When using Visual Studio as your primary Integrated Development Environment (IDE) we recommend finding and downloading the Software Development Kits (SDKs) for Visual Studio.

Hosting

Recommendation requirements to run Umbraco

As Umbraco releases are aligned to the .NET release cadence, it's also aligned with Microsoft's Long-term support policy for the underlying framework. For the best experience, we would recommend that you ensure to be on the latest and supported Microsoft versions to run and host Umbraco CMS:

For more information, see the Host and deploy ASP.NET Core applications article in the Microsoft documentation.

You can use Umbraco Cloud to manage the hosting infrastructure. All Umbraco Cloud plans are hosted on Microsoft Azure, which gives your site a proven and solid foundation.

Other recommendation

Ability to set file permissions to include create/read/write (or better) for the user that "owns" the Application Pool for your site. This would typically be NETWORK SERVICE.

Database Account Roles

The database account used in the connection string will need permission to read and write from tables. It will also require permission to create schema during installs and upgrades:

The db_owner role has full permissions on the database.
To use an account with more restricted permissions, the db_datareader and db_datawriter roles will be needed for normal use to read from and write to the database. The db_ddladmin role, which can modify the database schema, is required for installs and upgrades of the CMS and/or any packages that create database tables.

For more information on the Database-level roles, see the Microsoft documentation.

For more information on how to create a database user via SQL, you can check the Microsoft documentation.

Installation

Instructions on installing Umbraco on various platforms using various tools.

Install Umbraco using CLI

The fastest way to get the latest version of Umbraco up and running is using the command line (CLI).

Open your command line.
Install the Umbraco templates:

Create a new project:

Navigate to the newly created project folder. It will be the folder containing the .csproj file:

Build and run the newly created Umbraco site:

The console will output a message similar to: [10:57:39 INF] Now listening on: https://localhost:44388

We recommend setting up a developer certificate and running the website under HTTPS. If that has not yet been configured, run the following command:

Open your browser and navigate to that URL.
Follow the instructions to finish up the installation of Umbraco.

Members of the Umbraco Community have created a website that makes the installation of Umbraco a lot easier for you. You can find the website at . On the website, you can configure your options to generate the required script to run. Click on the Install Script tab to get the commands you need to paste into the terminal. This tab also includes the commands for adding a starter kit or unattended install which creates the database for you.

Alternative Methods for Installing Umbraco

There are numerous ways to install Umbraco. Below, you can find links to different installation methods that will help you easily install and set up Umbraco projects.

.NET CLI, included with the .NET Software Development Kit (SDK), can be used to install or uninstall .NET templates from NuGet. This can be done by using the dotnet new command on any OS. The underlying Template Engine enables the creation of custom templates which make new project bootstrapping much faster. With a few steps you can have an Umbraco project running without the need for a code editor.

Visual Studio is used to write native code and managed code supported by .NET and many others. Its built-in tools provide the ability to develop and execute applications for any platform. Developers will be able to install Umbraco without ever having to leave Visual Studio.

Learn how to run an already installed local installation of Umbraco.

Visual Studio Code is an editor with an embedded webserver (through the IIS Express extension). A fast way to get you up and running with Umbraco.

From Umbraco v9 and above you can use the Nightly Builds to get the latest version to use and test before it is released. Learn how to install the Nightly builds to get started.

Since Umbraco 9 it has been possible to run Umbraco CMS natively on Linux or macOS High Sierra. To get Umbraco running you will need to follow some steps.

Use the Unattended installs when spinning up Umbraco instances on something like Azure Web Apps to avoid having to run through the installation wizard.

Install using .NET CLI

We have made custom Umbraco templates that are available for use with dotnet new. The steps below will demonstrate the minimum amount of actions required to get you going and set up an Umbraco project from the command line using .NET templates.

Video Tutorial

Install the template

Once that is complete, you can see that Umbraco was added to the list of available projects types by running dotnet new --list:

In some cases the templates may silently fail to install (usually this is an issue with NuGet sources). If this occurs you can try specifying the NuGet source in the command by running dotnet new install Umbraco.Templates --nuget-source "https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json".

To get help on a project template with dotnet new run the following command:

dotnet new umbraco -h

From that command's output, you will get a better understanding of what are the default template options, as well as those command-line flags specific to Umbraco that you can use (as seen below):

Create an Umbraco project

Create a new empty Umbraco solution: dotnet new umbraco -n MyCustomUmbracoProject

You will now have a new project with the name MyCustomUmbracoProject, or the name you chose to use. The new project can be opened and run using your favorite IDE or you can continue using the CLI commands.

If you want to create a solution file as well you can run the commands below. dotnet new sln dotnet sln add MyCustomUmbracoProject

Run Umbraco

Navigate to the newly created project folder: cd MyCustomUmbracoProject
Build and run the new Umbraco .Net Core project: dotnet build dotnet run

The next step is to run through the Umbraco CMS installation. If you chose to use MS SQL Server/Azure you will need to add your connection string during this setup process to get access to the Umbraco backoffice.

Running Umbraco in Docker using Docker Compose

Running Umbraco on docker locally using docker compose

To aid in developing Umbraco with additional services, the templates can provide the requisite files to run Umbraco with an SQL Server database in Docker. This setup is designed to be used for local development, and not for production.

Prerequisites

Before you can run Umbraco in Docker, you need to have the following installed:

Version 14.3.0 or higher of the Umbraco Templates
Docker Desktop

Installing

Installing Umbraco with the Docker file and Docker Compose file is a two-step process.

Create a folder to hold your project and enter that folder.

mkdir MyDockerProject
cd MyDockerProject

Create your Umbraco project using the Umbraco Templates, and remember to use the --add-docker flag to include the Docker files.

Conventionally this is named the same as the folder, but it is not a requirement.

dotnet new umbraco -n MyDockerProject --add-docker

Now we need to add some additional files to make docker compose work. We can do this using the umbraco-compose template, passing the project name we specified earlier to the -P parameter:

dotnet new umbraco-compose -P "MyDockerProject"

The -P flag is required to specify the correct paths in the docker-compose file. The project is now ready to run with docker compose.

The final folder structure looks like this:

MyDockerProject
- MyDockerProject
  - Typical project files
  - DockerFile
  - .dockerignore
- .env
- Database
  - DockerFile
  - healthcheck.sh
  - setup.sql
  - startup.sh
- docker-compose.yml

The project now includes docker files for both Umbraco and the SQL server database.

It also includes additional scripts to launch and configure the database and a .env file with the database password.

Running

To run the project use the docker compose up command in the root of the project files where the docker-compose.yml is.

This command will build both the Umbraco and SQL Server images and launch them in the correct order. When the site is booted, access it in your browser on http://localhost:44372/.

Useful commands

There are some useful commands you can use to manage the docker containers:

docker compose down --volumes: Delete your containers and the volumes they use. This is useful if you want to start from scratch.

Be careful with this command, as it deletes your database and all data in it.

docker compose up --build: Rebuild the images and start the containers. This is useful if you have made changes to the project and want to see them reflected on the running site.
docker compose watch: Start the containers and watch the default models folder. This means that if the project uses a source-code models builder the images are automatically rebuilt and restarts when you change the models.

Details

The docker compose file uses bind mounts for the following folders:

/wwwroot/media
/wwwroot/scripts
/wwwroot/css
/Views
/models

This is not meant to be used in production.

For local development, however, this means that the files necessary for development are available from outside the container in your IDE. This allows development even though the project is running in docker.

Template options

The umbraco-compose template has a few options that can be used to customize the setup:

-P or --project-name: The name of the project. This is required and used to set the correct paths in the docker-compose file.
-dbpw or --DatabasePasswor: Used to specify the database password. This is stored in the .env file and defaults to: Password1234.
-p or --Port: Used to specify the port the site will run on. Defaults to 44372.

Install using Visual Studio

A guide to install Umbraco CMS using Visual Studio.

Prerequisites

Install the newest .
- In Visual Studio 2022, the .NET CLI templates are enabled to appear, by default. For information on how to enable .NET CLI templates in Visual Studio 2019, see the article.
Check the to ensure you have everything you need to start your Umbraco project.

Quick Start

This is an abbreviated version of the installation steps. Jump to the section for a more thorough guide.

Open Visual Studio.
Go to File > New > Project, search for Umbraco.
Choose Umbraco Project (Umbraco HQ) then click Next.
Choose or specify the parameters, leave the default or leave them all empty.
Click Create.
Use CTRL+F5 to run the project and start the Umbraco installer.

Video Tutorial

Create a new Umbraco project

To install Umbraco we first need to install Umbraco's dotnet new templates.

Create the Visual Studio project

Go to File > New > Project and search for Umbraco in the Search for templates field.

Once you select Umbraco Project (Umbraco HQ) navigate to the next step by clicking Next.

Configure project

In this step, you will be able to give your project a name specific to the project you are creating.

Refrain from changing the Solution name, as this will cause a namespace conflict with the CMS itself.

Additional information

In the next step, you are able to specify some additional parameters like the Target framework. The rest are optional.

You can then click the Create button and your Umbraco Project will be ready for you.

Running the site

You can now run the site through Visual Studio using F5 or the Debug button.

Follow the installation wizard and after a few steps, you will get a message saying the installation was a success.

Next steps

You are now ready to start building your Umbraco project. Have a look below for different resources on the next steps.

Local IIS With Umbraco

This article describes how to run an Umbraco 9 site on a local IIS server.

This is a quick guide on getting your Umbraco website running locally on IIS.

The guide will assume you already have IIS configured and know your way around it, as well as having a local website you wish to host.

Setting up prerequisites

First, you need to ensure you have "Development time IIS support installed". To check this, go to the Visual Studio installer, click modify and check on the right side under "ASP.NET and web development":

Once that is installed you should set up a new IIS site - and make sure to add the hostname to your hosts file as well. Here is my setup for an example:

For the path you want to point it at the root of your site - where the .csproj file is.

Add permissions to NuGet cache folder

You might need to change permissions for the NuGet cache folder - C:\users\<username>\.nuget\packages. The user or group (IIS_IUSRS) that the IIS site is running on requires Read permissions on this folder because this is where some of the files for Umbraco and Umbraco packages are being served from during development. If the IIS user or group does not have permission to read from the NuGet cache folder, you could run into a DirectoryNotFoundException while running the site.

Add new launch profile

At this point you can go to your Visual Studio solution of the site and in the Properties folder there is a launchSettings.json file, that looks like this:

You can add a new profile called IIS, and point it at your local domain. Here it is with my example domain:

At this point IIS will be added to the launch profiles, and you can run the site from Visual Studio by choosing IIS in the dropdown:

And finally the site is running from your local IIS:

Install using Visual Studio Code

Follow these steps to set up an Umbraco project with VS Code. The benefit of using VS Code is that it is super quick to get up and running.

Installing and setting up VS Code

Go to and download VS Code for free.
Once installed, launch VS Code.
Click the extensions menu at the bottom on the left side. Then search for C# and install it.

Creating your Umbraco project

Configure VS Code to run the Umbraco project

Open your project folder in VS Code, your project will look something like this:

Now we need to tell VS Code how to run your project.

Open the command palette, you can use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P, and type in Tasks: Configure and select the Tasks: Configure Task option:

Select "Create task.json from template"

Now select ".NET Core" as your template.

After this VS Code will have created a folder called .vscode that contains a file called tasks.json, it's this file that tells VS Code how to build your project.

Now that we've told VS Code how to build your project, we need to tell it how to launch it. VS Code can do this for you. First, select the little play button in the left side menu, and then select the "create a launch.json file" link.

This will prompt a menu to appear, select .NET 5+ and .NET Core:

If .NET 5+ and .NET Core is missing in the drop-down menu:

Press Ctrl + Shift + P (on Windows/Linux) or Cmd + Shift + P (on macOS) to open the Command Palette.
Search for the command .NET: Generate Assets for Build and Debug. This command will generate the necessary assets for building and debugging your .NET application.

Now you'll see a green play button appear with a dropdown where ".NET Core Launch (web)" is selected.

If you navigate to the Files section, a new launch.json file is created in the .vscode folder. When you press F5, the launch.json file tells VS Code to build your project, run it, and then open a browser .

With that, you're ready to run the project! Press F5, or click the little green play button in the Run and Debug section to run your brand new Umbraco site locally.

Umbraco Web Installer

This section continues from where we left off but covers the installation and configuration of Umbraco inside your web browser when you run Umbraco for the first time.

You will see the install screen where you will need to fill in some data before Umbraco can be installed.

When the installer is done, you will be logged into the backoffice.

Congratulations, you have installed an Umbraco site!

You can log into your Umbraco site by entering the following into your browser: http://yoursite.com/umbraco/.

Installing Nightly Builds

Instructions on installing nightly builds of Umbraco.

In this article, we'll explain how you can get the latest builds of Umbraco. You can do this in three steps:

Adding the nightly feed as a NuGet source
Finding the latest nightly version
Installing the latest nightly version template

Adding the nightly feed as a NuGet source

The NuGet feed containing the nightly builds is https://www.myget.org/F/umbraconightly/api/v3/index.json.

You can either add this feed through the command line or use an IDE of your choice. In this article, we'll provide steps for:

Using the command line
Using Visual Studio
Using Rider

Option 1: Using the command line

To add the nightly feed using the command line:

Open a command prompt of your choice.
Run the following command:

dotnet nuget add source "https://www.myget.org/F/umbraconightly/api/v3/index.json" -n "Umbraco Nightly"

Now the feed is added as a source named Umbraco Nightly.

Option 2: Using Visual Studio

To add the nightly feed using Visual Studio:

Open Visual Studio.
Go to Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Settings.

The Options window open.
Select the Package Sources option in the NuGet Package Manager section.
Click the + icon.
A new Package source will be added automatically and highlighted.
Enter the desired name for the feed in the Name field.
Enter the link https://www.myget.org/F/umbraconightly/api/v3/index.json into the Source field.
Click OK.

Now the feed is added as a source named Umbraco Nightly.

Option 3: Using Rider

To add the nightly feed using Rider:

Open Rider.
Go to View > Tool Windows > NuGet.
Go to Sources tab.
Choose the C:\Users\Úmbraco\AppData\Roaming\NuGet\NuGet.Config to add the feed globally.
Cick the green + button in the New Feed field.

The New feed dialog opens.
Enter the desired name in the Name field.
Enter https://www.myget.org/F/umbraconightly/api/v3/index.json in the URL field.

Leave the User, Password fields empty, and the Enabled checkbox ticked.

Click OK.

Now the feed is added as a source named Umbraco Nightly.

Finding the latest nightly version

In the previous steps, we've added the feed and are now ready to install the nightly build.

However, which version should we install? This is, in particular, an issue if we want to create a new site using the dotnet template. The dotnet command does not allow us to use wildcard characters to install the newest version.

Using IDE, we can see a list of available versions in both Visual Studio and Rider. We can then use that version to install the template.

Here we're going to assume that you want to create a brand new site with the dotnet template. The approach is the same if you're updating an existing site. You'll click the Update button for the Umbraco.Cms package instead of installing the template through the terminal.

Let's look at how we can find the latest version of the nightly build:

Using Visual Studio
Using Rider

Option 1: Using Visual Studio

You can use the package manager in Visual Studio to browse the available template versions.

Open Visual Studio.
Go to Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages For Solution...

Select Umbraco Nightly from the Package source dropdown in the NuGet - Solution window.

Check the Include prerelease checkbox.
Search for Umbraco.Templates in the Browse field.
Choose that package.
Click on the Version dropdown and see the available nightly builds.
Choose the applicable version and note down the version number.

Option 2: Using Rider

You can use the NuGet window in Rider to browse the available template versions.

