Visvanath Ratnaweera

Well, then you need to contact the maker of that installer. Is that by any chance the infamous (in this forum) installer called Softaculous? They have their own site with a link for support. Most of the people here are of do-it-yourself type, see Installing_Moodle, which works brilliantly thanks to the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Moodle is one, there is a whole software stack, or better stacks, called LAMP, LEMP, etc., which are also FOSS. Unfortunately Windows is closed source. No way of finding out what is happening inside.

 

P.S. I see, you are riding somebody else's discussion https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=470030#p1886846. Hint to the moderator: Needs to be split. Maybe a subject line like, "After upgrade from 3.8.1 to 3.9, from 3.9 to 4.1.4 and from 4.1.2 to 4.5.1, a problem with dedicated forms and themes. (Windows Server)" would be more suitable. Need to add that, how you went back from 4.1.4 to 4.1.2 is a puzzle to me.

Other than "we have upgrade from 3.8.1 to 3.9, from 3.9 to 4.1.4 adn from 4.1.2 to 4.5.1". That is not what I wrote earlier, " 3.8.1 → 3.8.9 → 3.9.25 LTS → 4.1.20 LTS → 4.5.6 LTS". Ref. https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=470030#p1886873. Why all these intermediate releases?

And I see PHP 8.4 in the first screenshot under Current release Moodle 4.1.2. The _max_ PHP for Moodle 4.1, since 4.1.2, is 8.1 (see footnote [6] in http://www.syndrega.ch/blog/#php-and-dbms-compatibility-of-major-moodle-releases).

The reality first: a) Moodle 3.8 had end-of-life in May 2021. So, marching it to 5.0.2 of August 2025 will be a forced march, if done in a short time - with their known dangers. b) As you've already noted, the Moodle community is mostly Unix (Linux or Mac or *BSD). Logically, the documentation and help for Windows are sparse. I'm too from the (Debian) Linux side. As a result, I can only point out some general facts.

Now to the practical part: When you march Moodle, the software it depends on, mainly PHP and DBMS, need to be marched as well. The table Howard mentioned, shows the possible routes. (Watch the min and _max_ columns.) The route you've chosen, 3.8.1 → 4.0.x → 4.4.x → 5.0.2, is a possibility. My personal preference is though 3.8.1 → 3.8.9 → 3.9.25 LTS → 4.1.20 LTS → 4.5.6 LTS (as of today). You see why, always from LTS to LTS. Also notice the final/current releases as stepping stones - they are the most mature releases. And also notice the stop at version 4.5 LTS. The generation change 4.x → 5.x was huge and 5.0 is still showing teething problems.

 

Take a break at 4.5 LTS. If you could live on 3.8 so long, what is the hurry? In fact, you can even pause at 4.1 LTS, which is still supported. Plan the upgrades from there _in ahead_, avoiding the disruptions already caused to the running academic program. Test (staging) upgrades are advised.

 

Ref.

- https://moodledev.io/general/releases

- http://www.syndrega.ch/blog/#php-and-dbms-compatibility-of-major-moodle-releases

 

P.S. About the urgency. Your IT can roll-back to the original 3.8.1 anytime, right? Then why the urgency - apart from the fact that the community here is voluntary? Yeah, youw'e lucky, Moodle marches are only one-way - no downgrades!

Thanks. The option "Keep alive (cron_keepalive)" must have arrived between Moodle 4.1 LTS and 4.5 LTS. My screenshot above is from a Moodle 4.1 LTS. Now, on Moodle 4.5 LTS, I have this option.

The Lesson activity?