Automatic Updater

We added this feature in WHMCS 7.0.

The Automatic Update utility allows admins to update WHMCS quickly and easily from directly within the Admin Area.

You can access this feature at Utilities > Update WHMCS.

For more information on the way in which updates change files, see Updater File Changes.

System Requirements

WHMCS has several system requirements for automatic updates:

A PHP memory limit of at least 128MB.
At least 250 MB of free disk space.
The PHP allow_url_fopen setting is enabled.
The PHP max_execution_time setting is 60 seconds or more.
The PHP Zip Extension or the proc_open PHP function are enabled.
The PHP open_basedir setting includes the entire WHMCS document root.

Configuring Your Update Settings

Update Channel

The Automatic Updater allows you to choose the update channel for the least stable version you are willing to update to:

Channel	Description
Stable	Recommended Only receive Stable updates to your installation.
Current Version	Only receive maintenance updates for the currently-installed major and minor version. For example, if you are on a version in Long Term Support and we release a patch for it, this channel applies the patch but will not upgrade you to a later WHMCS version. This is useful for applying minor updates and security releases (see below).
Release Candidate	Receive releases after beta testing but before we release them to the Stable tier.
Beta	Receive the latest versions of WHMCS as we release them to the Beta tier. Only select this tier for development and testing installations.

Patch and Maintenance Release Updates

If you are on a WHMCS version that is in Long Term Support and we issue a patch for that version, you can use the Automatic Updater to apply the patch without moving to a newer WHMCS version.

To do this:

Select the Current Version update channel (see above).
Click Check for Updates to refresh the available version.
Proceed with your update as usual.

You may wish to change this setting back to Stable after updating to ensure future checks display the latest Active Development version available to you.

Temporary Update Path

The temporary path allows you to stage files during an update. For security reasons, ensure that this directory is outside of the public document root, like the attachments, downloads, and templates_c directories.

The path must be an absolute path (for example, /home/username/tmp instead of ~/tmp).
The path must be writable by the user that is running PHP.

Maintenance Message

Use this option to set a message to display to other admins and users whenever an update is in progress.

Modifying the update configuration requires the Modify Update Configuration administrator role permission, which is separate from the Update WHMCS permission.

Checking for Updates

The system automatically checks for updates periodically. When an update becomes available, a notification will appear in the Admin Area.

Manually checking for updates

You can check for updates on demand by clicking Check for Updates. You may need to do this to see recent releases prior to the next automated check.

For Owned licenses, the version that this fetches will be the version of WHMCS that was available when your Support and Updates subscription was active. Downloading the latest version of WHMCS requires an active Support and Updates subscription.

For a step-by-step tutorial, see Checking for Updates Manually.

Performing an Update

We recommend using the Automatic Updater utility every time you update WHMCS. However, you can also perform an update manually through the browser or on the command line.

To perform an update:

Make certain that your server meets the system requirements and review the Release Notes for any important notices and information.
Make a full backup of your current installation.
In WHMCS, click Update Now.
This option only displays if an update is available for your current update channel.
Follow the prompts to complete the update process. The update process can take anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes to complete.
Perform the necessary steps for your customizations:
- If you use any custom file permissions, you must update the relevant files (for example, for /crons/pipe.php).
- If you have custom template files, review and update your custom templates using the Template Changes section of the release notes.

The update will not alter your customizations if you follow our official customization guidelines (for example, our guidelines for templates, Whois servers, additional domain fields, and country and calling codes.

Troubleshooting

You can find the log of Automatic Updater actions in the tblupdatelog table in the WHMCS database. To troubleshoot upgrade problems, review this table for the most recent entries (the highest id values). You can use a tool like phpMyAdmin to browse the table's contents.

For more information on troubleshooting update issues, see Upgrading New Installation Prompt and our update troubleshooting guides.

Please ensure you have selected a valid Update Channel and then try again

Receiving this error message in the cron job report email or activity log indicates that you need to select an update channel.

To fix this issue:

Click Configure Update Settings.
Select one of the four available update channel options (see above).
Click Save Changes.

Permission Errors

Permission errors in the update log may resemble the following examples:

[WHMCS\Exception] Failed to perform early file copy during WHMCS file relocation: init.php
[RuntimeException] /path/to/whmcs/whmcs does not exist and could not be created.
failed to open stream: Permission denied
Apply update dry-run detected 1 permission issues

The exact file permission and ownership issues depend on the individual server configuration. However, for a standard cPanel & WHM server using the suPHP PHP handler, the following configuration would be an appropriate POSIX file permissions:

configuration.php — 400
/crons/pipe.php — 755
All other PHP files — 644
All directories — 755

The file ownership and group should be the same as the user directory name. For example, on a cPanel & WHM server with a web root at /home/username/public_html/, username would own the files and the group would also use the name username.

Finally, the owner and group of the PHP process must be the same as the user directory name. For example, on a cPanel & WHM server with a web root at /home/username/public_html/, the PHP process owner and group would both be username.

Other types of server and PHP handlers may have different configuration requirements.

Unable to connect to the WHMCS Update Server

This error indicates that your server could not connect to the WHMCS update server.

You may see it in two locations:

While attempting an automatic update.
In the Activity Log section at Configuration () > System Logs or, prior to WHMCS 8.0, Utilities > Activity Log.

To resolve this, attempt the following cURL connections from your server's command line:

curl -v https://releases.whmcs.com/v2/packages.json

curl -v https://pki.whmcs.com/

If these commands succeed, they will return StatusCode: 200. If they do not, ask your hosting provider or system administrator to investigate the connectivity problem between your server and the WHMCS update server.