Open Rider.
Go to the Packages tab in the NuGet window..
Select Umbraco Nightly from the All Feeds dropdown.

Check the Prerelase checkbox.
Search for Umbraco.Templates in the Search field.
Choose that package.
Click on the Version drop down and see the available nightly builds.
Choose the applicable version and note down the version number

Installing the latest nightly version template

Now that our feed is added and we know the exact version we're ready to install our template.

To install the latest nightly version template:

Open your command prompt.
Run the following command using the latest version:

dotnet new install Umbraco.Templates

With that, we've successfully installed the latest nightly build of Umbraco.

All we have to do now is to create a site using the dotnet new umbraco -n MyAwesomeNightlySite command.

For more information about installing Umbraco, see the Installation article.

Running Umbraco on Linux/macOS

Since Umbraco 9 it has been possible to run Umbraco CMS natively on Linux or macOS High Sierra 10.13 and newer.

With Umbraco CMS on .NET Core, Linux and macOS is natively supported with SQLite as the database.

In the below section, we describe how to get started with running Umbraco CMS on Linux or macOS.

How to get started running Umbraco CMS on Linux or macOS

To get started with Umbraco CMS first have a look at the requirements for running Umbraco CMS.

Once you've made sure you meet the requirements it is time to install the Umbraco Templates on your system.

To do this follow the Install using .NET CLI guide.

With the templates installed on your system, it is now possible to create Umbraco projects.

To create a project, there are two options:

Continue creating projects using the .NET CLI.
Create new projects using Visual Studio (only macOS).

To create new projects using Visual Studio, you can use the Install using Visual Studio guide.

Once you create a new project it will use SQLite by default on Linux/macOS.

If you want to use an SQL server database, you will need to set up Docker.

Unattended Installs

In some cases, you might need to install Umbraco instances automatically without having to run through the installation wizard to configure the instance.

You can use the Unattended installs feature to allow for quick installation and set up of Umbraco instances on something like Azure Web Apps.

This article will give you the details you need to install Umbraco unattended.

Get clean install of Umbraco

In order to get a clean instance of Umbraco, follow our installation guide for how to Install an Umbraco project template.

Configure your database

As you will not be running through the installation wizard when using this feature, you need to manually tell Umbraco which database to use.

Set up and configure a new database - see Requirements for details.
Add the connection string using configuration.

Umbraco can create an SQL Server database for you during the unattended install process. The user specified by the credentials in your connection string needs to have the CREATE DATABASE permission granted and the global setting InstallMissingDatabase is set to true.

If your connection string is for SQLite or SQL Server Express LocalDB it is assumed that a database should be created when missing. This is regardless of the value of the InstallMissingDatabase setting.

SQL Server Example in appsettings.json

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "umbracoDbDSN": "server=localhost;database=UmbracoUnicore;user id=sa;password='P@ssw0rd'",
    "umbracoDbDSN_ProviderName": "System.Data.SqlClient"
  }
}

The 'umbracoDbDSN_ProviderName' attribute sets the .NET Framework data provider name for the DataSource control's connection. For more information on the data providers included in the .Net Framework, see the Microsoft Documentation.

SQLite Example in appsettings.json

A value is configured for the keyumbracoDbDSN_ProviderName to ensure usage of the Microsoft.Data.SQLite ADO.NET provider.

It is recommended that you make use of the values shown below for the Cache, Foreign Keys and Pooling keywords on your connection string.

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "umbracoDbDSN": "Data Source=|DataDirectory|/Umbraco.sqlite.db;Cache=Private;Foreign Keys=True;Pooling=True",
    "umbracoDbDSN_ProviderName": "Microsoft.Data.Sqlite"
  }
}

Enable the unattended installs feature

The unattended installs feature is disabled by default. In order to enable it, you need to add the following JSON object to a JSON configuration source.

{
  "Umbraco": {
    "CMS": {
      "Unattended": {
        "InstallUnattended": true,
        "UnattendedUserName": "FRIENDLY_NAME",
        "UnattendedUserEmail": "EMAIL",
        "UnattendedUserPassword": "PASSWORD"
      }
    }
  }
}

Remember to set the value of InstallUnattended to true.

Alternatively you may set your configuration with Environment Variables or other means. Learn more about this in the Microsoft .Net Core config documentation.

The keys for this would then be as follows:

Umbraco__CMS__Unattended__InstallUnattended
Umbraco__CMS__Unattended__UnattendedUserName
Umbraco__CMS__Unattended__UnattendedUserEmail
Umbraco__CMS__Unattended__UnattendedUserPassword

Initialize the unattended install

After completing the steps above you can now initialize the installation by booting up the Umbraco instance.

Once it has completed, you should see the following when visiting the frontend of the site.

Configuration options

Depending on your preferences, you can use any type of configuration to specify the connection string and login information, as well as enable unattended install. With the extending configuration functionality, it is possible to read from all kinds of sources. One example can be using a JSON file or environment variables.

Program.cs has a condition, which if met, an appsettings.Local.json file will be added and configured as a configuration source.

#if DEBUG
  .ConfigureAppConfiguration(config
    => config.AddJsonFile(
      "appsettings.Local.json",
      optional: true,
      reloadOnChange: true))
#endif

Having intellisense will help you to add your connection string and information needed for the unattended install.

{
    "ConnectionStrings": {
        "umbracoDbDSN": "server=localhost;database=UmbracoUnicore;user id=sa;password='P@ssw0rd'"
    },
    "Umbraco": {
        "CMS": {
            "Unattended": {
                "InstallUnattended": true,
                "UnattendedUserName": "FRIENDLY_NAME",
                "UnattendedUserEmail": "EMAIL",
                "UnattendedUserPassword": "PASSWORD"
            }
        }
    }
}

More support

We have added support for unattended installs with Name, Email and Password, and Connection String as CLI params, which are also available in Visual Studio. There you can fill in your information as follows:

CLI

dotnet new umbraco -n MyNewProject --friendly-name "Friendly User" --email user@email.com --password password1234 --connection-string "Server=(localdb)\Umbraco;Database=MyDatabase;Integrated Security=true" --version 10.0.0

Visual Studio

Upgrade your project

This is the guide for upgrading existing installations in general.

In this article, you will find everything you need to upgrade your Umbraco CMS project.

You will find instructions on how to upgrade to a new minor or major version as well as how to run upgrades unattended.

Before you upgrade
Upgrade to a new Major
Upgrade to a new Minor
Run an unattended upgrade

Before you upgrade

The following lists a few things to be aware of before initiating an upgrade of your Umbraco CMS project.

Sometimes there are exceptions to general upgrade guidelines. These are listed in the version-specific guide. Be sure to read this article before moving on.
Check if your setup meets the requirements for the new versions you will be upgrading your project to.
Things may go wrong for different reasons. Be sure to ALWAYS keep a backup of both your site's files and the database. This way you can always return to a version that you know works.
Before upgrading to a new major version, check if the packages you're using are compatible with the version you're upgrading to. On the package's download page, in the Project compatibility area, click View details to check version-specific compatibility.

It is necessary to run the upgrade installer on each environment of your Umbraco site. This means that you need to repeat the steps below on each of your environments in order to complete the upgrade.

Legacy Umbraco

The steps outlined in this article apply to modern Umbraco from version 10 and later versions.

Are you upgrading to a minor for Umbraco 6, 7, or 8 you can find the appropriate guide below:

Upgrade to a new Major

You can upgrade to a new major of Umbraco CMS directly by using NuGet.

It is recommended that you upgrade to the closest Long-term Support (LTS) major version before upgrading to the latest version. For Umbraco 10, the closest long-term support version is Umbraco 13. Once upgraded to Umbraco 13, you can upgrade to Umbraco 14.

Switching to a new major of Umbraco CMS also means switching to a new .NET version. You need to make sure that any packages used on your site are compatible with this version before upgrading.

The package compatibility can be checked on the package's download page. Locate the Project compatibility area and select View details to check version-specific compatibility.

Choose the correct .NET version

Use the table below to determine which .NET version to upgrade to when going through the steps below.

Upgrade your project using Visual Studio

It's recommended that you upgrade the site offline and test the upgrade fully before deploying it to the production environment.

Stop your site in IIS to prevent any changes from being made while you are upgrading.
Open your Umbraco project in Visual Studio.
Right-click on the project name in the Solution Explorer and select Properties.
Select the .NET version from the Target Framework drop-down.
Go to Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution...
Go to the Installed tab in the NuGet Package manager.
Upgrade Umbraco.Cms.
a. Select the correct version from the Version drop-down.
b. Click Install to upgrade your project.

If you have other packages installed such as Umbraco Forms, then before upgrading Umbraco.CMS you will need to upgrade the packages first. Consult the version specific upgrade notes for Umbraco Forms if relevant.

Make sure that your connection string has TrustServerCertificate=True in order to complete the upgrade successfully:

"ConnectionStrings": {
    "umbracoDbDSN": "Server=YourLocalSQLServerHere;Database=NameOfYourDatabaseHere;User Id=NameOfYourUserHere;Password=YourPasswordHere;TrustServerCertificate=True"
}

Restart your site in IIS, then build and run your project to finish the installation.

In Umbraco 13, we have moved to using the Minimal Hosting Model.

If you have added custom code to the startup.cs file, we recommend moving the code into a Composer after upgrading.

If your database experiences timeout issues after an upgrade, it might be due to ASP.NET Core Module's 'startupTimeLimit' configuration.

To fix the issue, try increasing the startupTimeLimit in the web.config file. Additionally, you can set the Connection Timeout value in the ConnectionString in the appsettings.json file.

Upgrade to a new Minor

NuGet installs the latest version of the package when you use the dotnet add package command unless you specify a package version:

dotnet add package Umbraco.Cms --version <VERSION>

Add a package reference to your project by executing the dotnet add package Umbraco.Cms command in the directory that contains your project file.

Run dotnet restore to install the package.

For v9: If you are using SQL CE in your project you will need to run dotnet add package Umbraco.Cms.SqlCe --version <VERSION> before running the dotnet restore command. From v10, SQL CE has been replaced with SQLite so a dotnet restore should be sufficient. If this is not working then you will need to run dotnet add package Umbraco.Cms.Persistence.Sqlite --version <VERSION> and then dotnet restore.

When the command completes, open the .csproj file to make sure the package reference was updated:

.csproj

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Umbraco.Cms" Version="x.x.x" />
</ItemGroup>

Run an unattended upgrade

When upgrading your Umbraco project, it is possible to enable the upgrade to run unattended. This means that you will not need to run through the installation wizard when upgrading.

Below you will find the steps you need to take in order to upgrade your project unattended.

Are you running a load balanced setup with multiple servers and environments?

Check out the section about Unattended upgrades in a load balanced setup.

Enable the unattended upgrade feature

Add the Umbraco:Cms:Unattended:UpgradeUnattended configuration key.
Set the value of the key to true.

appsettings.json

{
    "Umbraco": {
        "CMS": {
            "Unattended": {
                "UpgradeUnattended": true
            }
        }
    }
}

Run the upgrade

With the correct configuration applied, the project will be upgraded on the next boot.

Boot order

The Runtime level will use Run instead of Upgrade to allow the website to continue to boot up directly after the migration is run. This happens instead of initiating the otherwise required restart.

The upgrade is run after Composers but before Components and the UmbracoApplicationStartingNotification. This is because the migration requires services that are registered in Composers and Components require that Umbraco and the database are ready.

Unattended upgrades in a load balanced setup

Follow the steps outlined below to use unattended upgrades in a load balanced setup.

Upgrade Umbraco via NuGet (see instructions above)
Deploy to all environments.
Set the Umbraco:CMS:Unattended:UpgradeUnattended configuration key to true for the Main server only.
Boot the Main server and the upgrade will run automatically.
Wait for the upgrade to complete.
Boot the Read-Only servers and make sure they do not show the “upgrade required” screen.

Version Specific Upgrades

This document covers specific upgrade steps if a version requires them. Most versions do not require specific upgrade steps and you will be able to upgrade directly from your current version.

Version Specific Upgrades

Use the information below to learn about any potential breaking changes and common pitfalls when upgrading your Umbraco CMS project.

If any specific steps are involved with upgrading to a specific version they will be listed below.

Use the to complete the upgrade of your project.

Breaking changes

Umbraco 15

Snapshots are removed

Snapshots have been removed, meaning any code using IPublishedSnapshot, and by extension IPublishedSnapshotAccessor, must be updated. Inject IPublishedContentCache or IPublishedMediaCache and use those directly instead.

Modelsbuilder models needs to be rebuilt

Models generated by ModelsBuilder used the IPublishedSnapshot interface, which has been removed. This means that the models need to be rebuilt. The approach to this will differ depending on the mode chosen:

InMemoryAuto

Remove the umbraco\Data\TEMP\InMemoryAuto folder to trigger a rebuild of the models.

SourceCodeAuto and SourceCodeManual

Remove the old models located in the \umbraco\models folder by default. This will cause your views to no longer be able to build due to missing types. To get around this you can disable the precompiled view temporarily by adding the following to your .csproj file:

This will allow your site to start up, but you will still see an error page when loading a page.

Disregard the error.
Enter the backoffice.
Rebuild the models from the ModelsBuilder dashboard.

You can now re-enable precompiled views and rebuild your site.

If you have custom C# code that references the models this will also not build. You can either comment out your custom code temporarily until the models have been rebuilt or fix the models manually. To fix the models manually you need to find and replace IPublishedSnapshotAccessor with IPublishedContentTypeCache.

Handling Precompressed Files

When upgrading from Umbraco 14 to 15, you might notice that JavaScript and CSS files are automatically precompressed, adding additional .br and .gz files. This behavior is introduced in ASP.NET Core version 9, where static files are fingerprinted and precompressed by default at build and publish time.

To disable this feature, set <CompressionEnabled>false</CompressionEnabled> in your project file. If you are using Umbraco's templates - dotnet new umbraco, this setting is already included.

Set <CompressionEnabled>false</CompressionEnabled> in your Umbraco project to avoid compressing backoffice files unnecessarily. For your own web project, set it to true to improve performance by serving precompressed assets to users.

For more details, see the .

Umbraco 14

Read more about the release of Umbraco 14 in the .

Below you can find the list of breaking changes introduced in Umbraco 14 CMS.

This is by far the most impactful update of Umbraco in years. We’ve fundamentally changed the way you extend Umbraco. If you are experienced in developing Web Components you can now use your preferred framework for this. If you are unsure how to proceed, you can implement it with Typescript and the Lit library like we’ve done. In this case, please start with this article on how to .

The new Backoffice (Bellissima) is entirely built on the Umbraco UI Library. This means that you might experience some of your components not being rendered on the page because the name has been changed. You should be able to find equivalents to what you were used to. For example, the umb-button is now called uui-button, and umb-box is now uui-box. When extending the Backoffice, we encourage you to use our to ensure the same look and feel in your extensions. The UI Library is Open Source and , so feel free to contribute with new components or raise issues or discussions.

Icons are based on Lucide.

Umbraco 13 and earlier used sets of icons ranging from custom SVGs to Font Awesome. This has all been converged into the with icon names mapped from Umbraco 13.

Custom icons

To add custom icons to the Backoffice, you must add an extension type called “icons”, which can provide icons given a Name and a File. The file can reside anywhere on disk or in RCLs the only requirements being that it must be routable and it must be an SVG.

User provided translations

Translations used in the UI (which are most of them) have been migrated from XML to JavaScript modules. This means that if you wish to override any of the built-in translation keys for the UI, you have to add an extension type called “localization”. It is still possible to add XML translations, but they can no longer be used in the Backoffice UI. However, you may still find usage for them in server-to-server scenarios. Umbraco also keeps its e-mail templates as XML translations. Package and extension developers working with localization will find many benefits from this change seeing that you can add logic to JavaScript modules making your localization files more dynamic and even making them able to react to input parameters.

