As I manage multiple XenForo forums, updating could be very time consuming using the traditional route of dragging and dropping files within the FTP client.

My method involves using FTP, but a little faster way using your SSH client and copying the files though the command line.

Requirements:
XenForo file download
SSH Client (putty)
FTP Software (I recommend WinSCP, not Filezilla)

FIRST: BACKUP YOUR FILE SYSTEM AND DATABASE BEFORE BEGINNING.

For a backup script I’ve created, you may download here:

1.) Login to the XenForo customer portal and download the latest XenForo file package.
2.) Open your FTP program and drag and drop your complete XenForo file (.zip) package onto your server. Be sure to copy it somewhere outside of your “public”  or “public_html” directory, and DO NOT copy it into your “forum” or “community” directory.
– I place mine one level up, like so.
-(root)
—source  <–Copy Here (create your own, you can create with a different name)
–public_html
3.) Login into your server via SSH
– navigate into your “source” directory
-unzip the package: unzip <package-name>.zip
-navigate into the “upload” folder.
4.) At this point, you should be inside the “upload” folder in your XenForo source folder that you downloaded and unzipped from the XenForo customer portal.
5.) Confirm your inside the upload folder, by typing this: pwd
—-it should be something like this: /home/source/xenforo-1.4.5_dajdkajfd/upload/

Inside the XenForo package, type the following command:
\cp -R * /home/public_html/forum

Note: the ” \ ” had to be used to allow overrides when copying files. The ” * ” tells the system to copy everything in your CURRENT location. The last part (the file path) tells the system where to place the files… in this case it would be your forum install directory.

Note, the /home/public_html/path will depend on your installation. I would recommend navigating into the forum directory and running the ‘pwd’ command. Save that path into notepad so you will have it ready when you decide to begin copying files.

Navigate to your forum url with /install/ to finish the upgrade. Congrats! You’re now upgraded to the latest version of XenForo.