Movable Type Upgrade Guide
Thank you for choosing Movable Type for your publishing needs. You are reading this guide because you are a user needing help and guidance on how to best upgrade to the latest version of Movable Type.
Who This Guide is For
This guide is for users who are:
- Upgrading from and version of MT 2.x/3.x to Movable Type or Movable Type Pro.
- Upgrading from a previous version of Movable Type 4.x to the most recent version of Movable Type or Movable Type Pro.
Please note: Users are encouraged not to install Movable Type Open Source over any paid version of Movable Type Pro as that may cause instability in your installation.
How to Upgrade Movable Type
Make a backup of your database - Whenever you are making a change to your system such as this, it is always considered wise to make a backup of your data just in case you need to undo anything you might have done.
Download Movable Type - Once you have backed up your system, download Movable Type to your web server.
Unzip Movable Type - Using your preferred unzipping software, unpack the Movable Type archive onto your file system.
Copy Movable Type's Files Over Your Old Installation - Copy all of Movable Type's files over your old installation of Movable Type.
- Alternatively you may install Movable Type's files into a fresh installation - this has the benefit of giving yourself a clean start and will remove any "cruft" that has accumulated over the years. Here's how:
Assuming Movable Type is currently installed in
/path/to/cgi-bin/mt, you will need to rename the directory containing your existing MT installation to/path/to/cgi-bin/mt.backup. Then create a fresh install of the recently downloaded version into/path/to/cgi-bin/mt. Finally copy yourmt-config.cgifrom your old installation into the new one.Consult "Additional Upgrade Resources" - In this guide you will find a section devoted to a list of things that everyone upgrading should be aware of. Read this section carefully and make any changes applicable to you.
Login to Movable Type - The first time you access Movable Type, the system will detect the new version of MT installed on your system and take you through the automated process of upgrading your database. When this process is complete, you will be able to begin using Movable Type immediately.
The first time you access the application, you may need to "shift-reload" your browser in order to clear the cache for your css, javascript and images. Doing so will fix any display abnormalities you may experience upon first logging in.
If you elected to create a fresh install of Movable Type, remember to re-install each of your plugins - Check to see if there are new versions available for any of the plugins you had installed previously. If a newer version is available, install them.
Additional Upgrade Resources
- Movable Type Release Notes
- Database support changes - a list of databases that are no longer supported in MT4
- Deleting or renaming mt.cfg
- Updating Publishing Paths and URL Structures
- Obsolete plugins and plugins that should be removed
- Upgrading Movable Type to Publish Pages
- Upgrading from Movable Type 2.6x and earlier
- Upgrading a Really Large Database
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the database upgrade process destructive?
The Movable Type upgrade process will automatically make any changes to your database, both in structure and in its content, to properly move you from one version to any other version. The core application as a rule never removes tables or columns from the system. In fact, the database driver prevent columns and tables to be dropped at all.
So the schema may be augmented or modified, but never destroyed.
Will upgrading break my templates or web site design?
We work very hard as a company and community to ensure backwards compatibility with existing themes. With each release we put the product through a great deal of testing to ensure that a user that simply moves to the latest version of Movable Type and does nothing else will not result in a broken theme or web site.
That being said, everyone's installation is different, and your specific configuration may exhibit some issues. If this happens, please let us know so that we can help you!
See Also
Now that your upgrade is complete you may be interested in the following additional resources:
Joe Siegler
August 8, 2007 12:19 PM | Reply
Ran into a problem with the bit that talks about renaming mt.cfg to mt-config.cgi. If you take that method, you will also have to add in the password, as the password was stored in a separate file using the .cfg method. This really needs to be added to the docs, as it's a showstopper, can't proceed with the upgrade without the password being in there.
Bud
August 10, 2007 8:08 PM | Reply
If you upgrade and then move your blog wholesale to the new templates, you will have to create your own archive mappings. Archive mappings have changed dramatically since MT3.x.
Brahm
August 15, 2007 3:05 PM | Reply
For those of us still running MT 2.6x, please provide a URL where we can download MT 3.35 so that we can perform the recommended intermediate upgrade. Thanks.
Byrne Reese
August 16, 2007 5:50 PM | Reply
We just updated our Upgrade Guide to include a link to Movable Type 3.35. Thanks for the feedback - sorry for the delay.
kelly42.myopenid.com
September 4, 2007 12:12 PM | Reply
How can the MT MySQL database be changed after MT4 is installed? I maintain two databases, switching between them when necessary to restore backups etc. How can I switch from one MySQL database to another without reinstalling MT?
Imtiaz
September 26, 2007 1:24 PM | Reply
Hi, while trying to upgrade from MT3.34 to Mt4.01 during the Upgrade process i am getting the following error.
tried this both from web interface as well as from the command prompt.
Any idea what could be the cause and what is the solution?
jackvinson.myopenid.com
November 3, 2007 9:23 PM | Reply
The directions make absolutely no mention of the mt-static aspect. Many installs require that mt-static be somewhere other than the cgi-bin directory.