You can read more about .

BackOffice controllers have been replaced with the Management API

Following the implementation of the new Backoffice (Bellissima), Umbraco has now internally upgraded Headless to a first-class citizen. This means that all controllers previously available under the /umbraco/api route have been removed and replaced with controllers in the Management API. You can read more about the Management API on the article. You can also check out the Swagger UI in your local Umbraco instance available under /umbraco/swagger.

A new way of writing authorized controllers

If you have implemented API controllers in Umbraco before, we recommend you update or rewrite these. Please follow the article, as you’ll then ensure the same cool documentation of your APIs. Notice, that we’ve made a much better separation of concern between controllers and services so that there is no more business logic in controllers.

Although this sounds like it's not a big change, it’s one of the most breaking changes on the backend. Whereas Newtonsoft.Json was flexible and error-tolerant by default, System.Text.Json is strict but more secure by default. You can therefore run into things that will not be serialized. You can .

Nested Content and Grid Layout have been removed

These two property editors have been deprecated in Umbraco for some time as you can read in our breaking change announcements for and . The recommended action is to use blocks instead - Block Grid for the grid layout and either Block Grid or Block List for Nested Content.

We have for some time , and now it’s fully removed. You should use the default Media Picker instead.

Macros and Partial View Macros have been removed. Use partial views and/or blocks in the Rich Text Editor (RTE)

Depending on the usage of macros, you’ll be able to use either partial views or blocks in the Rich Text Editor. They are not the same kind of functionality, but they cover all the identified use cases in a way more consistent and supportable way.

XPath has been removed

An alternative is using the Dynamic Roots in the Multinode Treepicker and for ContentXPath the alternative is .

The package.manifest file is no longer supported and has been replaced with the umbraco-package.json file. The format is similar and after building your Umbraco solution, you have access to a JSON schema file which you can reference and thereby have type-safety in the file. You can read more about the new format on the article.

Smidge is no longer a default dependency

along with the RuntimeMinification setting and related classes. Smidge used to bundle up Backoffice and package assets before, however, with the Bellissima, we have migrated entirely to ESModules. This means we can no longer predict how modules work in automated bundles.

It's recommended that you bundle up your Backoffice static assets for instance by a tool called Vite. You can read more about this on the article. You can still use libraries like Smidge for frontend static assets by manually installing the package from NuGet.

You can read the on how to set up a similar setting to RuntimeMinification. For sites being upgraded from V13 or below, please remove from the _ViewImports.cshtml file.

Base classes for Backoffice controllers have been removed

The UmbracoAuthorizedApiController and UmbracoAuthorizedJsonController classes have been removed. We recommend basing your Backoffice APIs on the ManagementApiControllerBase class from the Umbraco.Cms.Api.Management project.

Read the for a comprehensive guide to writing APIs for the Management API.

Removal of certain AppSettings

Some AppSettings have been removed or found a new place. In general, any UI-related app settings will now have to be configured as .

RichTextEditor

The global configuration of TinyMCE has been removed in order to support more rich text editors in the future. Instead, a new extension type called “tinyMcePlugin” has been added. This extension type gives you access to each instance of TinyMCE allowing you to configure it exactly as you see fit. You can even make it dependent on more factors such as Document Type, user group, environment, and much more. You have access to the full array of contexts in the Backoffice.

ShowDeprecatedPropertyEditors

There are no deprecated property editors in Bellissima and this configuration will no longer have an effect.

HideBackOfficeLogo

This configuration will no longer have an effect. Instead, you can add a CSS file where you can modify the default CSS variables in the Backoffice. The Backoffice loads a CSS file which can be overwritten by placing a similar file in your project at /umbraco/backoffice/css/user-defined.css with the following content:

IconsPath

This configuration will no longer have an effect. Instead, you should add icons through the “icons” extension type.

AllowedMediaHosts

This configuration will no longer have an effect.

Notifications

Notifications have changed their behavior to an extent. You can still implement notifications such as ContentSavingNotification to react to changes for related systems or add messages to be shown in the Backoffice. You can no longer modify the models being transferred through the API.

If you wish to modify the Backoffice UI, register the extensions through the manifest system that hook on to the desired areas of the Backoffice UI. If you used to modify the models because you needed more data on the models, it's recommended that you build your own API controller to achieve this. You can read more about and even learn how to register your controllers in the Swagger UI.

Property editors have been split in two

The new Backoffice and the Management API ushers in a shift in responsibility. Traditionally, a lot of UI responsibility has been misplaced on the server.

For example, it is hardly a server concern how many rows a text area should span by default.

To this end, property editors have been split into two, individually reusable parts; the server implementation and the client implementation.

As a consequence, a property editor must now define both which client and server implementation to use. Details can be found in article.

Property value converters for package.manifest based property editors

The package.manifest file format is no longer known on the server side. It has been changed to be a purely client-side responsibility (and it has adopted a new format and a new name). If you have implemented a property value converter for a property editor defined in a package.manifest file, you will likely need to make a small change to the property value converter.

The property value converter must implement IsConverter() to determine if it can handle a given property. In this implementation, it is common to use the EditorAlias of the passed in IPublishedPropertyType. However, in Umbraco 14 you should use the EditorUiAlias instead.

More details can be found in .

UmbracoApiController breakage

Due to the shift from Newtonsoft.Json to the System.Text.Json, the UmbracoApiController will yield camel-cased output in Umbraco 14, where it was pascal-cased in the previous versions.

Make sure to perform thorough testing of all usages of UmbracoApiController. As the class has now been marked as obsolete, we recommend these controllers to be based on the Controller class from ASP.NET Core moving forward.

Two-Factor Authentication requires a client registration

The C# models for Two-Factor Authentication previously supported setting a custom AngularJS view to setup the QR code. This has been moved to the Backoffice client and requires a registration through the new extension type :

This will use Umbraco’s default configuration of the two-factor provider. The user scans a QR code using an app such as Google Authenticator or Authy by Twilio.

It is additionally possible to register your own configurator similar to Umbraco 13. You can achieve this by providing a custom JavaScript element through the elementJs property.

More details and code examples can be found in the article.

External Login Providers require a client registration

The C# models for External Login Providers have changed and no longer hold configuration options for the “Sign in with XYZ” button. To show a button in the Backoffice to sign in with an external provider, you need to register this through the extension type called :

This will use Umbraco’s default button to sign in with the provider. You can also choose to provide your own element to show in the login form. You can achieve this by adding the elementJs property.

Additionally, on the backend side, there is an additional helper available to do proper error handling. You can utilize this by using the options pattern to configure the provider.

More details and code examples can be found in the article.\

Deprecated SQLite provider name removed

In previous versions of Umbraco the umbracoDbDSN_ProviderName (and umbracoCommerceDbDSN_ProviderName) value could be Microsoft.Data.SQLite or Microsoft.Data.Sqlite with the former being deprecated in Umbraco 12.

The deprecated version, Microsoft.Data.SQlite, has been removed and will require the value to be updated to Microsoft.Data.Sqlite for installations using an SQLite database.

In-depth and further breaking changes for Umbraco 14 can be found on the repository and on .

Umbraco 14 RC Versions

Below you can find the list of breaking changes introduced in Umbraco 14 RC release versions.

RC 5

RC 4

RC 3

RC 2

RC 1 First RC release - 17th of April. Breaking changes since Beta 3:

Umbraco 14 Beta Versions

Below you can find the list of breaking changes introduced in Umbraco 14 Beta release versions.

Beta 3

Beta 2

There are a few breaking changes since Beta 1. Most of the changes concern property editors and getting them to work with migrations as well as new values.

Beta 1 Official release of Beta, 6th March 2023.

Umbraco 13

Below you can find the list of breaking changes introduced in Umbraco 13.

Note: You need to be aware of some things if you are using EF Core, and have installed the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design 8.0.0 package:

This package has a transient dependency to Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common which clashes with the same transient dependency from Umbraco.Cms 13.0.0. This happens because Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design 8.0.0 requires Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Workspaces in v4.5.0 or higher.
If there are no other dependencies that need that package then it installs it in the lowest allowed version (4.5.0). That package then has a strict dependency on Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common version 4.5.0. The problem is Umbraco.Cms through its own transient dependencies that require the version of Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common to be >= 4.8.0.
This can be fixed by installing Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Workspaces version 4.8.0 as a specific package instead of leaving it as a transient dependency. This is because it will then have a strict transient dependency on Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common version 4.8.0, which is the same that Umbraco has.

Umbraco 12

Umbraco 12 does not include many binary breaking changes, but there are some.

Most notable is a functional breaking change in Migrations, that from Umbraco 12. Each translation will be executed in its own transactions instead of all migrations in one big transaction. This change has been made to ease the support for Sqlite.

A type, enum, record, or struct visible outside the assembly is missing in the compared assembly when required to be present.

PagedModel has moved namespace from Umbraco.New.Cms.Core.Models to Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.PostMigrations.ClearCsrfCookies is removed. The functionality can be archived by implementing a notification handler for the new UmbracoPlanExecutedNotification.
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Cache.DistributedCacheBinder is now divided into separate files for each notification handler
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.PostMigrations.DeleteLogViewerQueryFile was a no-op method removed.
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.PostMigrations.RebuildPublishedSnapshot replaced with a RebuildCache flag on the MigrationBase

A member that is visible outside of the assembly is missing in the compared assembly when required to be present.

Umbraco.Cms.Core.Migrations.IMigrationPlanExecutor.Execute(Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.MigrationPlan,System.String) replaced with Umbraco.Cms.Core.Migrations.IMigrationPlanExecutor.ExecutePlan(Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.* * Migrations.MigrationPlan,System.String) that returns an rich object instead of a string
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.IMigrationContext.AddPostMigration``1 Removed and replaced with notification
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.MigrationPlan.AddPostMigration``1
Removed and replaced with notification
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.MigrationPlan.get_PostMigrationTypes removed.
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.Upgrade.Upgrader.Execute(Umbraco.Cms.Core.Migrations.IMigrationPlanExecutor,Umbraco.Cms.Core.Scoping.IScopeProvider,Umbraco.Cms.Core.Services.IKeyValueService) was obsolete and is replaced by method taking a ICoreScopeProvider instead of a IScopeProvider

An abstract member was added to the right side of the comparison to an unsealed type.

PublishedPropertyBase now requires inheritors to implement GetDeliveryApiValue(System.Boolean,System.String,System.String)

A member was added to an interface without a default implementation.

Umbraco.Cms.Core.Events.IEventAggregator.Publish2(System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable{0})
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Events.IEventAggregator.PublishAsync2(System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable{0},System.Threading.CancellationToken)
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedProperty.GetDeliveryApiValue(System.Boolean,System.String,System.String)
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedPropertyType.ConvertInterToDeliveryApiObject(Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedElement,Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors.PropertyCacheLevel,System.Object,System.Boolean,System.Boolean)
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedPropertyType.ConvertInterToDeliveryApiObject(Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedElement,Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors.PropertyCacheLevel,System.Object,System.Boolean)
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedPropertyType.DeliveryApiCacheLevel
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Scoping.ICoreScope.Locks
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Migrations.IMigrationPlanExecutor.ExecutePlan(Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.MigrationPlan,System.String)
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Search.IUmbracoIndexingHandler.RemoveProtectedContent
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Examine.IUmbracoIndex.SupportProtectedContent

Umbraco 11

Besides the documented changes, we have also seen a few method signatures that are changed to support Nullable-Reference-Types.

The breaking changes in Umbraco 11 are mainly the removal of classes, methods, and so on, marked as obsolete in Umbraco 9.

The full list of API-breaking changes can be found below.

Obsolete code removed

The following have been removed after having been obsoleted since Umbraco 9.

Umbraco.Extensions

Umbraco.Cms.Core

Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure

Umbraco.Cms.Web

Umbraco.Cms.Tests

Code moved to new assemblies and namespaces

The following have been moved to new assemblies and their namespaces have been updated accordingly.

Umbraco.Extensions

Umbraco.Cms.Web

Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure

New interface methods

A few interfaces have been merged, adding new members to the original interfaces.

Umbraco.Cms.Core

No-Operation methods removed

A method not doing anything for the last couple of major releases have been removed.

Umbraco.Cms.Core

Changes due to models made immutable

A single model have been made immutable, so the default constructor and the setters are not available anymore.

Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure

Classes that does not inherit from base type anymore

The following classes now directly inherit from OEmbedProviderBase instead of EmbedProviderBase.

Umbraco.Cms.Core

Umbraco 10

The diff library used in the Backoffice client has been updated and introduces a breaking change since the exposed global object has been renamed from JsDiff to Diff.

Removes mutable ContentSchedule property from IContent/Content to read/write content schedules.

Use IContentService.GetContentScheduleByContentId && IContentService.PersistContentSchedule or the optional contentSchedule parameter on IContentService.Save instead.

Removed public methods: PublishedSnapshotServiceEventHandler.Dispose, PublishedSnapshotServiceEventHandler.Dispose(bool), and .PublishedSnapshotServiceEventHandler.Initialize.
Removed public ctor.

Some public classes in the Cms.Core.Services namespace have moved assembly from Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure to Umbraco.Cms.Core.
These same public classes have changed namespace from Umbraco.Cms.Core.Services.Implement to Umbraco.Cms.Core.Services.

NPoco types and interfaces are part of our public interface which means that this upgrade imposes breaking changes.

Removed support for Microsoft SQL Server Compact (SQL CE).
Removed ReadLock and WriteLock methods from ISqlSyntaxProvider interface. Use IDistributedLockingMechanism (or IScope which delegates to IDistributedLockingMechanism) instead.
Constants for SQL Server provider name moved+consolidated from Core.Constants.DatabaseProviders and Core.Constants.-DbProviderNames to Umbraco.Cms.Persistence.SqlServer.Constants
Some SQL Server related services moved from the Umbraco.Infrastructure project to the new Umbraco.Cms.Persistence.
SqlServer project with altered namespaces e.g. SqlServerSyntaxProvider, SqlServerBulkSqlInsertProvider, SqlServerDatabaseCreator.

Added the following methods/properties to ISqlSyntaxProvider. These must be implemented in any downstream implementation e.g:

ISqlSyntaxProvider.HandleCreateTable(IDatabase,TableDefinition,Boolean)
ISqlSyntaxProvider.GetFieldNameForUpdate()
ISqlSyntaxProvider.GetColumn(DatabaseType,String,String,String,String,Boolean)
ISqlSyntaxProvider.InsertForUpdateHint(Sql)
ISqlSyntaxProvider.AppendForUpdateHint(Sql)
ISqlSyntaxProvider.LeftJoinWithNestedJoin(Sql,Func<Sql,Sql>,String)

Update dependency versions:

SixLabors.ImageSharp from 1.0.4 to 2.1.1
SixLabors.ImageSharp.Web from 1.0.5 to 2.0.0

Renamed the CachedNameLength property to CacheHashLength on ImagingCacheSettings.

Moved ImageSharpImageUrlGenerator from project Umbraco.Infrastructure to Umbraco.Web.Common and updated the corresponding namespace and DI registration (from AddCoreInitialServices() to AddUmbracoImageSharp());

Moved ImageSharp configuration from the AddUmbracoImageSharp() extension method into separate IConfigureOptions<> implementations:

The middleware is configured in ConfigureImageSharpMiddlewareOptions (which also replaces ImageSharpConfigurationOptions that previously only set the default ImageSharp configuration);
The default physical cache is configured in ConfigurePhysicalFileSystemCacheOptions.

