Easy way to upgrade 2.0 to 2.2 on GoDaddy?

The 2.0 to 2.2 upgrade is not a minor one. So I’d say no, there’s no *easy* way to do it.

First, I’d skip the Metropolis stuff entirely. It only makes things a lot harder in the long run, IMO.

Upgrading is basically a matter of 5 steps:
1. Backup everything.
2. Deactivate the plugins.
3. Upload the new WordPress files.
4. Run the upgrade script.
5. Fix any incompatibilities.

Step 1: You can perform step 1 on GoDaddy using phpMyAdmin. Go to your control panel, go to Databases, go to MySQL, Open the Manager for your database, login, and get into phpMyAdmin. Click Export, select your username, turn on the “Add DROP TABLE” option, click Go. You’ll get a text box with this huge amount of text in it. Copy and paste that into a text file somewhere, it contains all the information needed to recreate your database.
Backing up the files is just a matter of using an FTP program to download all the files in the WordPress directory to your own computer somewhere.

Step 2: Deactivate all your plugins. Simple.

Step 3: A lot of people recommend that you delete the old WordPress files from the server before you upload the new ones. I never bother with this, but the fact is that some people have had trouble with this in the past. So, you want to delete everything in wp-admin and wp-includes, as well as all the files in the root *EXCEPT* wp-config.php and .htaccess and anything else there that’s not part of WordPress. Also leave wp-content alone. After that, just upload the new copy of WordPress to the directory. It will ask you to overwrite some things (like the akismet plugin), and you should allow it to do so. If you’ve modified your default or classic themes, you don’t want to allow it to overwrite those.

Step 4: Go to your WordPress admin page in a browser. If it needs to run the upgrade script, it will tell you and give you a link to do so. You can run it manually, but it’s not necessary, WordPress is capable of detecting when the upgrade script needs to be run.

Step 5: This is the hard step. You may find that some plugins don’t work anymore, or that your theme is incompatible. You’ll have to upgrade your plugins or fix your theme by hand or what have you. Some things may not work, like the blogroll and such. There are fixes for these on a case by case basis, posting here is probably the easiest way to get answers.

The backup is, of course, the most important bit. With a database backup saved and a backup of all your WordPress files, you can completely restore the website to the point before you started. Just use that big script in phpMyAdmin to restore your database, and reupload all your wordpress files and voila, you’re back in business.

It has taken me sometime to get this underway, but today I tried implementing Otto’s instructions (great job, by the way!) and I have encountered a problem with my WP installation on GoDaddy.

Namely, I have NO MySQL databases installed.

My WP blog obviously uses one, but none are listed in the Hosting Control Center (it says “Number of MySQL Databases Used: 0 of 25. No databases have been created.”) and I do not know how to configure phpMyAdmin to backup the database.

Can I get by using the plugin WordPress Database Backup 1.7? Will it restore everything if my db is overwritten?

Well if Godaddy says you have no databases, then there is no database to backup so the WordPress Database Plugin wouldn’t help there.

If you have an existing WordPress blog, even on installed under Godaddy’s Metropolis you should see the database listed (at least that’s what I think Godaddy does.)

You may want to discuss that with Godaddy, as it seems you have no database and thus would need to follow the instructions to install WordPress.

See Installing WordPress

First, WP 2.2.2 works great on GoDaddy.

Second, I have read on previous post that if you used the Metropolis feature to install WP the database is not one you can see in your database section. Why? I don’t know. Either email or call godaddy to fix the issue and avoid Metropolis in the future.

Just checked and Godaddy is showing the database that is associated with the test WordPress install I did using Metropolis. The version Metropolis installed was 2.2.1.

I emailed GoDaddy support after their telephone rep offered no answers. This was the reply I received this morning:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting Customer Support.

We have provided a backup of the database in question, it is now located in the _DB_Backups on the root of your account.

Regards,
Advanced Hosting Support

I sent a reply of my own asking why I could not view my own WP database or use phpMyAdmin.

Although I suppose I could just save their backup and proceed with the 2.2 upgrade.

I’ve also been making database backups using the Database Backup 1.7 plugin for some time, but they seem kinda small. I’ve been blogging for just under a year now and these backups from the plugin are only about 485kbs. I know the content itself isn’t being saved, just the DB, but it still seems kinda small. Am I off-base? The SQL database GoDaddy just mentioned doing for me is 10.59 MB.

You should be able to look at (use an editor like Notepad2) that backup file created with the WordPress Database Backup Plugin and see what’s actually in there. For example, in the area where the wp_posts table is, you should see your posts.

Michael when I do open up the backup files created by the plugin and read it in Notepad, it looks like this:

“?fê?”í￠=3Vú??úV€F2′jü??r<Péb[g?|?′Y?S~ ?.(êo34|a<“U—yì?“?:S€:JèeH9uòHd?????m3E5?<Uo?à31to?oF]k??? EM¤%?Cn·?}q?~tn?Vì?\h/a?
í<“,O??????í?t÷?Y??ù!3té?e?ìJ?díù￥??¤!?_9)?P|e4;°e“R??PNZ(?á?9??éaó?:?SK?seLB?)hè8?ê$a~;K|4t?$?d?í?*í1?K?÷?3?òa?NjT??μk?:w?f×n??’4′Tt???g? a>*?m;??íUNm=?óG?’–￥
]3á?à?]?ì?5P???òhKW\6My-?|C“?<ì¨ :è1”|1
?w￠?AY1?m2??N:]×ó=×Aóoμ?t?L:????y??{Iém?ù¤Ní??{A‘d)?awUk?:XòL?0u<Eàùa??+°?St?.ù^¤úré,áwd??C!è?Av￠?”Tò8|Pz?J????`

The file the backup creates is actually a zip (I have winzip). Once you unzip that zip file there should be a .sql file that has your data.

OK, GoDaddy just got back to me this morning with the following reply:

Thank you for contacting Online Support. You will need to import the database as it is sitting in your hosting accounts root directory in the _DB_Backups folder. Please export it to your local computer and the import it into your hosting account. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please let us know if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns. Our service departments and telephone lines are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to accommodate your needs anytime.

Am I just thick here or is this lacking in explanation? I’ve already downloaded the copy they made for me. But where am I to upload “into my hosting account” so that it becomes the active database for WP?

Thanks for all the replies so far, I’m appreciating everyone’s assistance. YOU guys should be running GoDaddy.

Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup might help you.