If you were thinking of upgrading to Wordpress 2.7 with the Automatic Upgrade Plugin then think again! Seriously, do not use this plugin until you have read this article.
Why the strong warning? Well, because I just tried using this Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin to upgrade one of my sites to 2.7 and it did not work!
My site is hosted at Hostgator, so if yours is too, then you will probably get the same problem.
ALTERNATIVE: If you need a plugin that seems to work, try the Instant Upgrade Plugin.
Do Not Use The Automatic Upgrade Plugin
There is a point in the upgrade process where the plugin needs to put the site it is upgrading into “Maintenance Mode” and at this point it crashed and gave an error which suggested that there might be file permission problems.
Helpfully, the error message also suggested I visit the plugin support forum using this link to:
this forum post on WPAU forums
However although several unfortunate souls had posted problems with the Automatic Upgrade Plugin (WPAU) for Wordpress upgrades going back several months, there are no answers whatsoever for all this time from the developer about any of their problems with WPAU.
So you need to know that the Automatic Upgrade Plugin is NOT Supported!
This Plugin Is Not Supported
If you get in to trouble, like I did, then you are left on your own in a bad scenario that could be technically challenging to resolve. Fortunately the point at which WPAU crashed just left me with some file deletions to do before using a different and much faster method to Upgrade to Wordpress 2.7.
But for others using this plugin who get errors the situation may not be as easy to recover from depending upon when in the process the WPAU plugin crashes.
So be warned! Although this plugin could help you quickly and easily upgrade to Wordpress 2.7 and other versions too, it could give you problems and there is no support for you if that happens.
Some Success
Just so you have a balanced view of this plugin here’s a link to a resource where several Wordpress users have successfully upgraded to 2.7 with this plugin and where you also get full instructions on how to use it:
Web Success Diva’s Wordpress 2.7 Upgrade Guide
However, for me, if I had known beforehand, and I guess I should have checked, I would not use any software that does not have support from the developer. The risks are just too high!
Or maybe I should blame my web host Hostgator, but I don’t think so…
Alternative Instant Upgrade Plugin
If you don’t have cPanel and Fantastico at your web host and the one click-upgrade facility and you still do not want to go the manual FTP route to upgrade Wordpress, there is another automatic upgrade plugin for Wordpress that you can look at.
It does seem to have good support and has been used recently by several users to successfully upgrade to Wordpress 2.7. As always, and expecially in the case of a major software upgrade like this, you should backup your site before you start your upgrade.
Here’s the link to the plugin. I have not used it and therefore cannot recommend it, so read all the posts and do some research on Google before committing…
InstantUpgrade Plugin for Wordpress
Good luck!
Upgrade The Easy Way!
Hostgator provide the easiest Wordpress 2.7 upgrade facility. It’s a simple ONE CLICK installation and only takes a few seconds to complete. So easy! Well done Hostgator. Heres the link on how they do this…
Easiest Upgrade to Wordpress 2.7
Don’t you just wish you hosted your Wordpress website at Hostgator?
NOTE: If you have cPanel and Fantastico at your Wordpress web host then check and you may be able to use a one-click install for your Wordpress 2.7 upgrade too!
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Read more on the discussion about issues with this plugin at the Wordpress forums:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/224103
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