This is breaking because it is no longer possible to access the properties listed below through the IMember.Properties collection. You must now access them through their specific properties that is IMember.IsLockedOut.

umbracoMemberFailedPasswordAttempts
umbracoMemberApproved
umbracoMemberLockedOut
umbracoMemberLastLockoutDate
umbracoMemberLastLogin
umbracoMemberLastPasswordChangeDate

Additionally, when previously you resolved a Member as published content, all the default properties would be there twice. For instance, IsLockedOut would be there both as a property with the alias umbracoMemberLockedOut and with the alias IsLockedOut. Now it'll only be there once, with the alias being the name of the property, so IsLockedOut in this instance.

Lastly the nullable dates on a user, i.e. LastLoginLate will now be null instead of DateTime.MinValue when getting a user with the UserService.

Examine 3 breaking changes:

ValueSet immutable.
ValueSetValidationResult is renamed to ValueSetValidationStatus and ValueSetValidationResult is now a type.

Has changed to:

Added more methods to IRedirectUrlRepository and IRedirectUrlService.cs.

Added a new method on IPublishedModelFactory: Type GetModelType(string? alias);
The generic types of a BlockListItem<TContent, TSettings>instance in theBlockListModelreturned byBlockListPropertyValueConverteris now determined by calling this new method, which can be different and cause aModelBindingException` in your views.

Has changed to:

StackQueue has been moved from Umbraco.Core.Collections to the Umbraco.Cms.Core.Collections namespace.

Globalsetting SqlWriteLockTimeOut has been removed

This setting has been superseded by DistributedLockingWriteLockDefaultTimeout.

GlobalSetting UmbracoPath cannot be configured

It is no longer possible to rename the /Umbraco folder path using configuration. The property still exists but is hardcoded to /Umbraco and will be removed in Umbraco 12, planned for release in June 2023.

Release notes

Find your upgrade path

13.latest to the latest version

Update _ViewImports.cshtml file

In Umbraco 14, Smidge has been removed from the CMS.

In the _ViewImports.cshtml of your project, remove the following lines:

Otherwise, it will cause an error on the front end.

Update program.cs file

Remove u.UseInstallerEndpoints(); from the program.cs file to avoid issues when running the project

Update code using Angular JS

Deprecated property editors

Nested Content and Grid Layout have been removed. We recommend rebuilding it using Block Grid for the grid layout and either Block Grid or Block List for Nested Content.

The legacy Media Picker has been removed, use the default Media Picker.

Macros and partial views macros removed

Macros and partial views macros have been removed in Umbraco 14. We recommend using partial views or blocks in the Rich Text Editor (RTE).

Block Editor data format has changes

10.latest to 13.latest

It might be necessary to delete all of the bin and obj directories in each of the projects of your solution. It has been observed that Visual Studio's "Clean Solution" option is sometimes not enough.

You can upgrade from Umbraco 10 to the latest version directly. If you choose to skip upgrading to versions 11 and 12, you will no longer receive warning messages for obsolete features. However, if you do skip these versions, any breaking changes will no longer compile.

9.latest to 10

Important: .NET version 6.0.5 is the minimum required version for Umbraco 10 to be able to run. You can check with dotnet --list-sdks what your latest installed Software Development Kit (SDK) version is. The latest SDK version 6.0.301 includes .NET 6.0.6, while SDK version 6.0.300 includes .NET 6.0.5.

The upgrade path between Umbraco 9 and Umbraco 10 can be done directly by upgrading your project using NuGet. You will need to ensure the packages you are using are available in Umbraco 10.

SQL CE is no longer a supported database engine

There is no official migration path from SQL CE to another database engine.

The following options may suit your needs:

Steps to upgrade using Visual Studio

It's recommended that you upgrade the site offline, and test the upgrade fully before deploying it to the production environment.

Stop your site in IIS to prevent any changes being made to the database or filesystem while you are upgrading.
Open your Umbraco 9 project in Visual Studio.
Right-click on the project name in the Solution Explorer and select Properties.
Select .NET 6.0 from the Target Framework drop-down.
Go to Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution...
Go to the Installed tab in the NuGet Package manager.
Choose Umbraco.Cms.
Select 10.0.0 from the Version drop-down and click Install to upgrade your project to version 10.
Update Program.cs to the following:

Remove the following files and folders:
- /wwwroot/umbraco
- /umbraco/PartialViewMacros
- /umbraco/UmbracoBackOffice
- /umbraco/UmbracoInstall
- /umbraco/UmbracoWebsite
- /umbraco/config/lang
- /umbraco/config/appsettings-schema.json
Restart your site in IIS, build and run your project to finish the installation of Umbraco 10.

To re-enable the appsettings IntelliSense, you must update your schema reference in the appsettings.json file and any other appsettings.{Environment}.json files from:

To:

To upgrade to Umbraco 10, your database needs to be at least on Umbraco 8.18.

Upgrade of any publicly hosted environment

When the upgrade is completed and tested, and prior to deploying to any publicly accessible environment, you should consider the following:

Ensure you have backups for both the database and the file system.
Stop the site so it is not accessible during the upgrade process.
Delete the relevant folders from the filesystem prior to deploying:
- /wwwroot/umbraco
- /umbraco/PartialViewMacros
- /umbraco/UmbracoBackOffice
- /umbraco/UmbracoInstall
- /umbraco/UmbracoWebsite
- /umbraco/config/lang
- /umbraco/config/appsettings-schema.json
Deploy the site how you normally would to your public facing environment.
Start the site. At this point it will launch and upgrade the database, after which the site should become accessible and your upgrade is complete.
Check the logs for any errors which may have occurred during the upgrade process.

8.latest to 9

There is no direct upgrade path from Umbraco 8 to Umbraco 9. It is however possible to migrate from Umbraco 8 sites to Umbraco 9 sites.

You can reuse your content by restoring your Umbraco 8 database into a new database used for an Umbraco 9 site.

You need to ensure the packages you are using are available in Umbraco 9, and you will need to reimplement your custom code and templates.

The direct upgrade path is not possible because the codebase has been fundamentally updated in Umbraco 9. The underlying web framework has been updated from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core.

It is not possible to take this step while maintaining full compatibility with Umbraco 8.

8.0.0 to 8.1.0

IPublishedContent breaking changes in 8.1.0

The IPublishedContent interface is central to Umbraco, as it represents published content and media items at the rendering layer level. This could be in controllers or views. In other words, it is the interface that is used everywhere when building sites.

The introduction of multilingual support in version 8 required changes to the interface. For instance, a property value could be obtained with GetPropertyValue(alias) in version 7. Version 8 requires a new parameter for culture, and the call thus became Value(alias, culture).

In the excitement of the version 8 release, we assumed that IPublishedContent was "done". By our tests, everything was looking good. However, feedback from early testers showed that the interface was in some places odd or inconsistent or had issues.

Fixing the bugs is a requirement. Some of the required bug fixes could not be achieved without introducing some breaking changes.

At that point, we decided to give IPublishedContent some love. We fixed the bugs and made it clean, friendly, discoverable, and predictable for the entire life of version 8.

Breaking changes to such a central interface is not something we take lightly. Even though they do not impact the "concepts" nor require heavy refactoring, they may demand an amount of small fixes here and there.

The general idea underlying these changes is that:

The proper way to retrieve "something" from an IPublishedContent instance is always through a method, for example: Children(). And, when that method can be multilingual, the method accepts a culture parameter, which can be left null to get the "current" culture value.
To reduce the amount of breaking changes, and to simplify things for non-multilingual sites, existing properties such as document.Name and document.Children (and others) still exist, and return the value for the current culture. In other words, these properties are now implemented as document.Name => document.Name() or document.Children => document.Children().

The rest of this document presents each change in details.

More interfaces

It was possible to mock and test the IPublishedContent interface in version 7. It has been improved in version 8, but it still relies on concrete PublishedContentType and PublishedPropertyType classes to represent the content types, which complicates things.

In version 8.1, these two classes are abstracted as IPublishedContentType and IPublishedPropertyType, thus making IPublishedContent easier to mock and test.

CHANGE: This impacts every method accepting or returning a content type. For instance, the signature of most IPropertyValueConverter methods changes. References to PublishedContentType must be replaced with references to IPublishedContentType.

The following IPublishedContent members change:

Name

The document.Name property is complemented by the document.Name(string culture = null) extension method. The property returns the name for the current culture. The document.GetCulture(...).Name syntax is removed.

CHANGE: Calls to document.GetCulture(culture).Name must be replaced with document.Name(culture).

UrlSegment

The document.UrlSegment property is complemented by the document.UrlSegment(string culture = null) extension method. The property returns the Url segment for the current culture. The document.GetCulture(...).UrlSegment syntax is removed.

CHANGE: Calls to document.GetCulture(culture).UrlSegment must be replaced with document.UrlSegment(culture).

Culture

The document.GetCulture() method is removed. The proper way to get a culture date is document.CultureDate(string culture = null). The document.Cultures property now returns the invariant culture, for invariant documents.

CHANGE: Calls to document.GetCulture(culture).Date must be replaced with document.CultureDate(culture). Calls to document.Cultures must take into account the invariant culture.

Children

The document.Children property is complemented by the document.Children(string culture = null) extension method which, when a culture is specified always return children available for the specified culture. The property returns the children available for the current culture.

A new document.ChildrenForAllCultures property is introduced, which returns all children, regardless of whether they are available for a culture or not.

CHANGE: Calls to document.Children may have to be replaced by document.ChildrenForAllCultures depending on if the 8.0.x usage of this was relying on it returning unfiltered/all children regardless of the current routed culture.

Url

The document.Url property is complemented by the document.Url(string culture = null, UrlMode mode = UrlMode.Auto) extension method. The document.GetUrl(...) and document.UrlAbsolute() methods are removed. The UrlProviderMode enumeration is renamed UrlMode.

CHANGE: Calls to document.GetUrl(...) must be replaced with document.Url(...). Calls to document.UrlAbsolute() must be replaced with document.Url(mode: UrlMode.Absolute).

UmbracoContext

Due to the UrlProviderMode enumeration being renamed UrlMode, the signature of some overloads of the Url(...) method has changed. Methods that do not have a mode parameter remain unchanged.

CHANGE: Code such as context.Url(1234, UrlProviderMode.Absolute) must become context.Url(1234, UrlMode.Absolute).

The UmbracoContext class gives access to the rendering layer, which is more than a "cache". To reflect this, its ContentCache and MediaCache properties are renamed Content and Media. However, the old properties remain as obsolete properties.

CHANGE: None required in 8.1, but code such as context.ContentCache.GetById(1234) should eventually be converted to context.Content.GetById(1234) as the obsolete properties may be removed in a further release.

GetCulture

Because that method is useful, especially when building traditional, non-multilingual sites, it has been re-introduced in version 8.1 as document.GetCultureFromDomains().

CHANGE: None.

DomainHelper

DomainHelper has been replaced with a static DomainUtilities class.

CHANGE: It is rare that DomainHelper is used in code since it only contains one public method but if developers are using this, it can no longer be injected since it's now a static class called DomainUtilities.

Models Builder

If you're using ModelsBuilder in dll mode you need to delete the dlls before upgrading. Otherwise, they're going to be wrong and cause your whole site to throw errors.

If you're using ModelsBuilder in AppData mode and you have your generated models in your solution you need to update them after upgrading. PublishedContentType will need to be replaced with IPublishedContentType. If you have an implementation of the PropertyValueConverter class, you need to replace all references to PublishedPropertyType with IPublishedPropertyType within that class. Only after you do that will your solution build again.

AutoMapper

7.latest to 8.0.0

There is no direct upgrade path from Umbraco 7 to Umbraco 8. It is however possible to migrate content from Umbraco 7 sites to Umbraco 8 sites. We have added content migrations in Umbraco 8.1.0 enabling you to migrate your content from Umbraco 7 to Umbraco 8.

It is not possible to upgrade an Umbraco 7 site to Umbraco 8 because the codebase has been fundamentally updated in Umbraco 8. A lot of outdated code and technology has been removed and instead new, faster, and more secure technology has been implemented.

In Umbraco 8 we have added improvements and updated dependencies. We have also done a thorough clean-up to make it simpler for you to work with and extend your Umbraco project.

7.6.3 to 7.7.0

Version 7.7.0 introduces User Groups, better user management, and security facilities. This means that anything to do with "User Types" no longer exists including APIs that work with User Types. If your code or any package's code refers to "User Type" APIs, you need to make changes to your code. In many cases, we've added backward compatibility for these scenarios and obsoleted APIs that should no longer be used.

We are now by default using the e-mail address and not the username for the credentials. When trying to login to the backoffice you need to use the e-mail address as opposed to the username. If you do an upgrade from an older version and would like to keep using the username, change the <usernameIsEmail>true</usernameIsEmail> setting to false.

Version 7.7.2 no longer ships with the CookComputing.XmlRpcV2 assembly. If you reference this assembly or have a package that requires this assembly, you need to copy it back into your website.

This version also ships with far fewer client files that were only relevant for older versions of Umbraco (i.e. < 7.0.0). There might be some packages that were referencing these old client files. If you see missing image references you may need to contact the vendor of the package in question to update their references.

7.6.0 to 7.6.3

In short:

In Umbraco version 7.6.2 we made a mistake in the Property Value Converts (PVCs). This was corrected 2 days later in version 7.6.3. If you were having problems with querying the following Data Types on the frontend, make sure to upgrade to 7.6.3:

Multi Node Tree Picker
Related Links
Member Picker

Depending on whether you tried to fix the problem with those, you will need to fix them after you upgrade to 7.6.3.

Property Value Converters (PVC)

Umbraco stores data for Data Types in different ways. For a lot of pickers it will store 1072 or 1083,1283. These numbers refer to the identifier of the item in Umbraco. In the past, when building your templates, you would manually have to take that value and find the content item it belongs to. Then you would be able to get the data you wanted from there. An example of that is shown below:

In Umbraco 7.6.0, this is what you would do instead:

To not break everybody's sites (the results of queries are different when PVCs are enabled), we disabled these PVCs by default.

We noticed that some new pickers also got their PVC's disabled when the configuration setting was set to false (<EnablePropertyValueConverters>false</EnablePropertyValueConverters>).

To make everything consistent, we made sure that the UDI pickers would always use PVC's in 7.6.2, this however reversed the behavior. So when PVC's were enabled, the property would not be converted and when PVC's were disabled, the property would be converted after all. This is the exact opposite behavior of 7.6.2.

So we have fixed this now in 7.6.3.

This issue only affects:

Multi Node Tree Picker
Related Links
Member Picker

Have you already upgraded to 7.6.2 and fixed queries for those three Data Types? Then you have to do that again in version 7.6.3.

7.4.0 to 7.6.0

The three most important things to note are:

In web.config do not change useLegacyEncoding to false if it is currently set to true - changing the password encoding will cause you not being able to log in any more.
In umbracoSettings.config leave EnablePropertyValueConverters set to false - this will help your existing content queries to still work.
In tinyMceConfig.config make sure to remove <plugin loadOnFrontend="true">umbracolink</plugin> so that the rich text editor works as it should.

Breaking Changes

Dependencies

Umbraco has used a custom build of an old (1.2.11) version of log4net that supported Medium Trust. However, Umbraco itself does not support Medium Trust anymore, and therefore log4net has been upgraded to the standard, latest build of log4net 2.0.8.

An optional parameter has been added to the GetCropUrl method in order to support the background color parameter. This breaks the method signature and therefore might require a recompile of user's code.

The HtmlAgilityPack has been upgraded to version 1.4.9.5. The Umbraco upgrade process should take care of setting up the binding redirects appropriately.

Core

The Membership Provider useLegacyEncoding setting is now false by default, as the legacy password encoding has weaknesses.

This change only impacts new installs (no change for upgrades).

