Customer config stuck in v14 due to 3CX killing activation for pre-v16

[MillsPark]

I have a customer that I just started supporting, but unfortunately they haven't done ANY maintenance in several years. Their phone system stopped working after 3CX broke old versions from activating/registering in March 2022 (see https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/fqdn-endpoint-change/). However, there is no way to upgrade a v14 config to v18 directly.... you HAVE to use v15.5 to import the backup config, then export backup again and import to v18 (per https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/pbx-backup-restore-failover/#h.73vv2pcomee0).

How am I supposed to migrate from their existing v14 config to v18 without the ability to migrate through v15.5 now???? The v15.5 install won't activate/setup (stuck on DNS validation failure) to import/export and v18 tells me I must upgrade the backup file to at least v15.5 first.

 

[Charles_3CX]

Please note that older versions are unable to be installed in order to upgrade or activate due to the decommissioning of the activation server responsible for activating older versions of 3cx as you have mentioned in your post.

Updating version 14 to the latest version requires a process of taking backups and restoring through the versions until a version is reached that can be activated. Then from there, a backup needs to be taken to restore to the latest.

The issue with this is due to the fact the activation servers are no longer available for any of these older versions, his process can only now be done by us after purchase of upgrade assistance and after containing our CSR team by emailing [email protected] to first check if the system is upgradable and the license key is compatible before purchasing this.

The other option is to install the latest version as a new install (without restoring a backup).