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Gramps 5.2 upgrade guide

Gramps 5.2 was released on February 23, 2024. Since it uses a new family tree database schema compared to Gramps 5.1, additional steps are necessary when upgrading Gramps Web to be used with Gramps 5.2. This page describes the necessary steps.

Overview of the steps

This is an overview of the steps required to upgrade. It also shows which steps are executed by the administrator of the Gramps Web server, the owner of the family tree, and whether it's needed only for users of the sync addon

Server administrator Tree owner Action
  Back up your family tree
  1 Synchronize Gramps Web with Gramps Desktop
Update Gramps Web
  Update the tree's database schema
  1 Update Gramps Desktop
  1 Install the updated Sync Addon
  Back up your family tree
  1 Synchronize Gramps Web with Gramps Desktop

1 Only needed if you synchronize Gramps Web with Gramps Desktop.

Overview of the release status

The following table gives an overview of when the components needed for Gramps Web with Gramps 5.2 have been released.

Component Released
Gramps 5.2.0 2024-02-23 ✓
Gramps Web Sync Addon 1.0.4 for Gramps 5.2 2024-02-23 ✓
Gramps Web API 2.0.0 2024-02-28 ✓
Gramps Web 23.3.0 2024-02-28 ✓

Detailed steps

This section provides more details about some of the individual steps above.

Back up your family tree

In Gramps Web, go to the "Export" page and select "Gramps XML (family tree)" (the default option). Click "Generate" and wait until the download of the .gramps file starts.

You can also create a backup in Gramps Desktop in the usual way.

Update the tree's database schema

When you access Gramps Web for the first time after having upgraded it, you will be presented with a screen showing the message:

The Family Tree you are trying to load is in a schema version not supported by this version of Gramps Web. Therefore you cannot load this Family Tree without upgrading its schema. This action cannot be undone.

You can now click on the button "Upgrade Family Tree". It will show a progress bar and should not take more than a minute to complete. Don't worry, if you accidentally close your browser window, the conversion will continue in the background.

Warning

If you use a non-standard setup without background task queue, the database upgrade might fail and your family tree might get corrupted. You can check (before updating Gramps Web) if you are using a background task queue by going to the "System Information" section in the settings and making sure it has "task queue: true".

Update Gramps Desktop

Follow the Gramps Desktop installation instructions for your operating system.

Install the updated Sync Addon

You can use the new Plugin Manager included in Gramps 5.2 - just search for Gramps Web Sync, click on install, and restart Gramps.