In some restricted cases detailed below, you may not need to go through the Manual / Standard Upgrade Procedure.

However, you can always use the Manual / Standard Upgrade Procedure for any upgrade from any older to any newer version of b2evolution. So if in doubt, always fall back to the Manual / Standard Upgrade Procedure.

Starting with version 1.8.1, any x.y.* version is fully compatible with another version x.y.* . This means, for example that you can replace the files of version 1.8.1 with the files of version 1.8.2 without making any change to your database or skins. This also means that you can revert from version 1.8.2 to version 1.8.1 just by replacing the files. No need to restore a database backup.

Note: This scheme has already been working for versions 0.9.* as well as version 1.6.* with some minor exceptions.

Note: If you do a minor upgrade, like from version a.b.x to a.b.y, you don’t need to upgrade the database. You can still run the install script but don’t worry if it doesn’t do anything. If the back-office works without telling you to upgrade your database, then it means your database is up to date.