Joomla! Documentation™

Automatic method

Support for Joomla 1.5 has officially ended. Does that mean your 1.5 site will stop working? No, your site will continue to work as it always has. However, Joomla’s developers will not be releasing new versions for Joomla 1.5, so you won’t be getting bug fixes or security fixes. For this reason, it’s recommended to migrate from 1.5.

Moving from 2.5 to any Joomla 3 version is relatively simple, since Joomla has made the process easy for newer versions. Unfortunately, moving from 1.5 is not a trivial task. Fortunately, there are two good extensions that make the process easier: jUpgrade and SP Upgrade.

You have a choice of going straight to Joomla 3.0 or going to 2.5 first. Both SP Upgrade and jUpgrade have versions ready for both versions. Please consult with their documentation on how to migrate from Joomla 1.5 to 3.0/2.5.

Migrate to Joomla 3.0 if all the extensions that you plan to use are Joomla 3.0 compatible. Only some template providers or the extension vendors will be ready for Joomla 3.0 at launch, however most will not be ready until days, weeks or months after. (See the “How do I find Joomla 3.0 compatible extensions?” FAQ for more information)

Migrate to Joomla 2.5 if you want the most stable that Joomla has to offer and/or if you plan on using many extensions.

Manual method

If you prefer a more 'Hands on' approach then you can migrate manually.

1. Install Akeeba Backup in 1.5 and make a backup. (version compatibility)
2. Use http://archive.extensions.joomla.org/extensions/migration-a-conversion/data-import-a-export/12816 to export Articles and users . When you select a Section it exports all associated Categories and Articles and creates the sections/categories as categories/sub categories.
3. Install Joomla 2.5.x (or 3.x.x) without sample data in a subdirectory
4. Then import the data previously exported from 1.5 into your fresh 2.5.x (or 3.x.x) with J2XML Importer
5. Install Akeeba Backup in your new Joomla! 2.5/3.5 and make a backup
6. Create the menu items and install your extensions
7. Create a backup at regular stages
8. When ready delete everything on the root(except the new folder) and move the Joomla up a level, see Moving the site among directories/sub-directories for instructions.

(N.B. the live site var may not have a value, if that is the case then leave it with no value)

If at #3 you install Joomla on localhost then at #8 you can use your backup file to install the new site on the root of your Host