upgrading to later magento version

[countrymun]

Hi,

We run an old version of magento - 1.3.1  and need to upgrade to 1.8 or later.  We found a migration service online but a developer I spoke to said although they will migrate our entities, the site won't work properly because the code from our existing site wouldn't work cleanly.

Sorry I am not very technical - I can create and update products on magento etc but I don't have any database/html experience.

I was just hoping someone might be able to advise if this is indeed the case.  If so, how would I find someone to upgrade our site ? I emailed 3-4 companies online and none have answered.

Sincere thanks for any advice.

[Pronto · Accepted solution]

There's a HUGE gap between Magento CE 1.3 and 1.4 and couple of smaller ones after that; while upgrading database is easily doable, upgrading themes and extension (especially when they're done by who know when and by whom) is a huge pain. Because such project are usually left not upgraded for a reason, most development houses don't want to touch it even with a ten foot pole. When you say that you need to upgrade your Magento 1.3 store, agency people get sudden urge to be somewhere else.

I suggest that you find somebody competent you can hire on hourly basis to upgrade it to latest version (currently 1.9.2.4). Expect it to take somewhere between 25-100 hours (it depends on theme, extensions and in what condition your database is. There are other factors, such as integrations, hosting and so on; make list of them with your developer before you start work. Prioritise!). Once you're up to date find yourself a permanent partner that will make sure that you stay up to date. 

[countrymun]

So, just thought I would update my original message for anyone else looking to upgrade from a very early version.  First developer upgraded but SO much wouldn't work afterwards.  He said it was because our old theme was incompatible.

Second developer has just fixed the issues we had and then upgraded a great new theme.  We have a few teething problems to sort - I had expected this but he is working through them and overall, I would say this is achievable but you need to make sure the developer will stick with it to ensure everything works.

HTH

[Cosnett]

Magento 1.3 is the old version of Magento. It has limited features compared with other version, which is reasons to occur errors during upgrading data to the high version. Some people say that developers should upgrade magento 1.3 to 1.6, after that upgrade magento 1.6 to higher version. Upgrade magento 1.6 to 1.9 or upgrade magento 1.9 to 2.0 is seem to be more straight than old process. If you want to optimize time and steps, you can choose magento upgrade extension. You have to pay fee (about $70).