WordPress MU

I've just upgraded one of the site from v1.2.1 to v1.3.3. However, there are too many issues with the upgrade, from plugins not working, categories disappearing, and now files not showing up.

I was wondering if the downgrade procedure is similar to that of upgrade instructions? Basically, follow the info. at http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WPMU but use 1.2.1. I need for the site to function as before and perhaps upgrade or new installation at a later time.

Thank you for your help.

Use your DB backup, and file back up, to replace what is there now.

You did make backups, right?

Other than that, it's more a fix the issues then a revert back. Not to mention the security implications of it as well.

I've made backups of the previous version. However, the upgrade was done three weeks ago and there are new contents on the site. The new contents will not show up if I used the backup version (dilemma).

If it were me, I'd try fixing the existing problems vice trying to go back.

Unless you only have a handful of blogs, then you could export each one, and then import them.

I prefer 1.3.3 but it's not my decision. Additionally, there are too many blogs to export/import. I'm thinking the plugins used in 1.2.1 (mainly for regular WP) cause these issues but will test this out on another server to make certain.

I've just been upgrading from 1.2.5a to 1.3.3, and have finally got it sorted, now testing. Like you, I lost categories at first.

Categories:
I suggest you try to complete the upgrade process, see below. That will fix the Categories.

Plugins:
The plugins likely to fail under 1.3.3 are those that rely on the category tables (link). From what I'm seeing, mine seem fine.

Files not showing up:
I don't know what you mean by that.

The disappearance of Categories is a symptom that the upgrade process hasn't completed.

This seems to be a known issue for larger sites. There's a separate Taxonomy Synch Script which enables you to do it separately. It contains the advice:

You should use this if your server is busy and/or you have many blogs.

Instructions on how to use it are here.

Because you can run the taxonomy synch script on the existing database (after backing it up, of course) this will avoid the loss of the last 3 week's data.

Sorry, instructions link should point here.

Also, as I understand it, once you've run the taxonomy synch script, if you leave it in mu-plugins it will keep the new taxonomy tables in synch with the existing category tables until you're ready to upgrade.

Before upgrading to the WP 2.3 codebase it synchronises the new taxonomy tables with the old categories table. link

You could leave it like that while you get agreement to move to 1.3.3. Your categories will be back, and you won't lose recent data.

Thank you for all the help.

Currently, only one sub/blog is having the categories missing issue, even after running the taxonomy sync script. All other blogs function just fine. What I might do is re-create the blog that is having issue and manually export/import the posts. (I believed the taxonomy script is included in version 1.3.3 in wp-includes/taxonomy.php)

Additionally, from another post, I thought the memory_limit in my php.ini was an issue but it was already set at 64M (instead of the 8M default).