Upgrade from 4.7.14 to 4.7.15 failed on Database Upgrade

Question

I tried to upgrade from 4.7.14 to 4.7.15 today. I followed the instructions 1 - 3 in the documentation.

Everything looked good up to that point. I got a message that installation was successful.

Then I clicked on the link to run the Database Upgrade, but I forgot to do step 4: delete the cached files in

   [yoursite]/media/civicrm/templates_c

I got the following error:

Initialization Error

Array
(
    [callback] => Array
        (
            [0] => CRM_Core_Error
            [1] => simpleHandler
        )

    [code] => -19
    [message] => DB Error: no such field
    [mode] => 16
    [debug_info] => SELECT *,  config_backend, locales,         locale_custom_strings  
 FROM civicrm_domain 

 WHERE (  civicrm_domain.id = 1 )  



 [nativecode=1054 ** Unknown column 'config_backend' in 'field list']
    [type] => DB_Error
    [user_info] => SELECT *,  config_backend, locales, locale_custom_strings  
 FROM civicrm_domain 

 WHERE (  civicrm_domain.id = 1 )  



 [nativecode=1054 ** Unknown column 'config_backend' in 'field list']
    [to_string] => [db_error: message="DB Error: no such field" code=-19     mode=callback callback=CRM_Core_Error::simpleHandler prefix="" info="SELECT *,      config_backend, locales, locale_custom_strings  
 FROM civicrm_domain 

 WHERE (  civicrm_domain.id = 1 )  



 [nativecode=1054 ** Unknown column 'config_backend' in 'field list']"]
)

At that point, I noticed that I hadn't deleted the cached files, and so I deleted them.

I tried to re-install 4.7.15, and again, I got a 'success' message. When I went to run the Database Upgrade, I got the same error as above.

I've been running CiviCRM for 2 years, multiple upgrades, and no problem until today. I checked the StackExchange and there are several mentions of this problem, and how it is fixed by running the Database Upgrade. But if I can't run the Database Upgrade, I don't know how to fix this.

Answer 1

I experienced this same error today. In my case, I had mistyped a command into the version control system - so I had a Civi 4.7.15 database with a Civi 4.4 file system!

In Civi 4.7, the way that configurations were stored in Civi changed. You would only get this error if the code that was running was old. I would check to see if you have another copy of CiviCRM somewhere in your filesystem. Feel free to comment on my answer if you'd like some followup on how to find what I'm describing; let me know how you access your filesystem.

Answer 2

If you have access to the command line on your server, try running the upgrade from there using the cv tool.

Answer 3

Try clearing your php opcode cache (or just restart php-fpm or your web server, depending on how php is configured).

I always get that error and clearing the opcode cache fixes it. The issue is likely related to your opcode cache settings. The new code you download may have an old date on it and your opcode cache doesn't realise you've downloaded newer code.