A large amount of property value converters contributed by the community have been merged in and are now the default value converters. These converters change the object types returned by GetPropertyValue for more convenient types.

Instead of returning comma-separated string values like it did before, the SliderValueConverter now returns a decimal or a Range<decimal> value that can be used directly in views.

This change only impacts new installs (no change for upgrades).

The new property value converters are controlled by an umbracoSettings.config setting. In the section settings/content, setting EnablePropertyValueConverters needs to be present and true to activate them.

Umbraco has been using a PetaPoco-managed UmbracoDatabase instance since version 7 came out. We realized that some of our legacy code still bypassed that mechanism and used parallel, out-of-band database connections, causing issues with transactions.

The legacy code has been refactored to rely on the UmbracoDatabase instance. However, because that database is disposed of during EndRequest, the code that ran after it has been disposed may not work anymore. This should then be updated to use either an HttpModule event that occurs before EndRequest or the new UmbracoModule.EndRequest event.

Version 7.6 introduces the notion of scopes, which allow for wrapping multiple service-level operations in one single transaction. The scopes API is partially public. Scopes are not meant for public use at this stage and we need a few more releases to ensure that the APIs are stable.

Scopes should not change how Umbraco functions.

The property editors for pickers for content, media, members, and related links have been updated to store UDI instead of the node ID. Pickers in sites being upgraded have been marked as obsolete but will continue to work as they always did.

New sites will have the obsolete pickers filtered out from the list of available property editors, but they can be enabled by a configuration flag.

For a long time, we had a rel attribute on an <img> tag when inserted into the RTE. This is invalid HTML markup. We worked around this by stripping this attribute using a Property Editor Value converter. Some developers relied on this attribute so we didn't change it to a "data-id" attribute which would have been valid. In 7.6 we are not storing integer IDs in these attributes. Instead of storing UDI values so with this change we no longer use rel or data-id and instead there will be a "data-udi" attribute. This change should affect only a small amount of people that were previously relying on the values from the "rel" attribute.

Others

We are shipping with SignalR in the core at version 2.2.1. If you already have SignalR installed into your app and are using an older version there may be conflicts.

The creation and editing of WebForms templates will no longer be supported as for version 7.6.0.

Upgrading via NuGet

This is an important one and there was no perfect solution to this. We have removed the UrlRewriting dependency and no longer ship with it. However, if you are using it we didn't want to have NuGet delete all of your rewrites. The good news is that if you are using it, the NuGet upgrade will not delete your rewrite file and everything should continue to work.

However, if you are not using it, you will get an error after upgrading. Here's how to fix it:

Since you aren't using UrlRewriting you will have probably never edited the UrlRewriting file. In this case, NuGet will detect that and remove it. However you will need to manually remove these UrlRewriting references from your web.config:

and

Remove the following httpModules from your web.config:

and

Forms

Umbraco Forms 6.0.0 has been released to be compatible with Umbraco 7.6. It is a new major version release of Forms primarily due to the strict dependency on 7.6+. If you are using Forms, you will need to update it to version 6.0.0

Courier

Umbraco Courier 3.1.0 has been released to be compatible with Umbraco 7.6. If you are using Courier, you will need to update it to version 3.1.0.

7.3.0 to 7.4.0

For manual upgrades:

Copy the new folder ~/App_Plugins/ModelsBuilder into the site
Do not forget to merge ~/Config/trees.config and ~/Config/Dashboard.config - they contain new and updated entries that are required to be there
- If you forget trees.config you will either not be able to browse the Developer section or you will be logged out immediately when trying to go to the developer section

7.2.0 to 7.3.0

Make sure to manually clear your cookies after updating all the files, otherwise you might an error relating to Umbraco.Core.Security.UmbracoBackOfficeIdentity.AddUserDataClaims(). The error looks like: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: value.

NuGet will do the following for you. If you're upgrading manually make sure to also:

Delete bin/Microsoft.Web.Helpers.dll
Delete bin/Microsoft.Web.Mvc.FixedDisplayModes.dll
Delete bin/System.Net.Http.dll
Delete bin/System.Net.Http.*.dll (all dll files starting with System.Net.Http) except for System.Net.Http.Formatting.dll
Delete bin/umbraco.XmlSerializers.dll
Add this in the appSetting section of your web.config file: <add key="owin:appStartup" value="UmbracoDefaultOwinStartup" />

Other considerations:

WebApi has been updated, normally you don’t have to do anything unless you have custom webapi configuration:
- You need to update your web.config file to have the correct WebApi version references - this should be done by doing a compare/merge of your ~/web.config file with the ~/web.config file in the release
MVC has been updated to MVC5
- You need to update your web.config file to have the correct MVC version references - this should be done by doing a compare/merge of your ~/web.config file with the ~/web.config file in the release
- The upgrader will take care of updating all other web.config’s (in all other folders, for example, the Views and App_Plugins folders) to have the correct settings
It is not required that you merge the changes for the Examine index paths in the ExamineIndex.config file. However, if you do, your indexes will be rebuilt on startup because Examine will detect that they don’t exist at the new location.
It's highly recommended to clear the browser cache - the ClientDependency version is automatically bumped during installation which should force the browser cache to refresh, however in some edge cases this might not be enough.

7.1.0 to 7.2.0

Copy in the /Views/Partials/Grid (contains Grid rendering views).

7.0.2 to 7.1.0

Remove the /Install folder.

7.0.1 to 7.0.2

There was an update to the /umbraco/config/create/ui.xml which needs to be manually updated. The original element had this text:

The usercontrol value has changed to: /create/user.ascx. This is a required change otherwise creating a new user will not work.

7.0.0 to 7.0.1

Remove all uGoLive dlls from /bin
- These are not compatible with V7
Move appSettings/connectionStrings back to web.config
- If you are on 7.0.0 you should migrate these settings into the web.config instead of having them in separate files in /config/
- The keys in config/AppSettings.config need to be moved back to the web.config <appSettings> section and similarly, the config/ConnectionStrings.config holds the Umbraco database connections in v7.0.0 and they should be moved back to the web.config <connectionStrings> section.
- /config/AppSettings.config and /config/ConnectionString.config can be removed after the contents have been moved back to web.config.
Delete all files in ~/App_Data/TEMP/Razor/
- Related to issues with razor macros

6.latest to 7

4.latest to 6

The DocType Mixins package is not compatible with v6+ and will cause problems in your Document Types.

Version 4

Version 4.10.x to 4.11.x

Version 4.8.0 to 4.10.0

Delete the bin/umbraco.linq.core.dll file
Copy the new files and folders from the zip file into your site's folder
- /App_Plugins
- /Views
- Global.asax
Remove the Config/formHandlers.config file

Version 4.7.2 to 4.8.0

Delete the bin/App_Browsers.dll file
Delete the bin/App_global.asax.dll file
Delete the bin/Fizzler.Systems.HtmlAgilityPack.dll file

Version 4.7.1.1 to 4.7.2

Delete the bin/umbraco.MacroEngines.Legacy.dll file

Version 4.6.1 to 4.7.1.1

Delete bin/Iron*.dll (all dll files starting with "Iron")
Delete bin/RazorEngine*.dll (all dll files starting with "RazorEngine")
Delete bin/umbraco.MacroEngines.Legacy.dll
Delete bin/Microsoft.Scripting.Debugging.dll
Delete bin/Microsoft.Dynamic.dll

Upgrade from Umbraco 8 to the latest version

Learn how to upgrade your Umbraco 8 project to Umbraco 10.

It is currently not possible to upgrade directly from Umbraco 8 to the latest version.

The recommended approach for upgrading from version 8 to the latest version is to use this guide to upgrade from Umbraco 8 to Umbraco 10. Umbraco 10 contains the that must be upgraded from Umbraco 8. You can then use the steps to upgrade from Umbraco 10 to the latest version.

Since the underlying framework going from Umbraco 8 to the latest version has changed, there is no direct upgrade path. That said, it is possible to re-use the database from your Umbraco 8 project on your new project in order to maintain the content.

It is not possible to migrate the custom code as the underlying web framework has been updated from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core. All templates and custom code will need to be reimplemented.

You also need to make sure that the packages you are using are available on the latest version.

Prerequisites

A Umbraco 8 project running the latest version of Umbraco 8.
A backup of your Umbraco 8 project database.
A clean installation of the latest version of Umbraco.

If you use Umbraco Forms, then on the clean installation of Umbraco, you will need to install Umbraco.Forms package as well.

Video Tutorial

The video below shows how to complete the upgrade on an Umbraco Cloud project. Most of the process is the same, however, the video does contain some Cloud-specific elements.

Step 1: Content Migration

Import the database backup into SQL Server Management Studio.
Update the connection string in the new projects appsettings.json file so that it connects to the Umbraco 8 database:

You can also add the connection details if you spin up a clean installation.

Run the new project and login to authorize the upgrade.
Select "Upgrade" when the upgrade wizard appears.
Once the upgrade has been completed, it's recommended to login to the backoffice to verify if your project is upgraded to new version.

This is only content migration and the database will be migrated.

You need to manually update the view files and custom code implementation. For more information, see Step 3 of this guide.

Step 2: File Migration

The following files/folders need to be copied from the Umbraco 8 project into the new project:
- ~/Views - Do not overwrite the default Macro and Partial View Macro files unless changes have been made to these.
- ~/Media - Media folder from v8 needs to be copied over into the wwwroot - media folder
- Any files/folders related to Stylesheets and JavaScript.
Migrate custom configuration from the Umbraco 8 configuration files (.config) into the appsettings.json file on the new project.
- As of Umbraco Forms version 9, it is only possible to store Forms data in the database. If Umbraco Forms was used on the Umbraco 8 project, the files need to be migrated to the database.
Run the new project.
- It will give you an error screen on the frontend as none of the Template files have been updated. Follow Step 3 to resolve the errors.

Step 3: Custom Code in the latest version

The latest version of Umbraco is different from Umbraco 8 in many ways. With all the files and data migrated it is now time to rewrite and re-implement all custom code and templates.

Examples of changes

One of the changes is how published content is rendered through Template files. Due to this, it will be necessary to update all the Template files (.cshtml) to reflect these changes.

Template files need to inherit from Umbraco.Cms.Web.Common.Views.UmbracoViewPage<ContentModels.HomePage> instead of Umbraco.Web.Mvc.UmbracoViewPage<ContentModels.HomePage>
Template files need to use ContentModels = Umbraco.Cms.Web.Common.PublishedModels instead of ContentModels = Umbraco.Web.PublishedModels

Depending on the extent of the project and the amount of custom code and implementations, this step is going to require a lot of work.

Once the new project runs without errors on a local setup it is time to deploy the website to production.

This concludes this tutorial. Find related information and further reading in the section below.

Migrate content to Umbraco 15

This article will help you migrate content to Umbraco 15, and outline options to skip this content migration

Umbraco 15 changes the internal data format of all .

If you maintain a large Umbraco site with extensive Block Editor usage, the upgrade to Umbraco 15+ might require a long-running content migration. For the duration of the migration, your site will be unresponsive and unable to serve requests.

You can track the progress of the migration in the logs.

It is advised to before upgrading. This will make the migration run faster.

Opting out of the content migration

It is strongly recommended to let the migration run as part of the upgrade. However, if you are upgrading to Umbraco versions 15, 16, or 17, you can opt out of the migration. Your site will continue to work, albeit with a certain degree of performance degradation.

Blocks in Rich Text Editors might not work as expected if you opt out of the content migration.

You can opt out of migrating each Block Editor type individually. To opt-out, add an IComposer implementation to configure the ConvertBlockEditorPropertiesOptions before initiating the upgrade process:

Subsequently, you are responsible for performing the content migration yourself. This must be done before upgrading past Umbraco 17.

Custom code is required to perform the content migration. You can find inspiration in the core migrations:

This custom code should not run while editors are working in the Umbraco backoffice.

The site may require a restart once the content migration is complete.

Migrate content to Umbraco 8

This guide will show you how to migrate the content from your Umbraco 7 site to a site running Umbraco 8.

Umbraco 8 contains a lot of breaking changes and a lot of code has been cleaned up compared to Umbraco 7. Due to this, it will not be possible to do a direct upgrade from Umbraco 7 to Umbraco 8. You need to migrate your content from your Umbraco 7 site into your Umbraco 8 site and then recreate the rest in the new version.

A content migration tool has been implemented in Umbraco 8.1.0, to help you with the transition.

In this guide you can read more about the tool, its limitations, and how to use it in practice.

Migrating Umbraco Cloud sites

Follow the to upgrade your Umbraco 7 site on Cloud.

What are the limitations?

In the following section, you can learn more about the limitations of migrating content from Umbraco 7 to Umbraco 8.

Versions supported

The content migration tool is a database migration, which is made for the database schema of Umbraco 7.14+. This means that in order to do the migration you need to ensure your Umbraco 7 site is running at least Umbraco 7.14.

Database types supported

Umbraco 8 does not support MySQL databases. This means that the migration will not work when moving from an Umbraco 7 site using MySQL to Umbraco 8 on SQL Server

The database types that are supported are SQL Server and SQL CE.

Known issues

Feedback from user testing has shown that some databases are harder to migrate than others.

There are two ways to work around this issue:

Migrate to version 8.5 as a first step and then post-migration, carry out a normal Umbraco upgrade to the latest version of Umbraco 8, or

Third party property editors

The migration will transform the data stored in third party editors as well. However, it will be stored as it was in Umbraco 7. If the structure has changed or the property editor doesn't exist, you will still be able to find the data in the database. It will, however, not be available in the backoffice.

Learn more about that in the Data Types Migrations

Migrating data types

When migrating content from Umbraco 7 to Umbraco 8, the Data Type 'pre-value' structure has changed. In Umbraco 8, the term 'pre-values' no longer exists and is instead referred to as property editor configuration.

This configuration is stored differently in Umbraco 8 than it was in Umbraco 7. In Umbraco 7, each pre-value property was stored as a different row in a different database table. In Umbraco 8 this is simplified and property editor configuration is stored as the JSON serialized version of the strongly typed configuration object.

When upgrading from Umbraco 7 to Umbraco 8, Umbraco has no way of knowing how custom property editors have intended to structure their configuration data. During the upgrade, Umbraco will convert the key/value pairs from the old pre-value database table into a serialized JSON version of those values. There is a reasonable chance that the end result of this data conversion is not compatible with the custom property editor.

There are 3 options that a developer can choose to do to work around this automatic data conversion:

1: Implement a custom IPreValueMigrator

This option requires you to create a custom C# migrator for each of your custom property editors that store custom configuration data. It will also require that you implement these migrators before you run the Umbraco 8 content migration.

You will then need to register them in a composer:

When running the migrations and encountering a custom configuration, Umbraco will utilize the PreValueMigrator when converting the old pre-values into the new JSON format.

2: Update your Angular configuration (pre-value) and property editor

This option means that you will choose to use the automatically converted JSON data format. In this case, it will mean updating your pre-value and property editors to use the new JSON configuration data. The converted data won't be much different than the original/intended data format so this might not be too much work.

3: Update the Angular configuration (pre-value) editor

With this option the configuration/pre-value editor needs to be updated to transform the JSON converted data into the data structure you want. When this is done and when the Data Type is saved again, the JSON data structure will be saved back to the database. Your property editor will then continue to work.

This will require you to update and save all custom pre-value editors to transform the converted structures back to your intended data structure.

What will happen

When the migrations are running, Umbraco will go through your entire Umbraco 7 database and update it to the format required for Umbraco 8. The schema will be remodeled and transformed into the correct format and your existing compatible data will be transformed to fit with Umbraco 8.

These migrations will be running directly on your database. They are transforming schema and data - not transferring. Therefore always ensure that you have a backup before attempting to do this. In case something goes wrong, you will be able to rollback and try again.

