Upgrading is just bamboozling

I just don't get it.

It says on the instructions to upgrading, extract the files and upload to your server. But there is like only 1 or 2 files in the new folders right, if i stick those folders in they will delete all the files and replace them with the new folders, and I just don't get it. if all the files get deleted because I stuck a new folder on top its going to delete my site. 

i tried just plonking the folders in and it just told me this folder already exists do you want to replace it, if i replace it then all the files will get deleted.  idk what to do. I have this problem everytime i need to upgrade and endup having to completely reinstall dolphin and i'd like to avoid that this time. so what exactly do I do?

Oh and before you say use FTP i use Cpanal because last time i used FTP all it did was make a folder of my site and that was it, nothing actually happened, it never merged the folders. So i need to use cpanal. sticking all those files into their correct place 1 by 1 is going to be quite horrible I am sure.

You're doing something wrong, but I'm unable to say what.

As per usual, always practice on a test site. You can do this on your PC. See below.

Keep in mind that the upgrade will also over-ride changes you may have made to any files. As with most updates, there are minor changes to the modules, but it's possible these files may have been changed if you've added any third party modules.

I use WinMerge to compare files before moving them.

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Regardless of whether you use CPanel or an FTP client, you will be asked to replace a file if it already exists. So, if you drag or copy a file or folder from your computer to the server, you will be told: File exists, do you wish to replace it? If you're moving a folder, you will be asked this question many times for each effected sub-folder or file it contains. There's usually a tick box you can click to allow multiple replacement without having to answer yes every time.

Existing folders/files will be replaced, only if there's an identically named folder/file in the upgrade. The process only replaces files or adds new files, it doesn't delete anything that isn't affected.

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You don't have to practice this on your server. Simply move a copy of 7.3.4 to a folder on your computer, then practice moving the folders one by one from the update folder to the new dolphin folder. When done, look in the Date Modified column in the Dolphin folder and the times the files were last modified will tell you if the transfer was successful.

I suggest you to not use cPanel for performing your site upgrade.  The file manager in cPanel is OK for opening a file for a quick edit but you don't want to use it for major work like upgrading your site.  If you are using Windows; download a copy of bitVise; a very robust shell and sftp client.  Another one for Windows is WinSCP.  Forget Fillezilla, it has bugs that causes problems; like creating zero byte files and trouble reading directories.

The two programmes I mentioned will do the job quite nicely.  When doing a Dolphin upgrade, you will open the upgrade folder so all the folders and files inside are visible; uh, you extract the zip file first.  On the remote site, you want to be in the root of your site; you should see the folders and files of Dolphin.  Highlight all the files of the upgrade and click on upload.  It will prompt you to overwrite the files or skip, you want to overwrite the old files on the server and choose "all" or "do this for each file" or some such prompt.  You want it to just automatically overwrite each file so you don't have to click on overwrite a hundred to a thousand times.  Unploading files will not delete any files, it will simply overwrite the old files with the new version.  Once the upgrade has been uploaded; you go into the upgrade directory and remove the .htacess file; this is there to prevent running the upgrade accidentally.  Follow the online prompts and there you have it, your site is upgraded.  I applied 10 upgrades to a site a few days back without any issues; one after the other.  The upgrade process is usually quite smooth.

There is nothing wrong with the Dolphin upgrade process; the problem is that you are not using the proper tools and understanding how it works.

Oh, the first step is to backup the database and backup the site files.

If you just need to do one upgrade, Dolphin site only, I will upgrade your site for $20.00 USD.  That does not include upgrading any third party modules; especially the ones that require core file changes.

So the download button I push to download 7.3.5 in my admin panel in Dolphin gives me a download to extract and nowhere in that folder is anything that has the name "upgrade" Help please!

Download the patch and follow the upgrade instructions here: https://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/wiki/Dol7Upgrade

As for the original post, some FTP clients will ask to Replace or Merge a folder. NEVER select to replace folders, as this will delete the folder and replace it with only the files in the uploaded patch. Always select to merge folders, and only replace files.

I used to change permissions of Inc folder to read write for a while and extract the dolphin patch in httpdocs/

Then following upgrade instructions.

Changing back the Inc folder permissions as required.

That went fine for me. 

ok i think i merged the files/folders, the site still works. but the thing at the top of the admin panal still says DOLPHIN 7.3.3

 It should say 7.3.4. seems you missed some files or steps during installation. I did got same issue because I missed inc files. After replacing it changed to 7.3.4

I put in all the files that i downloaded, idk what else I can do. I did the install thing and everything turned green, cleared all the caches, recompiled the languages, deleted the installation folder. what else is there?

ah i see, its not updating some files in the inc folder because of the permissions. fixed it now thanks. I shall attempt the next upgrade. *crosses fingers*