That's a big step from 1.9.5 to 3.5. I don't even know whether course backup files from such an old instance can be restored in 3.5.
In any case, it's better to set up a new server along side the old one, set that one up for 3.5 and then see how you can migrate the data between the old and new Moodle.
Think there are catch 22's with restoring 1.9.x backups of courses to anything higher .... users won't come across and the file system sets everything to 'legacy' .... not same behavior as 'normal' file system. Once a course is in legacy it's in legacy forever.
Migrating the site to a 2.x to use 2.x backup has the 'legacy' files issue, but users are there.
Think the cleaner strategy for moving forward is to bring up another fresh 3.5 site and then rebuild courses manually by comparing what was used in the 1.9. Besides, much has changed and OP will have to learn the new. Depending upon how many courses, OP will know the 3.5 quite well rebuilding.
About the only thing re-usable might be files ... backup the 1.9.x course. Download the backup and unzip it. In the unzipped directory for the course, one will find a 'files' directory that contains the files of the 1.9 course by their humanly re-cognizable names. OP could then upload those which will not be tagged as 'legacy'.
No easy path forward. :|
'spirit of sharing', Ken
Thank you for your reply!
My 1.9.5 HTML editor is not working, this made me thinking may be I need upgrade. but according to everyone says, it seems i better do a reinstall of new version moodle. the 1.9.5 created in 2009, and uploaded some course materials, but due to lack of course developer, it stay like that util now.
I think is the time to make it properly and use it.
Yes Joost, I did what you said to set up a new server, but when i do that on the hostgator, try many ways the new server set fail.
Quick install can not complete with error message shown:
Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /home3/itjtcpng/public_html/moodle2018/admin/index.php on line 165
Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /home3/itjtcpng/public_html/moodle2018/admin/index.php on line 165
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home3/itjtcpng/public_html/moodle2018/admin/index.php on line 165
Cold you give some suggestion how to fix this?
There are just too many changes for any upgrade to be workable. I would suggest backup all your existing courses, unzip them, strip the code out of the text parts and then in v3.5, paste the remaining text into new courses. Upload images individually. This takes time, but unless you have thousands of users, and hundreds of courses, you are going to be bored as opposed to being frustrated and seriously stressed. You can dump your users into a csv file by using phpMyAdmin, which Hostgator supplies, and that csv file can be simply uploaded to your new Moodle. Just check to make sure it is properly arranged and if not, then some careful editing in Excel can usually fix it. You can even add in additional fields, new data, new users anything..
To set up a second Moodle on HostGator may not work. First there is the space issue, and depending on your plan, HostGator may view your new Moodle as a second site, and may not allow you to do that. Seriously suggest if you have a laptop or a desktop may be better, download and install the latest Xampp Moodle. refix you courses to to new Moodle as suggested above. Drop your old Moodle, entirely, as well as the moodledata folder and database. Then install the new Moodle and database. Restore the repaired courses to that. In any case, doesn't matter what you do, it's going to take time and patience to get it right.
As for fixing the original problem, as an alternative, see if you can find the download file you used to set up your old Moodle. Unzip it and extract the editor folder. Go to you site, place it into Maintenance Mode, delete the editing folder, replacing it with the newly unzipped editor. Take your site out of Maintenance Mode and test it, see if that works. The connectionless state of code in web apps allows you to do this without compromising other parts of your app.
If you wanted to go the upgrade path you would have to upgrade 1.9 to 2.2, then 2.2 to 3.0, then 3.0 to 3.5
Along the way the system requirements will have changed too, so you would have to upgrade your server:
It is possible, but it'll take a couple of days to do.
Ah right, an extra step is required: Moodle 3.1 can only upgrade from Moodle 2.7, so you can't go 2.2 -> 3.1. I would also agree updating to the latest 1.9.x version first.
1.9.5 -> 1.9.x, 1.9.x -> 2.2, 2.2 -> 3.0, 3.0 -> 3.1 (or 3.2, 3.3, 3.4), 3.1 -> 3.5
If their site's not been used for ages, then perhaps they're better off starting from scratch, or upgrading to 2.2 so they can use Moodle 2's course back up.