It is highly recommended to clean up your site before running this as it will be quicker.

Empty Content recycle bin
Empty Media recycle bin

How it works

In the following guide we will migrate the content of an Umbraco 7.13.1 site to Umbraco 8.1.0.

Step 1: Upgrading to 7.14+

The site in this example is an Umbraco 7.13.1 site, and we will use Nuget to update it.

When upgrading an old website, check if you are using obsolete properties in your Data Types. These should be changed to their updated counterparts. The migration will fail if you are still using obsolete properties.

The updated properties are:

Content Picker
Media Picker
Member Picker
Multinode Treepicker
Nested Content
Folder Browser
Related Links

You can see if your site is using the obsolete properties from the (Obsolete) prefix in their name.

Once it is upgraded and you have verified everything is working, move on to the next step.

Step 2: Migrating content to Umbraco 8

The first thing to do is to spin up a fresh new Umbraco 8.1+ site. Make sure everything works and that no content is there.

If you have customized the UsersMembershipProvider on your Umbraco 7 site you need to copy that over to the 8.1 web.config as well. Additionally you need to update the type attribute to be type="Umbraco.Web.Security.Providers.UsersMembershipProvider, Umbraco.Web".

This also includes the attribute useLegacyEncoding value. Make sure that this setting is copied into your new Umbraco 8 site, as it is needed in order to log in.

Take a backup of your database from the Umbraco 7.14 site. Take the information for the backup database and add that to the connectionstring for the Umbraco 8.1 site. If you are running SQL CE, you will have to copy the database over to the new site as well.

Once the connectionstring is set, the final step is to change the Umbraco version number in the web.config on the Umbraco 8.1 site. Chang it to 7.14.0. This will indicate that there is an upgrade pending and it needs to run the migration.

The version will be set to 8.1.0, and you need to change it to the version you are currently migrating from.

When you start the site it will ask you to login and then show you this screen:

From here, the automatic migration will take over, and after a little bit you can log in and see your content:

Please be aware that this is a content migration. If you go to the frontend after following these steps, it will throw errors.

At this point you will have the content but nothing else.

Step 3: Files migration

Before moving on to this step, make sure that the Umbraco 8 project is no longer running.

The following files/folders need to be copied into the Umbraco 8 project:

~/Views - do not overwrite the default Macro and Partial View Macro files, unless changes have been made to these.
~/Media
Any files/folders related to Stylesheets and JavaScripts.
Any custom files/folders the Umbraco 7 project uses, that aren't in the ~/Config or ~/bin.
~/App_Data/UmbracoForms - in the case Umbraco Forms was used on the Umbraco 7 site.

Merge the configuration files carefully to ensure any custom settings are migrated while none of the default configurations for Umbraco 8 is overwritten.

You'll have to revisit all templates and custom implementations to get the site up and running, as all markup is still Umbraco 7-specific.

Are you planning on continuing the migration to the latest version on Umbraco CMS?

Then you can skip the step to revisit the template files and custom implementation. We highly recommend waiting with this step until you've reached the latest version.

Step 4: Post-migration checks

As you are updating your template files and custom implementation, you should also verify your configuration files and settings.

Umbraco 8 contains a few changes regarding the Sections in the Umbraco Backoffice. Because of this, you should also check your User Groups and make sure they have access to the appropriate sections.

Minor upgrades for Umbraco 8

This article provides details on how to upgrade to the next minor version when using Umbraco 8.

Sometimes there are exceptions to these guidelines, which are listed in the .

Note

It is necessary to run the upgrade installer on each environment of your Umbraco site. If you want to update your staging and live site you need to repeat the steps below. Make sure you click through the install screens so that your upgrade is complete.

In this article you will find instructions for 3 different ways of upgrading:

Upgrade using NuGet

Open up the Package Console and type: Update-Package UmbracoCms
Choose "No to All" by pressing the "L" when prompted.
- If there are any specific configuration changes required for the version you are upgrading to then they will be noted in the .

Alternatively, you can use the Visual Studio NuGet Package Manager to upgrade:

Open the NuGet Package Manager and select the Updates pane to get a list of available updates.
Choose the package called UmbracoCms and select update.

The upgrade will run through all the files and make sure you have the latest changes while leaving files you have updated.

Upgrade manually from a zip file

Copy the following folders from inside the .zip file over the existing folders in your site:

/bin
/Umbraco

There are hosting providers (we know of one: RackSpace Cloud) that require proper casing of file and folder names. Normally on Windows this is not a problem. If your hosting provider however forces proper casing, you will need to verify that the folder and file names are in the same casing as in the newest version you're upgrading to.

Merge configuration files

You can expect some changes to the following configuration files:

Any file in the /Config folder
The /Global.asax file
The web.config file in the root of your site (Important: make sure to copy back the version number, and the connection string as they were.)
In rare cases, the web.config file in the /Views folder

There's also the possibility that some files in the /Config folder are new or some have been removed (we do make a note of this in the release notes). WinMerge (and other diff tools) can compare folders as well so you can spot these differences.

Merge UI.xml and language files

Some packages like Umbraco Forms add dialogs to the UI.xml. Make sure to merge those changes back in from your backup during the upgrade so that the packages continue to work. This file can be found in: /Umbraco/Config/Create/UI.xml.

Packages like Umbraco Forms and Courier also make changes to the language files located in: /Umbraco/Config/Lang/*.xml (typically en.xml).

Finalize

After copying the files and making the config changes, you can open your site. You should see the installer which will guide you through the upgrade.

The installer will do two things:

Update the version number in the web.config
Upgrade your database in case there are any changes

We are aware that, currently, the installer is asking you for the database details of a blank database while upgrading. In the near future this will be pre-filled with your existing details and the wording will be updated. So no need to be scared. Enter the details of your existing database and Umbraco will upgrade it to the latest version when necessary.

Run an unattended upgrade

When upgrading your Umbraco project to Umbraco v8.12+ it is possible to enable the upgrade to run unattended. This means that you will not need to run through the installation wizard when upgrading.

Below you will find the steps you need to take in order to upgrade your project unattended.

Are you running a load balanced setup with multiple servers and environments?

Enable the feature

Add the Umbraco.Core.RuntimeState.UpgradeUnattended key to appSettings in your web.config file.
Set the value of the key to true.

Check the `ConfigurationStatus`

In order to trigger the actual upgrade, the correct version number needs to be set.

It is important to use the version number of the version that you are upgrading to. If this is not set, the upgrade will not run even if the UpgradeUnattended key has been set to true.

Locate the ConfigurationStatus key in the appSettings section in your web.config file.
Update the value to match the Umbraco version that you are upgrading to.

Run the upgrade

With the correct configuration applied, the project will be upgraded on the next boot.

While the upgrade processes are running, any requests made to the site will be "put on hold", meaning that no content will be returned before the upgrade is complete.

Boot order

The Runtime level will use Run instead of Upgrade in order to allow the website to continue to boot up directly after the migration is run, instead of initiating the otherwise required restart.

The upgrade is run after Composers but before Components. This is because the migration requires services that are registered in Composers and Components requires that Umbraco and the database is ready.

Unattended upgrades in a load balanced setup

Follow the steps outlined below to use run unattended upgrades in a load balanced setup.

Upgrade Umbraco via NuGet in Visual Studio. Make sure the Umbraco.Core.ConfigurationStatus key in appSetting in the web.config file is updated to match the target version.
Deploy to all environments, including the updated appSetting for Umbraco.Core.ConfigurationStatus.
Set the Umbraco.Core.RuntimeState.UpgradeUnattended key in appSetting in the web.config to true for the Main server only.
Request a page on the Main server and the upgrade will run automatically.
Wait for the upgrade to complete.
Browse the Read-Only servers and make sure they do not show the “upgrade required” screen.

Post installation

One important recommendation is to always remove the install folder immediately after upgrading Umbraco and never to upload it to a live server.

Potential issues and gotchas

Browser cache

Google Chrome has notoriously aggressive caching, so if something doesn't seem to work well in the backoffice, make sure to clear cache and cookies thoroughly (for other browsers as well). Normally the browser cache problem is automatically handled in an Umbraco upgrade by modifying the config/ClientDependency.config version number. If you however wish to re-force this update you can increment this version number which will ensure that any server-side cache of JavaScript and stylesheets gets cleared as well.

One way to nudge the cache in Chrome is to open the developer tools (F12) and go to the settings (the cog icon). There will be a checkbox that says "Disable cache (while DevTools is open)". Once this checkbox is on you can refresh the page and the cache should be invalidated. To force it even more, the "reload" button next to your address bar now has extra options when you right-click it. It should have "Normal reload", "Hard reload" and "Empty cache and hard reload" now. The last option is the most thorough and you might want to try that.

Upgrade to Umbraco 7

This document should be used as a reference, not a step by step guide. Upgrading will largely depend on what version of Umbraco you are currently running, what packages you have installed and the many

The still apply to this process as well.

Backup

It is critical that you back up your website and database before upgrading. There are database changes made during installation and you cannot revert an Umbraco 7 database to an Umbraco 6 database.

.Net 4.5

Umbraco 7 is built on .Net 4.5 and your development environment will require this version installed in order to operate. Visual Studio users may require 2012 or higher.

HTML 5 browser support

Umbraco 7 requires browsers with proper HTML 5 support, these include Chrome, Firefox, IE10+

Breaking changes

Before you upgrade be sure to read the list of breaking changes. This is especially recommended if you have removed or modified code in the core or if one of these breaking changes directly affects your installation.

for more details.

Examine

It is recommended to rebuild all Examine indexes after completing the upgrade.

Xml Cache rebuild

You should re-generate the XML cache. This can be done by following the prompts when visiting the following URL:

your-domain.com/umbraco/dialogs/republish.aspx?xml=true

Configuration changes

It is recommended that you use a Diff tool to compare the configuration file changes with your own current configuration files.

/web.config updates
- You will need to compare the new Umbraco 7 web.config with your current web.config. Here is a quick reference of what needs to change:
  - Remove the section name="BaseRestExtensions" section
  - Remove the section name="FileSystemProviders" section
  - Remove the sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" section
  - Remove the <FileSystemProviders> element
  - Remove the BaseRestExtensions element
  - Remove the add key="umbracoUseMediumTrust" element
  - Remove the system.web.extensions element
  - Removes the xhtmlConformance element
  - Remove the system.codedom element
  - Remove the compilation assemblies, /compilation
  - Remove the system.web.webPages.razor element
  - New: sectionGroup name="umbracoConfiguration" section
  - New: umbracoConfiguration element
  - Ensure that the targetFramework="4.5" is added to the httpRuntime element
  - Add add key="ValidationSettings:UnobtrusiveValidationMode" value="None" to the appSettings element
/config/clientdependency.config changes
- remove add name="CanvasProvider" element
/views/web.config updates
New macroscripts/web.config
config/umbracoSettings.config
- Remove the EnableCanvasEditing element
- Remove the webservices element
Removed xsltExtensions.config
/config/applications.config and /config/trees.config have some icon paths and names updated. You need to merge the new changes into your existing config files.
/config/tinyMceConfig.config
- The inlinepopups is compatible and supported in Umbraco 7. You need to remove these elements: plugin loadOnFrontend="true", inlinepopups/plugin;
- The plugins element that is shipped with Umbraco 7 looks like this:
  - You need to merge the changes from the new tinyMceConfig file into yours. The command elements that have changed are: JustifyCenter, JustifyLeft, JustifyRight, JustifyFull, umbracomacro, umbracoembed, mceImage, subscript, superscript, styleselect
  - Remove the command: mceSpellCheck
/config/dashboard.config
- You need to merge the changes from the new dashboard.config into yours. Some of the original dashboard entries that were shipped with Umbraco 6 have been replaced or removed.

Medium Trust

Umbraco 7+ will no longer support medium trust environments. There are now some assemblies used in the core that do not support medium trust but are used extensively. Plugin scanning now also allows for scanning Umbraco's internal types which requires full trust.

Events

Tree events

Content, Media, Members, and Data Type trees will no longer raise the legacy tree events (based on BaseTree). It is recommended to change all tree event handlers to use the new tree events that fire for every tree in Umbraco including legacy trees. The new tree events are static events and are found in the class Umbraco.Web.Trees.TreeControllerBase:

MenuRendering
RootNodeRendering
TreeNodesRendering

Legacy business logic events

The Content, Media, Member, and Data Type editors have been re-created and are solely using the new Umbraco Services data layer. This means that operations performed in the backoffice will no longer raise the legacy business logic events (for example, events based on umbraco.cms.businesslogic.web.Document). It is recommended to change your event handlers to subscribe to the new Services data layer events. These are static events and are found in the services. For example: Umbraco.Core.Services.ContentService.Saved.

Property Editors

Legacy property editors (pre-Umbraco 7) will not work with Umbraco 7. During the upgrade installation process, Umbraco will generate a report showing you which legacy property editors are installed. These will all be converted to a readonly Label property editor. No data loss will occur but you'll need to re-assign your existing data types to use a new compatible Umbraco 7 property editor.

Most Umbraco core property editors shipped will be mapped to their equivalent Umbraco 7 editors. The Image cropper editor has not been completed for v7.0.

Since the Related Links property is an advanced property editor, the data format has changed from XML to JSON. This should not have any effect when retrieving the data from razor. If you are outputting Related Links data with XSLT you will need to update your XSLT snippet. Making use of the new library method umbraco.library:JsonToXml and taking into account that the xml structure has also slightly changed.

GUID -> Alias mapping

One of the database changes made in Umbraco 7 is the change of referencing a property editor from a GUID to a string alias. In order to map a legacy property editor to a new Umbraco 7 version you can add your custom "GUID -> Alias" map during application startup. To do this you would add your map using this method: Umbraco.Core.PropertyEditors.LegacyPropertyEditorIdToAliasConverter.CreateMap

Parameter Editors

Legacy parameter editors (pre-Umbraco 7) will not work with Umbraco 7. If Umbraco detects legacy parameter editor aliases that do not map to a Umbraco 7 parameter editor it will render a textbox in its place. You will need to update your macros to use a compatible Umbraco 7 parameter editor as those that aren't supported.

Previously, parameter editors were registered in an Umbraco database table: cmsMacroPropertyType which no longer exists. Parameter editors in Umbraco 7 are plugins like property editors. During the Umbraco 7 upgrade installation process it will update the new cmsMacroProperty.editorAlias column with the previous parameter editor alias. During this process it will look into the Umbraco.Core.PropertyEditors.LegacyParameterEditorAliasConverter for a map between a legacy alias to a new Umbraco 7 alias.

Custom legacy parameters can be mapped to new Umbraco 7 parameter editor aliases during installation. This can be done by modifying the mapping during application startup using this method: Umbraco.Core.PropertyEditors.LegacyParameterEditorAliasConverter.CreateMap.

Database changes

All database changes will be taken care of during the upgrade installation process.

For database change details see (including all child tasks):

Packages

You should check with the package creator for all installed packages to ensure they are compatible with Umbraco 7.

For package developers

We see common errors that we cannot fix for you, but we do have recommendations you can follow to fix them:

TypeFinder

The TypeFinder has been deprecated since 4.10 and is now found under Umbraco.Core.TypeFinder.

While you need to have JavaScript inside menu actions to trigger a response, it is highly recommended that you use the recommended UmbClientMgr methods. You should not try to override parent.right.document and similar tricks to get to the right-hand frame.

Use the recommended Umbraco uicontrols

If you have a webforms page, it is recommended to use the built-in ASP.NET controls to render panels, properties and so on. If you use the raw HTML or try to style it to match the backoffice, you will get out of sync. Follow the guidelines set by Umbraco's internal editors and use the ASP.NET custom controls for UI.

