It’s been three months since we said goodbye to Joomla 2.5. Upgrading your website to Joomla 3 has become an urgent task now. Clearly, not all of you are Joomla experts but the migration from Joomla 2.5 to 3.x is not complex if you follow the guidance steps carefully.

Pre-Migration

1. Create a backup of your website
Creating a backup of your website before the update is to avoid any problem that might happen. Among many extensions.Akeeba Backup stands out with it is simple and easy for an end user to use.
Now you create a test site or area to restore the backup copy of your Joomla 2.5 website. It is strongly recommended that you should try on a test site first. You should restore your site on a subdomain, a subdirectory or a local device via WAMP, MAMP, LAMP, XAMPP.

2. Update your website to the latest version of Joomla 2.5

To view the current Joomla version, check your Control Panel. If you see the note: Joomla! is up-to-date, you are ready to upgrade. If your site is not using the latest version of Joomla 2.5, you need to update first.

Go to Extensions > Extension Manager > Database to check if there is any error. If your schema is not up to date, click theFix button.

3. Check your system for Joomla 3 compatibility
Go to Site > System Information to review. Your site can only run well if all the settings meet the technical requirements. Check the list of technical requirements for Joomla 3.x here.

4. Check 3rd-party extension/template list
Many third party extension can be upgraded by one click while some are not. To avoid unwanted errors created by 3rd-party extensions or templates, you should check to see whether if they support Joomla 3 or not. All types of extensions need to be checked, including Package, Component, File, Language, Library, Module, Plugin and Template.

Going to Joomla 3.x

First of all, you need to purge the update cache. Go to Extension Manager > Update and click in Purge Cache icon in the upper right corner.

Next, go to Components > Joomla Update and click Option button on the right corner. Choose Short Term Support and click Save & Close.

If everything is ok, you will see a Joomla! update message. Click Install the update and wait until the update process ends.

Done!

So now, your website is Joomla 3.x. You can take your time to discover the new amazing Joomla 3.4. This guidance is done in a simple Joomla website. Actual scenarios could complex because of installed third-party extension. Good luck and do not forget to share with us your experience in the comment box below.