Liferay Upgrade Planner
Pick a source and target Liferay version to get an ordered, checkable upgrade plan — breaking changes, deprecated APIs, data-upgrade steps, and commands.
Choose your upgrade path
Liferay 7.1 → Liferay 7.2
(4 steps)Update the liferay.workspace.target.platform.version in gradle.properties so BOM-managed dependency versions resolve against 7.2.
liferay.workspace.target.platform.version=7.2.1-1
Methods deprecated back in 7.0/7.1 are removed in 7.2. Rebuild every module against the 7.2 target platform and fix any unresolved references.
Snapshot the database and document library, deploy 7.2, and complete all module upgrade processes before allowing traffic.
Each release targets a specific Elasticsearch line. Confirm your ES cluster matches the version 7.2 supports before upgrading, and update the search connector configuration accordingly.
Liferay 7.2 → Liferay 7.3
(4 steps)Several core apps were rewritten on React with Clay 3. If you customized their JSPs or markup, re-validate those customizations against the new front end.
Back up the database and DL, deploy 7.3, run the upgrade processes, and reindex all search indexes.
Liferay 7.3 requires Elasticsearch 7. Provision an ES7 cluster, reconnect the search connector, and reindex after the data upgrade.
7.3 supports both JDK 8 and JDK 11. If you plan to move to JDK 11, test module compilation and any reflection-heavy code under it now.
Liferay 7.3 → Liferay 7.4
(5 steps)7.4 consolidated many apps and introduced Objects and an expanded headless API. Recompile all modules against the 7.4 target platform and review any custom entities that overlap with Objects.
More legacy properties were removed or moved to OSGi configuration in 7.4. Diff your portal-ext.properties against the 7.4 defaults and migrate anything that no longer applies.
APIs deprecated across the 7.x line are removed in 7.4. Rebuild and fix any remaining references before deploying.
Back up the database and DL, deploy 7.4, complete the upgrade processes, and reindex search.
JDK 11 is the recommended runtime for 7.4 and JDK 8 is deprecated. Standardize your build and runtime on JDK 11.
Tip: This is a representative checklist of the major steps for each version hop, ordered pre-flight → breaking → deprecated → data upgrade → tooling. Always take a full database and Document Library backup before each hop, and confirm exact requirements against the official Liferay upgrade docs for your edition.
Upgrading Liferay 7.1 to Liferay 7.4
This plan covers the full path from Liferay 7.1 to Liferay 7.4 — 3 version hops and 13 steps in total. Work through each numbered hop in order; every hop runs its own database and module upgrade processes, so they cannot be skipped. Take a full database and Document Library backup before starting each one.
Hops in this path
- Liferay 7.1 → Liferay 7.2 — 4 steps
- Liferay 7.2 → Liferay 7.3 — 4 steps
- Liferay 7.3 → Liferay 7.4 — 5 steps
Before you start
- Back up the database and the Document Library, and test the upgrade on a copy of production first.
- Patch your current version to its latest fix pack before beginning.
- Confirm exact JDK, app server, and Elasticsearch requirements for Liferay 7.4 in the official docs.