Read before upgrading

Doing the upgrade in the low use part of the day or night would minimize any disruption to existing users. Your stats can best tell you where that is for all time zones concerned.

Data... is there a way to do a fresh install and just import the v3 database into our new v4 site? I'd prefer a fresh install of v4 as I have several mods and customizations on my v3 site that may cause issues. I'd like to avoid any mishaps or problems because as I stated in a previous thread my site is my entire income. I can't afford for it to go down.Also, if we pay phpfox for installation, is success guaranteed? Will phpfox staff backup our sites before they begin the install and fix anything that goes wrong? I'd really like to begin using v4 but I am afraid.

As posted in other threads, (please search before posting), no you can't do it that way without issues. Our founder, Raymond, said never to do it fresh and import. He said there can be issues later on that you might not see up front. We've already had clients have issues from doing that and no they are not supported at all due to that. You'll want to run the upgrade routine. V3 stuff would need to be disabled first, it's best to disable them. We don't do upgrades but I do them via my scripttechs.com site. Success is not guaranteed due to hosting and other factors. It is a 100% best effort to upgrade. In life, there are no guarantees that things don't go wrong. You can contact me at my site if you want any more info about my own upgrade service.

if i pay for install and it can not be completed will you or phpfox atleast return the site as it was? my biggest concern is my ability to live. i can't afford for my site to be down.

That is just a simple matter of making script and database backups before updating. That way, a failed install can be deleted and the original restored from the backup and the site would resume the same working order it always was.

this may sound crazy but i dont know how. i mean i know how to copy files off my ftp. but i have so much user data that would take forever. is there a simpler way? like through cpanel or whm maybe?

Cpanel has a backup feature but it's best to set the site offline before doing it, and either ask the host to do a backup for you or use the cpanel method of full backup so that you get your files and database.

thank you. does cpanel back it up on my server though? or do they give me like a zip file i can download to my computers hard drive? i imagine if i do a backup on my server it would take up double the space im already using right?

Last time I did it that method, it made a downloadable zip and I always recommend to remove the zips from the server. I usually zip the files myself and do a separate db backup but as you've not done it before, the automated cpanel method should work. Taking the site offline is a precaution.

Thanks for the heads up Data66, Ive been to a few of those sites and some do look fishy. I can imagine the pain of having a site hacked. God forbid!

Donna, where can I contact you about your upgrade service. I need to move from V3 to V4 and I would much rather have someone with knowledge do that one for me!

best is via my support link https://bryzar.zendesk.com/hc/en-us and BryZar is the company I own with a partner and that company owns ScriptTechs just so you are familiar with the link. :)

After all mods, plugins, and third party add-ons are disabled, and once the upgrade is completed, can we delete all the v3 old site files? ...or will that cause problems with the new site? I don't want to waste space housing a bunch of old directories and folders that don't pertain to my v4 site after upgrading.

If you look at the cleaning up tutorial, just follow that guide. It is in the Documentation, menu link is to the left if you have the menus open. If not, click the button next to the logo to open them. There is a special v3 cleanup after upgrading tutorial. It is also linked in the forum post in the kb tutorial requests section. If your site is large, you might want to wait for 4.4. as there are a lot of improvements coming for optimizations and it's also a full security check. This way, you don't upgrade too many times and disrupt the site since it's best practice to take a site offline before upgrading.