File And Folder Permissions

Information on file and folder permissions required for Umbraco sites

To ensure a stable and smoothly running Umbraco installation, these permissions need to be set correctly. These permissions should be set up before or during the installation of Umbraco.

The main account that requires 'modify' file permissions to be set on the folders below, is the account used start Umbraco. If Umbraco is hosted in IIS this will be the Application Pool Identity for the IIS website. Usually IIS APPPOOL\appPoolName or a specific local account or in some circumstances Network Service. If in doubt, ask your server admin / hosting company. Additionally, the Internet User (IUSR) account and IIS_IUSRS account only require 'read only' access to the site's folders.

Generally, when developing locally with Visual Studio or Rider, permissions do not need to be strictly applied.

If you have any specific static files/media items/etc, you should add the appropriate permissions accordingly.

The permissions documentation should allow you to run a plain Umbraco install successfully.

File / folder

Permission

Comment

Version Specific Upgrades

This document covers specific upgrade steps if a version requires them. Most versions do not require specific upgrade steps and you will be able to upgrade directly from your current version.

Version Specific Upgrades

Use the information below to learn about any potential breaking changes and common pitfalls when upgrading your Umbraco CMS project.

If any specific steps are involved with upgrading to a specific version they will be listed below.

Use the to complete the upgrade of your project.

Breaking changes

Umbraco 15

Snapshots are removed

Modelsbuilder models needs to be rebuilt

InMemoryAuto

Remove the umbraco\Data\TEMP\InMemoryAuto folder to trigger a rebuild of the models.

SourceCodeAuto and SourceCodeManual

This will allow your site to start up, but you will still see an error page when loading a page.

Disregard the error.
Enter the backoffice.
Rebuild the models from the ModelsBuilder dashboard.

You can now re-enable precompiled views and rebuild your site.

Handling Precompressed Files

To disable this feature, set <CompressionEnabled>false</CompressionEnabled> in your project file. If you are using Umbraco's templates - dotnet new umbraco, this setting is already included.

For more details, see the .

Umbraco 14

Read more about the release of Umbraco 14 in the .

Below you can find the list of breaking changes introduced in Umbraco 14 CMS.

Icons are based on Lucide.

Umbraco 13 and earlier used sets of icons ranging from custom SVGs to Font Awesome. This has all been converged into the with icon names mapped from Umbraco 13.

Custom icons

User provided translations

You can read more about .

BackOffice controllers have been replaced with the Management API

A new way of writing authorized controllers

Nested Content and Grid Layout have been removed

We have for some time , and now it’s fully removed. You should use the default Media Picker instead.

Macros and Partial View Macros have been removed. Use partial views and/or blocks in the Rich Text Editor (RTE)

XPath has been removed

An alternative is using the Dynamic Roots in the Multinode Treepicker and for ContentXPath the alternative is .

Smidge is no longer a default dependency

You can read the on how to set up a similar setting to RuntimeMinification. For sites being upgraded from V13 or below, please remove from the _ViewImports.cshtml file.

Base classes for Backoffice controllers have been removed

Read the for a comprehensive guide to writing APIs for the Management API.

Removal of certain AppSettings

Some AppSettings have been removed or found a new place. In general, any UI-related app settings will now have to be configured as .

RichTextEditor

ShowDeprecatedPropertyEditors

There are no deprecated property editors in Bellissima and this configuration will no longer have an effect.

HideBackOfficeLogo

IconsPath

This configuration will no longer have an effect. Instead, you should add icons through the “icons” extension type.

AllowedMediaHosts

This configuration will no longer have an effect.

Notifications

Property editors have been split in two

The new Backoffice and the Management API ushers in a shift in responsibility. Traditionally, a lot of UI responsibility has been misplaced on the server.

For example, it is hardly a server concern how many rows a text area should span by default.

To this end, property editors have been split into two, individually reusable parts; the server implementation and the client implementation.

As a consequence, a property editor must now define both which client and server implementation to use. Details can be found in article.

Property value converters for package.manifest based property editors

More details can be found in .

UmbracoApiController breakage

Due to the shift from Newtonsoft.Json to the System.Text.Json, the UmbracoApiController will yield camel-cased output in Umbraco 14, where it was pascal-cased in the previous versions.

Two-Factor Authentication requires a client registration

This will use Umbraco’s default configuration of the two-factor provider. The user scans a QR code using an app such as Google Authenticator or Authy by Twilio.

It is additionally possible to register your own configurator similar to Umbraco 13. You can achieve this by providing a custom JavaScript element through the elementJs property.

More details and code examples can be found in the article.

External Login Providers require a client registration

Additionally, on the backend side, there is an additional helper available to do proper error handling. You can utilize this by using the options pattern to configure the provider.

More details and code examples can be found in the article.\

Deprecated SQLite provider name removed

The deprecated version, Microsoft.Data.SQlite, has been removed and will require the value to be updated to Microsoft.Data.Sqlite for installations using an SQLite database.

In-depth and further breaking changes for Umbraco 14 can be found on the repository and on .

Umbraco 14 RC Versions

Below you can find the list of breaking changes introduced in Umbraco 14 RC release versions.

RC 5

RC 4

RC 3

RC 2

RC 1 First RC release - 17th of April. Breaking changes since Beta 3:

Umbraco 14 Beta Versions

Below you can find the list of breaking changes introduced in Umbraco 14 Beta release versions.

Beta 3

Beta 2

There are a few breaking changes since Beta 1. Most of the changes concern property editors and getting them to work with migrations as well as new values.

Beta 1 Official release of Beta, 6th March 2023.

Umbraco 13

Below you can find the list of breaking changes introduced in Umbraco 13.

You can find more information about all breaking changes for v13.0.0 on website.

Note: You need to be aware of some things if you are using EF Core, and have installed the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design 8.0.0 package:

This package has a transient dependency to Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common which clashes with the same transient dependency from Umbraco.Cms 13.0.0. This happens because Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design 8.0.0 requires Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Workspaces in v4.5.0 or higher.
If there are no other dependencies that need that package then it installs it in the lowest allowed version (4.5.0). That package then has a strict dependency on Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common version 4.5.0. The problem is Umbraco.Cms through its own transient dependencies that require the version of Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common to be >= 4.8.0.
This can be fixed by installing Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Workspaces version 4.8.0 as a specific package instead of leaving it as a transient dependency. This is because it will then have a strict transient dependency on Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common version 4.8.0, which is the same that Umbraco has.

Umbraco 12

Umbraco 12 does not include many binary breaking changes, but there are some.

A type, enum, record, or struct visible outside the assembly is missing in the compared assembly when required to be present.

PagedModel has moved namespace from Umbraco.New.Cms.Core.Models to Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.PostMigrations.ClearCsrfCookies is removed. The functionality can be archived by implementing a notification handler for the new UmbracoPlanExecutedNotification.
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Cache.DistributedCacheBinder is now divided into separate files for each notification handler
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.PostMigrations.DeleteLogViewerQueryFile was a no-op method removed.
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.PostMigrations.RebuildPublishedSnapshot replaced with a RebuildCache flag on the MigrationBase

A member that is visible outside of the assembly is missing in the compared assembly when required to be present.

Umbraco.Cms.Core.Migrations.IMigrationPlanExecutor.Execute(Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.MigrationPlan,System.String) replaced with Umbraco.Cms.Core.Migrations.IMigrationPlanExecutor.ExecutePlan(Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.* * Migrations.MigrationPlan,System.String) that returns an rich object instead of a string
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.IMigrationContext.AddPostMigration``1 Removed and replaced with notification
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.MigrationPlan.AddPostMigration``1
Removed and replaced with notification
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.MigrationPlan.get_PostMigrationTypes removed.
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.Upgrade.Upgrader.Execute(Umbraco.Cms.Core.Migrations.IMigrationPlanExecutor,Umbraco.Cms.Core.Scoping.IScopeProvider,Umbraco.Cms.Core.Services.IKeyValueService) was obsolete and is replaced by method taking a ICoreScopeProvider instead of a IScopeProvider

An abstract member was added to the right side of the comparison to an unsealed type.

PublishedPropertyBase now requires inheritors to implement GetDeliveryApiValue(System.Boolean,System.String,System.String)

A member was added to an interface without a default implementation.

Umbraco.Cms.Core.Events.IEventAggregator.Publish2(System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable{0})
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Events.IEventAggregator.PublishAsync2(System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable{0},System.Threading.CancellationToken)
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedProperty.GetDeliveryApiValue(System.Boolean,System.String,System.String)
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedPropertyType.ConvertInterToDeliveryApiObject(Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedElement,Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors.PropertyCacheLevel,System.Object,System.Boolean,System.Boolean)
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedPropertyType.ConvertInterToDeliveryApiObject(Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedElement,Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors.PropertyCacheLevel,System.Object,System.Boolean)
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent.IPublishedPropertyType.DeliveryApiCacheLevel
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Scoping.ICoreScope.Locks
Umbraco.Cms.Core.Migrations.IMigrationPlanExecutor.ExecutePlan(Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Migrations.MigrationPlan,System.String)
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Search.IUmbracoIndexingHandler.RemoveProtectedContent
Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Examine.IUmbracoIndex.SupportProtectedContent

Umbraco 11

Most breaking changes are introduced due to updated dependencies. The breaking changes in .NET 7 and ASP.NET Core 7 are documented by .

Besides the documented changes, we have also seen a few method signatures that are changed to support Nullable-Reference-Types.

If you are using TinyMCE plugins or custom TinyMCE configuration you need to migrate to the latest version. Learn more about this in the .

The breaking changes in TinyMCE are also documented in the official migration guides for and from .

The breaking changes in Umbraco 11 are mainly the removal of classes, methods, and so on, marked as obsolete in Umbraco 9.

A few methods and classes have also been moved and changed namespace. Decoupled dependencies are documented on the .

The full list of API-breaking changes can be found below.

Obsolete code removed

The following have been removed after having been obsoleted since Umbraco 9.

Umbraco.Extensions

Umbraco.Cms.Core

Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure

Umbraco.Cms.Web

Umbraco.Cms.Tests

Code moved to new assemblies and namespaces

The following have been moved to new assemblies and their namespaces have been updated accordingly.

Umbraco.Extensions

Umbraco.Cms.Web

Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure

New interface methods

A few interfaces have been merged, adding new members to the original interfaces.

Umbraco.Cms.Core

No-Operation methods removed

A method not doing anything for the last couple of major releases have been removed.

Umbraco.Cms.Core

Changes due to models made immutable

A single model have been made immutable, so the default constructor and the setters are not available anymore.

Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure

Classes that does not inherit from base type anymore

The following classes now directly inherit from OEmbedProviderBase instead of EmbedProviderBase.

Umbraco.Cms.Core

Umbraco 10

The diff library used in the Backoffice client has been updated and introduces a breaking change since the exposed global object has been renamed from JsDiff to Diff.

Removes mutable ContentSchedule property from IContent/Content to read/write content schedules.

Use IContentService.GetContentScheduleByContentId && IContentService.PersistContentSchedule or the optional contentSchedule parameter on IContentService.Save instead.

Removed public methods: PublishedSnapshotServiceEventHandler.Dispose, PublishedSnapshotServiceEventHandler.Dispose(bool), and .PublishedSnapshotServiceEventHandler.Initialize.
Removed public ctor.

Some public classes in the Cms.Core.Services namespace have moved assembly from Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure to Umbraco.Cms.Core.
These same public classes have changed namespace from Umbraco.Cms.Core.Services.Implement to Umbraco.Cms.Core.Services.

NPoco types and interfaces are part of our public interface which means that this upgrade imposes breaking changes.

Removed support for Microsoft SQL Server Compact (SQL CE).
Removed ReadLock and WriteLock methods from ISqlSyntaxProvider interface. Use IDistributedLockingMechanism (or IScope which delegates to IDistributedLockingMechanism) instead.
Constants for SQL Server provider name moved+consolidated from Core.Constants.DatabaseProviders and Core.Constants.-DbProviderNames to Umbraco.Cms.Persistence.SqlServer.Constants
Some SQL Server related services moved from the Umbraco.Infrastructure project to the new Umbraco.Cms.Persistence.
SqlServer project with altered namespaces e.g. SqlServerSyntaxProvider, SqlServerBulkSqlInsertProvider, SqlServerDatabaseCreator.

Added the following methods/properties to ISqlSyntaxProvider. These must be implemented in any downstream implementation e.g:

ISqlSyntaxProvider.HandleCreateTable(IDatabase,TableDefinition,Boolean)
ISqlSyntaxProvider.GetFieldNameForUpdate()
ISqlSyntaxProvider.GetColumn(DatabaseType,String,String,String,String,Boolean)
ISqlSyntaxProvider.InsertForUpdateHint(Sql)
ISqlSyntaxProvider.AppendForUpdateHint(Sql)
ISqlSyntaxProvider.LeftJoinWithNestedJoin(Sql,Func<Sql,Sql>,String)

Update dependency versions:

SixLabors.ImageSharp from 1.0.4 to 2.1.1
SixLabors.ImageSharp.Web from 1.0.5 to 2.0.0

Renamed the CachedNameLength property to CacheHashLength on ImagingCacheSettings.

Moved ImageSharp configuration from the AddUmbracoImageSharp() extension method into separate IConfigureOptions<> implementations:

The middleware is configured in ConfigureImageSharpMiddlewareOptions (which also replaces ImageSharpConfigurationOptions that previously only set the default ImageSharp configuration);
The default physical cache is configured in ConfigurePhysicalFileSystemCacheOptions.

umbracoMemberFailedPasswordAttempts
umbracoMemberApproved
umbracoMemberLockedOut
umbracoMemberLastLockoutDate
umbracoMemberLastLogin
umbracoMemberLastPasswordChangeDate

Lastly the nullable dates on a user, i.e. LastLoginLate will now be null instead of DateTime.MinValue when getting a user with the UserService.

Examine 3 breaking changes:

ValueSet immutable.
ValueSetValidationResult is renamed to ValueSetValidationStatus and ValueSetValidationResult is now a type.

Has changed to:

Added more methods to IRedirectUrlRepository and IRedirectUrlService.cs.

Added a new method on IPublishedModelFactory: Type GetModelType(string? alias);
The generic types of a BlockListItem<TContent, TSettings>instance in theBlockListModelreturned byBlockListPropertyValueConverteris now determined by calling this new method, which can be different and cause aModelBindingException` in your views.

Has changed to:

StackQueue has been moved from Umbraco.Core.Collections to the Umbraco.Cms.Core.Collections namespace.

Globalsetting SqlWriteLockTimeOut has been removed

This setting has been superseded by DistributedLockingWriteLockDefaultTimeout.

GlobalSetting UmbracoPath cannot be configured

Release notes

You can find a list of all the released Umbraco versions on website. When you visit Our Umbraco website, click on the version number to view the changes made in that specific version.

Find your upgrade path

Are you looking to upgrade an Umbraco Cloud project from 9 to 10? Follow the guide made for instead, as it requires a few steps specific to Umbraco Cloud.

13.latest to the latest version

Update _ViewImports.cshtml file

In Umbraco 14, Smidge has been removed from the CMS.

In the _ViewImports.cshtml of your project, remove the following lines:

Otherwise, it will cause an error on the front end.

Update program.cs file

Remove u.UseInstallerEndpoints(); from the program.cs file to avoid issues when running the project

Update code using Angular JS

Angular JS has been removed in Umbraco 14. If you have extended your Umbraco project using Angular JS, it must be updated. for more information read the documentation.

Deprecated property editors

Nested Content and Grid Layout have been removed. We recommend rebuilding it using Block Grid for the grid layout and either Block Grid or Block List for Nested Content.

The legacy Media Picker has been removed, use the default Media Picker.