Bob
December 1, 2007 12:00 PM | Reply
This is absurd. I've managed to get the MySQL running, but mt-upgrade.cgi just says
Initializing database...
Starting Installation...
And then does NOTHING.
I've tried using the 'converting your berkeley database to mysql' and with some hacking of the code I can get it to "Loading database schema..." and then I get an error while loading data.
This is ridiculous. The way this OUGHT to work is that I run a single smart script, it figures out my current and future configurations, asks me a few questions, and migrates the whole shebang to MT 4.1
This BS where I'm running phpMyAdmin and mysqladmin from the command line and hacking perl code is not cool.
Maybe I'll look into WordPress...
Byrne Reese
December 3, 2007 10:50 AM | Reply
@Bob - Of course we would be happy to help, but we need a little more information. Your comment leaves to me to believe that you are operating from some erroneous information. As of the time I have replied to this comment, MT 4.1 does not yet exist, so I don't know how you could be upgrading to it.
Also, I see no mention on this page about the instructions to which you are referring. There is never any need to edit Perl code - anywhere or anytime, nor has there ever been a need to do that. Our upgrades have always been fully automated.
But I am under the impression that you need to upgrade from Berkeley DB, is that correct? Our recommended procedure for doing that is to:
rchrd
January 17, 2008 10:34 PM | Reply
I'm updating from MT3 to MT4.01. I maintain 2 weblogs, rchrd.com/photo and rchrd.com/blog, and was using the Berkeley DB. Now I must upgrade to mySQL. The MT3 code is installed in /mt and I've uploaded the MT4.01 code to /MT4. I've also saved the photo/ and blog/ directories for safe keeping.
My fear is that if I start the upgrade script to convert the DB to mySQL it may fail in the middle. Is the upgrade destructive of the original database? Or will I still be able to access the MT3 weblogs should the upgrade fail.
This is very important, obviously.
Also, I must say that your documentation is awful. Ok, we're using the free product and you get what you pay for. And I'm a programmer with gobs of years of experience and my knees are shaking just from reading the docs and the blog. I need some reassurance here that 4 years of blogging isn't going to be lost in an instant.
rchrd
January 17, 2008 11:17 PM | Reply
I'm updating from MT3 to MT4.01. I maintain 2 weblogs, rchrd.com/photo and rchrd.com/blog, and was using the Berkeley DB. Now I must upgrade to mySQL. The MT3 code is installed in /mt and I've uploaded the MT4.01 code to /MT4. I've also saved the photo/ and blog/ directories for safe keeping.
My fear is that if I start the upgrade script to convert the DB to mySQL it may fail in the middle. Is the upgrade destructive of the original database? Or will I still be able to access the MT3 weblogs should the upgrade fail.
This is very important, obviously.
Also, I must say that your documentation is awful. Ok, we're using the free product and you get what you pay for. And I'm a programmer with gobs of years of experience and my knees are shaking just from reading the docs and the blog. I need some reassurance here that 4 years of blogging isn't going to be lost in an instant.
HaloX
January 31, 2008 8:16 AM | Reply
How much of this applies to an upgrade from MT 4.01 to 4.1?
ronnie
March 2, 2008 3:59 PM | Reply
From what I understand, I can upgrade from 3.15 to 4 by first upgrading to 3.5, then upgrading to 4.0? I should have no problem getting to 4.0? Also Byrne you said the upgrade guide was changed to include 3.35, but I can only find a link to the 3.35 download. The download contains no upgrade instructions that I can see, there is nothing off from this guide for upgrading to to 3.35 as far as docs or instructions.
I am nervous about upgrading, mainly so that my old content still works, as it's getting SE traffic. On that note, another reason I am nervous, I wonder if my current url structure is correct, because, When looking in to possibly switching to WP, all the information I found said to use mod re-write to change the "_" in MT to "-" for WP. Thing is, my old MT urls do not contain the complete title, it's like they were cut off. I'd like to stay with MT, but are those url's going to be a problem? I am no MT expert. Plus being I originally paid for MT, more of a incentive to stay with it.
One last big question, that I can't seem to find any answer to. One thing that bothered me with MT is with future posts, I had to go in and turn them into publish on the date set. I need more hands off, where I can set dates on posts and they publish when the right date and time come around. One big reason I looked at WP. Is MT now able to do that?
Thank you for your time..:)
ronnie
Colrob
March 25, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply
Just installed and I can't get past the upgrade login. I am asked for a username and password but have not entered one. What do I do?
Colrob
allfive
August 13, 2008 9:37 AM | Reply
You need to add the following important instruction, taken from the MT first time install tutorial, to this upgrade tutorial:
"Make sure all the Movable Type cgi files (files ending with .cgi) in the mt directory on the Web server have execute permission. You should be able to select these files and check their properties with your FTP program."
My server wouldn't allow me to overwrite some files in the mt folder as instructed by this upgrade page. I had to delete the old files first, then copy over the new ones. If you don't then add "execute" permissions to the new files, you get a "500" server error and experience undue frustration.