I have a site on 8.5.4 running the Pixel theme.
I have tried updating using 8.5.9 but this breaks the site.
I have also uploaded 8.5.5 and 8.5.6 but the update page doesn’t see these which is odd. The site is saying there is Version 9.4.3 available to download, but i know that would break the site as its too big a jump.
Has anyone got a suggestion please?
Probably your version of the Pixel theme is not compatible with the later versions of concretecms.
Something to try - manual update to latest v8.5.x version by replacing the concrete directory and then using the CLI update command. There were some bugs in the actual update process in early 8.5 versions and it required a manual update to get round them. No reason to jump in small steps. Just go for 8.5.latest.
As @ConcreteOwl notes, updating to v9 requires a bit more thought as there will be theme and addon issues that need to be worked round.
I had problems like that when updating some of my sites. The route I took was check all the plugins I had and saw which ones were compatible then removed as many of the plugins I could that I didn’t need. For any that weren’t compatible I tried upgrade with and without. For themes that weren’t compatible I would switch to a compatible (out of the box concrete theme) and then upgrade. I usually was then faced with an upgraded site but the theme and or some plugins didn’t work. I would then apply the theme (most important) and start to troubleshoot the errors. Also needed to have the old and new versions both available for compare as I would update and fix some errors but then find styling issues that I missed. Once that was done I would do the same with the plugins.
If you are looking to hire some help I may be interested. I upgraded a few sites and it was frustrating at first, but then it became more efficient and a bit of “detective” work.
Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions. I do think the theme will not run on version 9 anyhow, but I’ve already tried switching themes to default before upgrade and it still breaks.
I might just bite the bullet and re make the content in a clean install, as I’ve faffed about too much already and the site isn’t that complicated.
Just a shame that these upgrade paths aren’t considered better, there must be so many sites out there with various themes and add ons that just won’t upgrade.
Did you check all the plugins?
I’ve also done a version by version upgrade for some harder sites - upgrading all the way on the old series and then first 9 series - that can help diagnose the issue.