Softaculous update of 5.5.124 to 5.13.24 fails

Version v5.5.124

Environment Softaculous

Checklist

  • Can you replicate the issue on our v5 demo site? not applicable
  • Have you searched existing issues? yes
  • Have you inspected the logs in storage/logs/laravel.log for any errors? yes

Describe the bug

Updating from 5.5.124 to 5.13.24 via Softaculous results in InvoiceNinja behaving as if it is newly installed, showing the InvoiceNinja setup page.

Steps To Reproduce

  1. Click the update link in Softaculous.
  2. Softaculous requires PHP to be changed from 8.1 to 8.2 - agree.
  3. Softaculous completes update “successfully”.
  4. InvoiceNinja now presents its setup page instead of its login page.

Expected Behavior

InvoiceNinja should present its login page, not its setup page.

Additional context

I have also tried changing the PHP version before starting the Softaculous update, which results in Softaculous skipping the request to change the PHP version but otherwise the same result. Thankfully I can successfully restore my installation of the older InvoiceNinja from the pre-update backup (along with changing PHP back to 8.1).

Logs

Attached.

2026-07-20-laravel.log.txt (33.7 KB)

Hi,

You may want to try setting up a clean install of the latest version and then copy over the database and .env file.

Have now tried (changing to php 8.3 beforeward and changing to php 8.1 and restoring the old working install afterward each time when it didn’t work)…

  1. set up a clean install of 5.13.24 via Softaculous on a new subdomain, copied across the database (followed instructions found on web: via in phpmyadmin export the old db, drop the tables in the new db, import the old db) and copied across the .env file (updating APP_URL and DB_* fields as apropos). No luck.
  2. set up a clean install of 5.13.24 via Softaculous on a new subdomain but pointed it at the old database and copied across the .env file (updating just APP_URL). No luck.
  3. blew away the old install, installed 5.13.24 via Softaculous on the old subdomain, copied the database and .env files. No luck.
  4. noticed and wondered if maybe Softaculous didn’t like .env containing UPDATE_SECRET so removed that and just tried the normal Softaculous upgrade again. No luck.

Checking the page Self Host Updating | Invoice Ninja I am considering unzipping the latest tar file over the install but noticed the following: “Please ensure to delete the .git folder prior to attempting updates on v5.1.50 and over. The updater will fail silently if any hidden folders are present.”

  1. My installation doesn’t have a .git folder but does have a .github folder and a .well-known folder (although the latter I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to delete lest I break my site). Relevant or irrelevant?
  2. Should the steps otherwise be to: change php from to 8.1 to 8.3, unzip tar into directory, run the update url?

This may help for the error you shared above.

Success!

Manually enabling the pdo_mysql module allowed Softaculous to complete the upgrade; Softaculous didn’t automatically prompt for it unlike the other modules.

Thankyou!

Awesome, glad to hear it!