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Dear Kriesi Support Team,
we have recently taken over an older website that is still running Enfold version 4.8.6. Unfortunately, a direct update is not possible – the theme options display the message: “No updates available. You are running the latest version (4.8.6).”
We have attempted to upload the latest version of Enfold via FTP, but this completely broke the site’s design. Could you please advise us on the correct procedure for updating from version 4.8.6 to the current release? A full rebuild of the site is not an option due to the project’s size and complexity.
Additional details:
WordPress version: 6.8.2
PHP version: 8.3.25
Active theme: Enfold Child Theme
Parent theme: Enfold 4.8.6
Key plugins: WPML + Add-ons, Ninja Forms + File Uploads, LayerSlider WP (active)
Issue summary:
Theme options show “No updates available. You are running the latest version (4.8.6).”
Manual FTP upload of Enfold 5.9.x → site design completely broken (shortcodes not rendered, styles reset).
Rollback to 4.8.6 resolves the issue.
Thank you very much for your assistance.
Best regards,
SHHey samholl,
The update to 7.1.2 has to be done manually from the version you are running, please refer to my replies in this thread: https://kriesi.at/support/topic/enfold-4-5-theme-update-update-failed-download-failed-a-valid-url-was-not-pro/#post-1021541
You can either update manually via FTP: https://kriesi.at/documentation/enfold/how-to-install-enfold-theme/#theme-update, or upload the theme as if it was new under Appearance->Themes->Add New Theme.
If that doesn’t work then please try to delete the whole theme folder, then replace it with the new version. Make sure that you have backups of the site before starting updating.
Also please read this after you have updated: https://kriesi.at/documentation/enfold/theme-registration/Best regards,
RikardDear Rikard,
thank you for your reply and the references. We have already tried the suggested manual update steps (via FTP upload and also by uploading the theme as “new” in the WP backend). Unfortunately, both approaches completely break the site’s design:
All content is displayed only as raw shortcodes (e.g. [av_textblock])
Layout and styling are reset to defaults
Rolling back to Enfold 4.8.6 immediately restores the correct design
It seems that there is a major compatibility issue when updating directly from 4.8.6 to 7.1.2 on our setup. Could you please advise if there are intermediate update steps required (e.g. first upgrading to 5.x or 6.x before moving to 7.x), or if there are known incompatibilities between Enfold 7.x and WPML/Ninja Forms/LayerSlider that we should address prior to updating? If an incremental update path is necessary, we would kindly ask you to provide download links for the required intermediate versions (5.x and 6.x).
Best regards,
SHHi,
Typically updating from v4.x to v7.x should cause no major issues as the theme is backward compatible, but if your child theme has any customized elements, or a header.php or footer.php, these will cause issues, and should be removed first.
Updating via FTP by overwriting the theme files will also cause issues as older files will be left behind, updating by uploading the theme as “new” in the WP backend is safer as WordPress removes the old directory and then adds the new directory.
I have not seen an issue where an update lead to the shortcodes showing (e.g. [av_textblock]), do you see the shortcodes on the frontend or in the backend in the Block Editor? Pages & Posts created with the ALB (Advanced Layout Builder) should not be opened, edited, or saved with the Block Editor, always edit ALB pages with the ALB editor. Also don’t use any other builders like elementor, beaver builder, visual composer, etc.
Incremental updates is not needed as I have seen v3.x updated without issues. I recommend exporting your child theme settings for backup, and exporting the layerslider sildes. Then create a staging site to test the update on, this way your live site is unchanged while your issue can be examined. Ensure that your stagging site is not using a cache plugin or object-oriented cache from your server, or a CDN, as these may not show the updated site correctly.
The only issues that I find for Ninja Forms are old:
2015: https://kriesi.at/support/topic/customize-ninja-form-styling/
2016: https://kriesi.at/support/topic/enfold-ninja-forms-conditional-logic-problems/
2019: https://kriesi.at/support/topic/ninja-forms-not-working-after-latest-wordpress-update/
2021: https://kriesi.at/support/topic/ninja-forms-breaking-with-enfold/
Note that the layerslider has had many changes and you may need to edit your slides and resave the transforms and minor settings, there is nothing we can do about that, the layerslider doesn’t seem to be fully backward compatible.Best regards,
Mike
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