Macros and partial views macros removed

Macros and partial views macros have been removed in Umbraco 14. We recommend using partial views or blocks in the Rich Text Editor (RTE).

For more information on what has changed in Umbraco 14 read the .

Block Editor data format has changes

In Umbraco 15, the internal data format for has changed. This causes a content migration to run when upgrading.

This content migration can take a while to complete on a large site, causing it to be unresponsive for the duration. To speed up the migration, it is advised to before upgrading.

While we don't recommend this, it might be possible for you to skip the content migration. More details can be found in the article.

10.latest to 13.latest

It is recommended that you upgrade to the closest version before upgrading to the latest version. For Umbraco 10, the closest long-term support version is Umbraco 13 so a direct upgrade is possible.

9.latest to 10

Watch the for a complete walk-through of all the steps.

The upgrade path between Umbraco 9 and Umbraco 10 can be done directly by upgrading your project using NuGet. You will need to ensure the packages you are using are available in Umbraco 10.

SQL CE is no longer a supported database engine

There is no official migration path from SQL CE to another database engine.

The following options may suit your needs:

Follow a community guide to migrate from a SQL CE database to SQL Server, like the
Setup a new database for v10 and use to transfer document types and content across.
Setup a new database for v10 and use a premium tool such as to copy database contents across.
Setup a new database for v10 and use a premium tool such as to transfer document types and content across.

Steps to upgrade using Visual Studio

It's recommended that you upgrade the site offline, and test the upgrade fully before deploying it to the production environment.

Stop your site in IIS to prevent any changes being made to the database or filesystem while you are upgrading.
Open your Umbraco 9 project in Visual Studio.
Right-click on the project name in the Solution Explorer and select Properties.
Select .NET 6.0 from the Target Framework drop-down.
Go to Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution...
Go to the Installed tab in the NuGet Package manager.
Choose Umbraco.Cms.
Select 10.0.0 from the Version drop-down and click Install to upgrade your project to version 10.
Update Program.cs to the following:

Remove the following files and folders:
- /wwwroot/umbraco
- /umbraco/PartialViewMacros
- /umbraco/UmbracoBackOffice
- /umbraco/UmbracoInstall
- /umbraco/UmbracoWebsite
- /umbraco/config/lang
- /umbraco/config/appsettings-schema.json
If using Umbraco Forms, update your files and folders according to the for version 10 article.
Restart your site in IIS, build and run your project to finish the installation of Umbraco 10.

To re-enable the appsettings IntelliSense, you must update your schema reference in the appsettings.json file and any other appsettings.{Environment}.json files from:

To:

To upgrade to Umbraco 10, your database needs to be at least on Umbraco 8.18.

Upgrade of any publicly hosted environment

When the upgrade is completed and tested, and prior to deploying to any publicly accessible environment, you should consider the following:

Ensure you have backups for both the database and the file system.
Stop the site so it is not accessible during the upgrade process.
Delete the relevant folders from the filesystem prior to deploying:
- /wwwroot/umbraco
- /umbraco/PartialViewMacros
- /umbraco/UmbracoBackOffice
- /umbraco/UmbracoInstall
- /umbraco/UmbracoWebsite
- /umbraco/config/lang
- /umbraco/config/appsettings-schema.json
If you are using Umbraco Forms, update your files and folders according to the for version 10 article.
Deploy the site how you normally would to your public facing environment.
Start the site. At this point it will launch and upgrade the database, after which the site should become accessible and your upgrade is complete.
Check the logs for any errors which may have occurred during the upgrade process.

8.latest to 9

There is no direct upgrade path from Umbraco 8 to Umbraco 9. It is however possible to migrate from Umbraco 8 sites to Umbraco 9 sites.

You can reuse your content by restoring your Umbraco 8 database into a new database used for an Umbraco 9 site.

You need to ensure the packages you are using are available in Umbraco 9, and you will need to reimplement your custom code and templates.

The direct upgrade path is not possible because the codebase has been fundamentally updated in Umbraco 9. The underlying web framework has been updated from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core.

It is not possible to take this step while maintaining full compatibility with Umbraco 8.

8.0.0 to 8.1.0

There are a few breaking changes from 8.0.x to 8.1.0. Make sure to check the .

IPublishedContent breaking changes in 8.1.0

Due to the there are a few steps you will need to take, to make sure that your site works.

Fixing the bugs is a requirement. Some of the required bug fixes could not be achieved without introducing some breaking changes.

At that point, we decided to give IPublishedContent some love. We fixed the bugs and made it clean, friendly, discoverable, and predictable for the entire life of version 8.

The general idea underlying these changes is that:

The proper way to retrieve "something" from an IPublishedContent instance is always through a method, for example: Children(). And, when that method can be multilingual, the method accepts a culture parameter, which can be left null to get the "current" culture value.
To reduce the amount of breaking changes, and to simplify things for non-multilingual sites, existing properties such as document.Name and document.Children (and others) still exist, and return the value for the current culture. In other words, these properties are now implemented as document.Name => document.Name() or document.Children => document.Children().

The rest of this document presents each change in details.

More interfaces

In version 8.1, these two classes are abstracted as IPublishedContentType and IPublishedPropertyType, thus making IPublishedContent easier to mock and test.

The following IPublishedContent members change:

Name

CHANGE: Calls to document.GetCulture(culture).Name must be replaced with document.Name(culture).

UrlSegment

CHANGE: Calls to document.GetCulture(culture).UrlSegment must be replaced with document.UrlSegment(culture).

Culture

CHANGE: Calls to document.GetCulture(culture).Date must be replaced with document.CultureDate(culture). Calls to document.Cultures must take into account the invariant culture.

Children

A new document.ChildrenForAllCultures property is introduced, which returns all children, regardless of whether they are available for a culture or not.

Url

CHANGE: Calls to document.GetUrl(...) must be replaced with document.Url(...). Calls to document.UrlAbsolute() must be replaced with document.Url(mode: UrlMode.Absolute).

UmbracoContext

Due to the UrlProviderMode enumeration being renamed UrlMode, the signature of some overloads of the Url(...) method has changed. Methods that do not have a mode parameter remain unchanged.

CHANGE: Code such as context.Url(1234, UrlProviderMode.Absolute) must become context.Url(1234, UrlMode.Absolute).

GetCulture

Version 7 had a document.GetCulture() method that was deriving a culture from domains configured in the tree. Somehow, that method was lost during version 8 development (issue ).

Because that method is useful, especially when building traditional, non-multilingual sites, it has been re-introduced in version 8.1 as document.GetCultureFromDomains().

CHANGE: None.

DomainHelper

DomainHelper has been replaced with a static DomainUtilities class.

Models Builder

If you're using ModelsBuilder in dll mode you need to delete the dlls before upgrading. Otherwise, they're going to be wrong and cause your whole site to throw errors.

AutoMapper

Umbraco 8.1 replaces AutoMapper with . This in itself will not break anything on your site. If you have used AutoMapper in your own code you will have to either include the package yourself or switch your implementation to use UmbracoMapper.

Follow the to complete the upgrade

7.latest to 8.0.0

In Umbraco 8 we have added improvements and updated dependencies. We have also done a thorough clean-up to make it simpler for you to work with and extend your Umbraco project.

7.6.3 to 7.7.0

For a full list of breaking changes see:

Version 7.7.2 no longer ships with the CookComputing.XmlRpcV2 assembly. If you reference this assembly or have a package that requires this assembly, you need to copy it back into your website.

Follow the to complete the upgrade.

7.6.0 to 7.6.3

In short:

Multi Node Tree Picker
Related Links
Member Picker

Depending on whether you tried to fix the problem with those, you will need to fix them after you upgrade to 7.6.3.

Property Value Converters (PVC)

In Umbraco 7.6.0, this is what you would do instead:

This is possible using Models Builder and through the inclusion of , a package by community member Jeavon Leopold.

To not break everybody's sites (the results of queries are different when PVCs are enabled), we disabled these PVCs by default.

Umbraco 7.6.0 also came with new pickers that store their data as a . We wanted to simplify the use of these new pickers and by default we wanted PVC's to always be enabled for those pickers.

We noticed that some new pickers also got their PVC's disabled when the configuration setting was set to false (<EnablePropertyValueConverters>false</EnablePropertyValueConverters>).

So we have fixed this now in 7.6.3.

This issue only affects:

Multi Node Tree Picker
Related Links
Member Picker

Have you already upgraded to 7.6.2 and fixed queries for those three Data Types? Then you have to do that again in version 7.6.3.

Follow the to complete the upgrade.

7.4.0 to 7.6.0

Find a list of all the breaking changes below and

The three most important things to note are:

In web.config do not change useLegacyEncoding to false if it is currently set to true - changing the password encoding will cause you not being able to log in any more.
In umbracoSettings.config leave EnablePropertyValueConverters set to false - this will help your existing content queries to still work.
In tinyMceConfig.config make sure to remove <plugin loadOnFrontend="true">umbracolink</plugin> so that the rich text editor works as it should.

Breaking Changes

Dependencies

UrlRewriting.Net ()

UrlRewriting was old, leaking memory, and slowing down website startup when dealing with more than a few rules. It's entirely replaced by the extension.

Json.Net ()

Json.Net has been updated to version 10.0.0 to benefit from improvements in features, fixes, and performances (see ). This might be a breaking change for people relying on one of the changed functionality.

Log4net ()

ImageProcessor ()

HtmlAgilityPack ()

The HtmlAgilityPack has been upgraded to version 1.4.9.5. The Umbraco upgrade process should take care of setting up the binding redirects appropriately.

Core

Membership Provider Encoding ()

The Membership Provider useLegacyEncoding setting is now false by default, as the legacy password encoding has weaknesses.

This change only impacts new installs (no change for upgrades).

Property Value Converters ()

Instead of returning comma-separated string values like it did before, the SliderValueConverter now returns a decimal or a Range<decimal> value that can be used directly in views.

This change only impacts new installs (no change for upgrades).

Database ()

More details are available on on the 301 Redirect Tracker GitHub issue tracker.

Scopes ()

Scopes should not change how Umbraco functions.

Introducing scopes means that some public APIs signatures are changing. Most of these changes target internal and/or non-breaking APIs (as per our ). This should therefore have no impact on sites but may break unit tests.

Property Editors storing UDI instead of ID ()

New sites will have the obsolete pickers filtered out from the list of available property editors, but they can be enabled by a configuration flag.

Rich Text Editor (RTE) Images attributes (, )

Others

We are shipping with SignalR in the core at version 2.2.1. If you already have SignalR installed into your app and are using an older version there may be conflicts.

The creation and editing of WebForms templates will no longer be supported as for version 7.6.0.

Upgrading via NuGet

However, if you are not using it, you will get an error after upgrading. Here's how to fix it:

and

Remove the following httpModules from your web.config:

and

Forms

There are .

Courier

Umbraco Courier 3.1.0 has been released to be compatible with Umbraco 7.6. If you are using Courier, you will need to update it to version 3.1.0.

Follow the to complete the upgrade

7.3.0 to 7.4.0

For manual upgrades:

Copy the new folder ~/App_Plugins/ModelsBuilder into the site
Do not forget to merge ~/Config/trees.config and ~/Config/Dashboard.config - they contain new and updated entries that are required to be there
- If you forget trees.config you will either not be able to browse the Developer section or you will be logged out immediately when trying to go to the developer section
You may experience an error saying Invalid object name 'umbracoUser' - this can be fixed by

Follow the to complete the upgrade.

7.2.0 to 7.3.0

NuGet will do the following for you. If you're upgrading manually make sure to also:

Delete bin/Microsoft.Web.Helpers.dll
Delete bin/Microsoft.Web.Mvc.FixedDisplayModes.dll
Delete bin/System.Net.Http.dll
Delete bin/System.Net.Http.*.dll (all dll files starting with System.Net.Http) except for System.Net.Http.Formatting.dll
Delete bin/umbraco.XmlSerializers.dll
Add this in the appSetting section of your web.config file: <add key="owin:appStartup" value="UmbracoDefaultOwinStartup" />

Other considerations:

WebApi has been updated, normally you don’t have to do anything unless you have custom webapi configuration:
- See this article if you are using WebApiConfig.Register:
- You need to update your web.config file to have the correct WebApi version references - this should be done by doing a compare/merge of your ~/web.config file with the ~/web.config file in the release
MVC has been updated to MVC5
- You need to update your web.config file to have the correct MVC version references - this should be done by doing a compare/merge of your ~/web.config file with the ~/web.config file in the release
- The upgrader will take care of updating all other web.config’s (in all other folders, for example, the Views and App_Plugins folders) to have the correct settings
- For general ASP.NET MVC 5 upgrade details see:
It is not required that you merge the changes for the Examine index paths in the ExamineIndex.config file. However, if you do, your indexes will be rebuilt on startup because Examine will detect that they don’t exist at the new location.
It's highly recommended to clear the browser cache - the ClientDependency version is automatically bumped during installation which should force the browser cache to refresh, however in some edge cases this might not be enough.

Follow the to complete the upgrade.

7.1.0 to 7.2.0

Copy in the /Views/Partials/Grid (contains Grid rendering views).

Follow the to complete the upgrade.

7.0.2 to 7.1.0

Remove the /Install folder.

Follow the to complete the upgrade.

7.0.1 to 7.0.2

There was an update to the /umbraco/config/create/ui.xml which needs to be manually updated. The original element had this text:

The usercontrol value has changed to: /create/user.ascx. This is a required change otherwise creating a new user will not work.
There is a breaking change to be aware of, full details can be found .

Follow the to complete the upgrade.

7.0.0 to 7.0.1

Remove all uGoLive dlls from /bin
- These are not compatible with V7
Move appSettings/connectionStrings back to web.config
- If you are on 7.0.0 you should migrate these settings into the web.config instead of having them in separate files in /config/
- The keys in config/AppSettings.config need to be moved back to the web.config <appSettings> section and similarly, the config/ConnectionStrings.config holds the Umbraco database connections in v7.0.0 and they should be moved back to the web.config <connectionStrings> section.
- /config/AppSettings.config and /config/ConnectionString.config can be removed after the contents have been moved back to web.config.
Delete all files in ~/App_Data/TEMP/Razor/
- Related to issues with razor macros

Follow the to complete the upgrade.

6.latest to 7

Read and follow

4.latest to 6

If your site was ever a version between 4.10.0 and 4.11.4 and you have upgraded to 6.0.0 install the and run it after the upgrade process is finished.
The DocType Mixins package is not compatible with v6+ and will cause problems in your Document Types.

Version 4

Version 4.10.x to 4.11.x

If your site was ever a version between 4.10.0 and 4.11.4 install the and run it after the upgrade process is finished.

Version 4.8.0 to 4.10.0

Delete the bin/umbraco.linq.core.dll file
Copy the new files and folders from the zip file into your site's folder
- /App_Plugins
- /Views
- Global.asax
Remove the Config/formHandlers.config file

Version 4.7.2 to 4.8.0

Delete the bin/App_Browsers.dll file
Delete the bin/App_global.asax.dll file
Delete the bin/Fizzler.Systems.HtmlAgilityPack.dll file
For people using uComponents 3.1.2 or below, 4.8.0 breaks support for it. Either upgrade to a newer version beforehand or follow the workaround

Version 4.7.1.1 to 4.7.2

Delete the bin/umbraco.MacroEngines.Legacy.dll file

Version 4.6.1 to 4.7.1.1

Delete bin/Iron*.dll (all dll files starting with "Iron")
Delete bin/RazorEngine*.dll (all dll files starting with "RazorEngine")
Delete bin/umbraco.MacroEngines.Legacy.dll
Delete bin/Microsoft.Scripting.Debugging.dll
Delete bin/Microsoft.Dynamic.dll