Do you know what your Moodle version is? If not, how about checking that Moodle version? In this blog post, we’ll discuss the topic in two parts. The first part is about ‘how to know your Moodle version’. In the second part, we’ll see, ‘how to update your Moodle version’.
Just a bit off the subject. Before we move on to the subject, feel free to check out the other ‘how to’ blogs on our website. These are a great help to train your folks in Moodle administration.
Now let’s move on to the topic.
How to Know Moodle Version
There are two ways to find a Moodle version, depending on your role on Moodle LMS.
- If your role is Moodle Admin
- If your role is Moodle Teacher
Let’s have a look at the first point and see how a Moodle admin finds out his/her Moodle version.
If your role is Moodle Admin
Step 1: Go to Site Administration
Login to your Moodle site and go to Site Administration. On the site administration, select Notifications.
Or, simply, the path is: Site Administration > Notifications
Step 2: Go to the Bottom of the Notifications
On the Notifications page, go to the bottom of the page. And see the details as shown in the image. From there, we will know your Moodle version.
Thus, you will know which Moodle version you have on your Moodle LMS.
If your role is not a Moodle Admin
Now, we’ll see how to see your Moodle version if you are not a Moodle admin. So, let’s say your role is Teacher.
#1. For Moodle sites in English and German
Know a Moodle version by inspecting the Moodle docs, at the bottom of any page on your Moodle LMS, provided your site should be in English or German (why?). And it depends whether your admin has given access to display Moodle docs as well.
#2. For Moodle sites in languages other than English and German
If you want to know your Moodle version, check the number in your Moodle URL. The number will be something like ‘37’ which means you have Moodle 3.7 version. If you find a number in the URL like ‘40’, that means your Moodle version is 4.0.
That’s how easy it is to find out which version of Moodle you have. It’s even easier for those non-tech folks to know their Moodle!
Now let’s see how we can update your Moodle version!
How to Update Your Moodle Version
Upgrading your Moodle to the latest Moodle version is a thing to do carefully. The following steps will help you understand how the process of updating goes.
# Step 1. Take the Backup
Taking backup becomes crucial when you want to upgrade your Moodle version. It’s only a safety measure! Just to avoid un-undo events.
- Take the backup of your server/Moodle
- Backup your data files from (server/moodledata) that include Moodle courses and other files you upload
- Take a backup of Moodle database dump (it contains the Ids related to the files)
#Step 2. Verify your upgrading requirements
It’s important to cross-check once before you start upgrading to a new Moodle version.
The requirement varies based on the Server, Database, and Browser! For example, for Moodle 4.0, some of the following requirements are needed:
- Moodle version 3.6 or later
- PHP version (minimum): 7.3.0
- PHP extension Sodium
- MySQL(minimum): 5.7
- Browser support: Safari (above 7) and others
The simple way to check your Moodle requirements is to them on the environment.
Path is here:
Site administration > Server > Environment
#Step 3. Test on the staging environment
Test your new Moodle version on a staging environment if you think your production site goes helter-skelter!
Once you are sure everything is in sync and smooth with your new Moodle version, then gear up for the big one.
#Step 4. Turn ‘Maintenance mode’ on
You need to enable the ‘Maintenance mode’ on your Moodle LMS. Here is the path to do so:
Site administration > Server > Maintenance mode
Your users can’t login to your Moodle site while it is under maintenance. When they try to do so, they will get the ‘maintenance’ message on their screens.
If it’s mandatory for someone to login to your site, there’s a way to give access to a role. But’s out of our topic now.
#Step 5. Upload your new Moodle files
While uploading the files of the new Moodle version, do not overwrite them on the old ones. But copy them to another location. By any means, do not overwrite the files.
One more thing to note here is you need to keep the new files in the same place as the old ones on your server.
Also, copy the old “config.php” file back. This file contains all the information about the database name, type, host, URL, username, password, and so on.
Once you continue with the ‘config.php’ file, your latest Moodle version starts. By the way, start adding your custom plugins and themes to the Moodle tree.
#Step 6. Turn off ‘Maintenance mode’
Once you get your Moodle files uploaded, you can turn off your ‘maintenance mode’ from the path.
Site administration > Server > Environment > ‘Disable’ Maintenance mode
Thus, any Moodle version is updated!
That’s how you will come to know what your Moodle version is and how to upgrade your Moodle version!