How to upgrade DotNetNuke

Thursday, November 26, 2009 By Chris Hammond (Updated 2/16/2017)

Update: For the latest instructions on how to upgrade DotNetNuke read this tutorial.

This is a new post, based on information I originally posted on my blog at DotNetNuke.com a few years ago.

Upgrading DotNetNuke is actually fairly easy, you can do so with ease in most cases, though occasionally you may run into a problem or two. If you follow the steps below you should be able to recover from any issues and get your website back up and running in its original state.

If you're upgrading your DotNetNuke instance, here is a list of simple steps to follow during the upgrade process.

First tip, test the upgrade on a staging site first, pull a copy of the database and files down, try the upgrade, make sure all your functionality is still there. Then upgrade production (backup everything first!!!!!)

Here’s the steps to upgrade

1. Backup the database.

2. Backup the file system.

3. Make sure you did 1 & 2.

4. Extract the latest DNN ZIP file somewhere, you should download this zip file from DotNetNuke.com, and start with the UPGRADE package. (this assumes you are upgrading from DNN 4.6.2 or greater, if not you should use the Install package but there are additional steps required.)

5. Copy the contents of the extracted UPGRADE package over the existing site files.

6. Load the website, this will cause the upgrade to begin when the page loads. Make sure the upgrade process completes successfully.

7. At this point you should be done with the upgrade itself, and now it is time to do some testing to make sure that the upgrade worked and doesn’t cause any problems on your website.

Like I said, test first, just to be sure you have everything working properly.

Another thing you might check out is this blog post from Will Strohl that has a recommended upgrade path. While you should be able to go from 4.6.2 straight to the current release, sometimes it is better to do it in steps as Will's post lays out.

For some more advanced upgrade scenarios, such as disabling your site before upgrade, check out the Wiki entry on DotNetNukeDocs.com for upgrades.

Recent Comments

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I get the steps you saying but i dont know how to do some of the things you are talking about, could you elaborate on the details step by step? Thanks!
Posted By: Jesse Richmond on Apr 2012
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For more information about upgrades please visit the Wiki link at the end of the post http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/Wiki/Page/Upgrading-DotNetNuke.aspx 
Posted By: Chris Hammond on Apr 2012
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Are you saying I can go straight from Version 05.04.02 to Version 07.00.02 just by using the Version 07.00.02 upgrade package?
Posted By: David Watson on Jan 2013
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David, yes, in all likelyhood you should be able to go straight to 7.0.2, but you should always test it in a test environment first.
Posted By: Chris Hammond on Jan 2013
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Chris, Was following your directions to upgrade from 7.0.4 ro 7.0.5, but have a problem hoped you could help with. Had my site in a password protected state before I started the upgrade. Now can't get back ot a login page. All I get is "site is unavalable check back later". Any thoughts? Will the upgrade eventually finish on it's own and present a login page again? My fear is that the upgrade process is going to stall on a page requiring my input and I'm not able to get to it to advance it. Thanks, Bob
Posted By: Bob Renner on Apr 2013
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Bob, If your upgrade is "stuck" you've got a problem. Try going to http://WEBSITE/install/install.aspx and see if you have an error. If you can't resolve that error, try restoring you backup and trying again.
Posted By: Chris Hammond on Apr 2013
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Chris, After deleting "everything" and restoring the site from the backups, Stopping/starting IIS, copy the upgrade (7.2.0) to the web's root folder.... the upgrade WORKED!! My custom skins and containers are not rendering correctly, but we plan on updating them. Regards....
Posted By: Dave Davis on Dec 2013
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I have installed about 40 plus sites since DNN 2.x.x and I am very familiar with the upgrade process. I have a 5.6.8 site that I am trying to upgrade to 7.2.0 and having a wierd issue. After the backups of files and DB, I unlocked the zip file and unzipped and copied the upgrade files to the website. I launched the site and I am presented with a blank white screen. I thought maybe I was trying to jump through too many versions so I restored my site and tried to upgrade to 6.0.0. first. Same issue. I also tried to prompt the upgrade with 'http://[WEBSITE]/install/install.aspx?mode=upgrade' and get the same blank screen. I have already changed the apppool to the 4.0 framework and ran the site before the upgrade and it ran fine. The site is configured to run with AD login and no anonymous login. Would this be an issue? Any insight? Thanks....
Posted By: Dave Davis on Dec 2013
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Hello... I got an error message when upgrading to newest DNN 7 version. I use hostforlife.eu to host my DNN site, they said that the problem is from the database. Any insight?
Posted By: Victor Gutierrez on Feb 2014
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Victor, you can't seriously expect someone to be able to answer you if you don't actually post details about the error you received?
Posted By: Chris Hammond on Feb 2014
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We are planning to update DNN 06.00.02 to 06.02.00. Can i replace my DesktopModules folder with Upgrade package folder. Will I get all the existing Modules after I Upgrade.
Posted By: sareen kumar on Dec 2014
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Sareen, If you follow the steps outlined in this blog post, your upgrade shouldn't lose any of your existing modules.
Posted By: Chris Hammond on Dec 2014
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Useful information as always, Chris. I'd like to thank you for all of your hard work. Your videos and tutorials have been absolutely invaluable as I've learned DNN, particularly the 'Setting up your DotNetNuke Module Development Environment' series. Great work!
Posted By: Frank Mckenna on Jun 2017

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Chris Hammond

Chris Hammond is a father, husband, leader, software developer, photographer and car guy. Chris focuses on the latest in technology including artificial intelligence (AI) and has spent decades becoming an expert in ASP.NET and DotNetNuke (DNN) development. You will find a variety of posts relating to those topics here on the website. For more information check out the about Chris Hammond page.

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