately, unlike my prior experience when upgrading from WordPress 2.3 to 2.5, the Automatic Upgrade Plug-in got stuck midway during the upgrading process ( I tried several time but got the same result). It gave the following error

“Could Not Initiate Maintenance Mode”

and then politely gave the following message

“Some problems did not allow us to upgrade your blog. You can email me the logs so that I can help debug your problem……”

That was it. I panicked and started Googling up and down to find possible solution to the error. Well, nothing positive turned up (it could be that I was entering wrong information into Google anyway, I was too tensed up). After wasting about 1hour 30minutes, I told myself it is time to try the manual upgrading that I have been dodging from. So I went back to wordpress.org and also read some posts by other bloggers on how to upgrade manually.

Eventually, I followed the following steps to upgrade manually.

  1. I backed up my WP blog database and downloaded the backup to my desktop.
  2. I backed up the following folders – wp-admin, wp-content and wp-includes ( I learned those are the essential folders that make WordPress tick.)
  3. I deactivated all plugins and activated Maintenance Mode Plugin (did you visit while it was up? I am sorry it stayed for more than 60minutes that I promised. I was battling under the hood all that while.)
  4. I uploaded the new WordPress 2.5.1 into a folder on my server (it was painfully slow, took about 60minutes because of my slow Internet Connection).
  5. I deleted Folder wp-admin and its entire content and copied the new wp-admin from the WordPress 2.5.1 into its postion.
  6. I deleted Folder wp-includes and its entire contents and copied the new wp-includes form WordPress 2.5.1 into its position.
  7. I transferred index-php file from the new WordPress 2.5.1 to overwrite the old one in Folder wp-content.
  8. I exited Smart FTP (the free FTP transfer software that I use).

That was supposed to be all. But guess what, when I entered my blog address into the browser, I was greeted with the Maintenance Mode message. Well, I knew I had to log in as admin and deactivate the plug-in. Unfortunately, when I tried to log in from the Maintenance Mode Page, it did not work. I almost panicked again. But then I remembered that I could log in from WordPress direct. So I tried that and I was told that my Database needed to be upgraded, I agreed to the upgrade and voila, the upgrade is successful 😉 .

I logged in successfully and reactivated my plug-ins. So far, everything is working fine. The whole affairs took over 3hours. Ignorance is quite expensive. Next time, I believe I will do better. I believe that I would have finished sooner if not for the fact that I was too tensed up because of fear. If you are yet to upgrade from WordPress 2.5, I encourage you to do so! Cheers.

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8 Responses to “How I Upgraded To WordPress 2.5.1 Manually!”

  1. Hi,

    You have got to see this – WOW!

    I found this new FULL INTERNET UPGRADE technology that is about to upgrade THE ENTIRE INTERNET to Web 2.0 standards and IT’S FREE! FULL Social Networking functionality on EVERY WEBSITE on the internet with a click of a button.

    This is going to change the entire Internet OVERNIGHT.

    Plus, they are giving away ONE MILLION DOLLARS to spread the word about it – and you can get a share for helping – NO COST!

    Check it out at:
    http://www.www2upgrade.com/2912uba

    Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.

    Thanks,
    Benjamin Okpala

  2. Thanks for sharing your experience – this upgrade issue caused me so much stress that my site was down for over 2 weeks. Thank God I am back and I will surely note these steps you’ve cleverly outlined above.

    Once again, thanks for sharing

  3. Nigerian Entreprenuer says:

    [re=174]Benjamin Okpala[/re]:
    I checked the out the link it was looking funny. Like one of those get rich quick packages. I advise you not to take it serious.

    [re=175]Olanrewaju O LEWIS[/re]:
    Hi, Lewis. Nice to have you around. I checked your blog and it is up and running. Thanks be to God that the problem with the blog has been corrected. Cheers 😉

  4. Lady Rose says:

    I have not had the nerve yet – I’m so befuddled by anything with computers or technology- nothing works for me. I know I have to do it though (shaking in my boots) – thanks for this post I will print out your step by step, pray and go for it this weekend.

  5. tyna says:

    I upgraded my blog too,but i ended up losing every content i had ,well i have started afresh never to upgrade in a hurry again.Good job you are doing here i got to know your site through nigeriabestforum.com.

    tynas last blog post..Be Happy…

  6. NaijaEcash says:

    [re=178]Lady Rose[/re]:
    I sent you a mail. I hope you got it.

    [re=183]tyna[/re]:
    Tyna, I am so sorry about your experience. That is an unfortunate one.
    However, I am happy that you did not give up. I visited your blog yesterday. Just keep at it, very soon you will have a more glorious site than you had before. Cheers.

  7. […] If you are still having issues with your upgrade, I suggest you try that method. Please, note this suggestion is for those who upgraded to WordPress 2.6.1 and are finding it difficult to edit previous post. Please, read my post WordPress 2.6.0 to 2.6.1 another upgrade headache to understand what I am talking about. This post is not a tutorial on manual upgrade. If that is what you need check How I Upgraded to WordPress 2.5.1 Manually. […]

  8. Steve kinikanwo Atako says:

    Hi nigeria best forum, i am a new member with your online website, please online partner”s my concern is on getting my account upgraded subsiquently on to me.

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