Upgrading Avalanche can go smoothly provided that you backup all of your files and follow the checklists below. Please keep in mind that we only provide support for theme-related issues. If you encounter a Magento-specific issue after upgrading please verify that Avalanche is causing the problem before contacting support (disabling Avalanche will often reveal this).

Always back up everything in your existing Magento folder.
Always back up your database before making a major upgrade.
When upgrading Avalanche start from scratch. Simply overwriting the old files will not always work. Some files are removed or transferred.
Ensure Avalanche supports the version of Magento you’re upgrading to.

Back up the following folders and files if you customized Avalanche or integrated any extensions:

/app/design/frontend/avalanche/custom_theme_folder
/js/avalanche/custom_js_files
/skin/frontend/avalanche/default/css/custom.css
/skin/frontend/avalanche/custom_theme_folder

If you directly edited Avalanche core template/layout files or extension files you should review your edits carefully. In the future document all changes and store it somewhere safe for later.

Click here for a quick overview on how to make upgrade-friendly changes to Avalanche.

If you encounter database issues we recommend reinstalling Magento from scratch and incrementally installing extensions to diagnose the problem.