Updating and upgrading Magento 2

Regularly updating and upgrading your Magento 2 store is crucial for maintaining its security, performance, and compatibility with the latest technologies and services. Our team routinely performs these updates as a standard service for our clients, ensuring that their eCommerce platforms operate smoothly, securely, and with the latest features. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the process involved in updating and upgrading your Magento 2 store.

Understanding the Difference: Update vs. Upgrade

Before diving into the procedures, it’s important to understand the difference between updating and upgrading your Magento 2 store:

  • Updating refers to the process of applying minor version changes or security patches within the same major version of Magento 2. For example, moving from Magento 2.3.5 to 2.3.6.
  • Upgrading, on the other hand, involves moving your store to a newer major version of Magento, such as upgrading from Magento 2.3 to Magento 2.4. This often includes significant changes to the platform’s core functionality and may require more extensive testing.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with an update or upgrade, ensure you have the following:

  • Backup: Always back up your website, including files, databases, and customizations. This allows you to restore your site in case something goes wrong.
  • Access Credentials: Ensure you have SSH access to your server as most commands will need to be executed via the command line.
  • Composer: Magento 2 uses Composer for dependency management. Make sure you have Composer installed and updated to the latest version.
  • Magento Authentication Keys: For accessing Magento’s repository to download updates or upgrades. You can generate these in your Magento Marketplace account.

Updating Magento 2

Updating your Magento 2 store involves minor version changes or security patches. Here’s how to update your Magento 2 store:

  1. Prepare Your Environment: Ensure your system meets the requirements of the new version. This includes PHP, MySQL, and other server dependencies.
  2. Maintenance Mode: Enable maintenance mode to prevent access to your store while the update is in progress.bashCopy codebin/magento maintenance:enable
  3. Update via Composer: Use Composer to update your Magento 2 version. For example, to update to version 2.3.6, run:luaCopy codecomposer require magento/product-community-edition=2.3.6 --no-update composer update
  4. Clear Cache: After the update, clear the cache and generated content.bashCopy codebin/magento cache:clean bin/magento setup:upgrade
  5. Disable Maintenance Mode: Once the update is complete and you’ve verified the site’s functionality, disable maintenance mode.bashCopy codebin/magento maintenance:disable

Upgrading Magento 2

Upgrading to a newer major version of Magento involves a few additional steps compared to a simple update:

  1. Review Compatibility: Check the compatibility of your themes, extensions, and custom code with the new Magento version.
  2. Update Composer.json: Change the composer.json file to require the new Magento version. You may need to update the PHP version requirement as well.luaCopy codecomposer require magento/product-community-edition=2.4.0 --no-update
  3. Update Dependencies: Run Composer to update your dependencies to match the new version.sqlCopy codecomposer update
  4. Apply Database Updates: Run the Magento upgrade scripts to update your database schema and data.arduinoCopy codebin/magento setup:upgrade
  5. Check Your Site: Thoroughly test your site for any issues. Pay special attention to custom functionality and third-party extensions.
  6. Re-index and Cache: Finally, re-index your Magento store and clear the cache.bashCopy codebin/magento indexer:reindex bin/magento cache:clean

Conclusion

Regularly updating and upgrading your Magento 2 store is essential for security, performance, and accessing the latest features. Our team provides these services as a standard offering to our clients, ensuring their Magento stores remain up-to-date and fully optimized. Always ensure to back up your store before proceeding with any updates or upgrades, and thoroughly test your site afterward to confirm that everything operates as expected.