How to upgrade to Laragon 8

[leokhoa]

Laragon 8 is packed with powerful new features and enhancements, but we've ensured a seamless, risk-free upgrade from versions 1–7. Here's how:

1. Back up your current Laragon by copying it to another directory (this allows you to roll back if needed).
2. Install Laragon 8 by overwriting your current installation directory.

Notes:
If your Quick-add's configuration is outdated, simply rename usr/packages.conf to usr/packages.conf.bak and restart Laragon. It will automatically fetch the latest version from GitHub

[leokhoa]

The Perks of a Laragon License:

1. Upgrading to Laragon Major versions is completely free.
2. Your Laragon License includes a number of years of free updates, allowing you to enjoy auto-updated features and the latest versions of Laragon at no additional cost during this period.

[fifisave]

Hello it seems to be easily ok, but I would like to have more details please .. Like which folder to NOT overwrite and which to need to overwrite and which to mandatory back up !!
Regards

[leokhoa]

@fifisave: Great question! In Laragon, everything is designed to be disposable - except your data. Your data are stored in 3 key folders:

1. data -This is where your databases and persistent data live.
2. usr -Contains your configurations and custom tools.
3. www -Your projects go here.

There is an app - Reserved for future use. If you don't see this folder, no worries - it's not essential right now.

[fifisave]

Ok great !! thks for that BUT I overwrite these folders and now nothing's working !! I have to go back to my previous version !!
The web site format have changed from (for example for the eva website) (http://localhost/eva/wp-admin/) to http://eva.localhost/ ??
Regards

[fifisave]

[leokhoa]

@fifisave : You can roll back to the backup step 1.
If you'd like to proceed with the upgrade, could you share a video of the issue? The upgrade mainly involves updating the laragon.exe core.

[fifisave]

Hello, how to have back this website format please ?
http://localhost/eva/wp-admin/
Instead of eva.test or http://eva.localhost/
Regards

[fifisave]

Hello my settings are has describes auto create virtual hosts if no more checked ..

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

@leokhoa does @fifisave additionally need to delete the auto-created host file?

[leokhoa]

@alxndr-w : He should create a proper issue with more details. Right now, he's posting a lot of scattered comments in this discussion, and it's hard to understand what the actual problem is.

Also, the Auto Virtual Host is a feature, not a bug. If he prefers the old format, that's totally fine. Auto Virtual Host doesn't prevent the old format.

[fifisave]

Ok but where this parameter is please ? And what is the link between my website host name and the host file ? Or do you mean the Auto create virtual host parameter ? Regards

[fifisave]

@alxndr-w : He should create a proper issue with more details. Right now, he's posting a lot of scattered comments in this discussion, and it's hard to understand what the actual problem is.

Also, the Auto Virtual Host is a feature, not a bug. If he prefers the old format, that's totally fine. Auto Virtual Host doesn't prevent the old format.

Yes it is a personal choice in fact .. if all my websites are working no problem I will change my mine !! ANd my habits even if I will be hard to do that I am too old for that !!

[fifisave]

Hello I overwrite once again ONLY the necessary folders with version 8.0.2 uncheck auto create virtual hosts the system updatre automatically my PHP version why not !! BUT still launch http://eva.test/ site instead of my original name (http://localhost/eva/wp-admin/) ?? I don't understand !! Is there any other parameter to change, please ? Regards

[fifisave]

But if I type in (http://localhost/eva/wp-admin/) it works correctly and i have my website in admin mode reachable !!

[fifisave]

It is not really a huge issue because it works BUT the website name format has changed and the old format works too so !! The migration process works good for me finally and was easy (with your precious help !!) thank's for that !

[bidanikhan092]

what about the projects we have in there?

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

Can you explain? What is with them?

[franzzco]

Hello, I had version 6 and I upgraded to the latest version 8.1. I already bought the license, but how do I get all my project databases? I didn't export them to .sql, I have a copy of the entire 'data' folder but the version is different from the current one. Now I have two folders inside 'mysql-8' and the new 'mysql-8.4'. How can I view the databases in the new version 8.4?

[AWqxKAWERbXo]

You need to migrate them, e.g. installing the old version mysql-8, export it to sql and reimport it.

Or you migrate them by replacing your mysql-8.4 data folder with the old ones. I'm not sure if MySQL will auto-migrate the data to 8.4.

Don't forget to make a backup outside the Laragon folders if any mistake happens.

[leokhoa]

Tip for upgrading from Laragon 6 to Laragon 8

If you're using Laragon 6, the default MySQL version is 8.0.30, with data stored at:
C:\laragon\data\mysql-8

When upgrading to Laragon 8, everything remains unchanged by default - including the MySQL version and data directory - so your projects should continue working seamlessly.

Image: Laragon 8 uses MySQL 8.0.30 (installed with Laragon 6)

---

Switching to MySQL 8.4.3

If you’d like to upgrade MySQL to version 8.4.3, follow these steps:

1. Export all databases from MySQL 8.0
   Open Laragon’s Terminal and run:

   mysqldump.exe --all-databases > C:\laragon\tmp\alldb.sql

2. Switch to MySQL 8.4.3
   In Laragon, go to:
   Menu > MySQL > Version > mysql-8.4.3-winx64

3. Import your databases into MySQL 8.4.3
   Start MySQL 8.4.3 and run:

   mysql -u root -p < C:\laragon\tmp\alldb.sql

You’re now running MySQL 8.4.3 with your data fully migrated.

Note:
Laragon 8.4.x stores data at: C:\laragon\data\mysql-8.4

This way, you can use MySQL 8.0, 8.4 and 9.1 with Laragon 8.

---

Laragon 8 is packed with powerful new features and enhancements, but we've ensured a seamless, risk-free upgrade from versions 1–7. Here's how:

1. Back up your current Laragon by copying it to another directory (this allows you to roll back if needed).
2. Install Laragon 8 by overwriting your current installation directory.

Notes: If your Quick-add's configuration is outdated, simply rename usr/packages.conf to usr/packages.conf.bak and restart Laragon. It will automatically fetch the latest version from GitHub

[leokhoa]

@mikeda37 : Your data is there. Did you follow this:
#1059 (comment)

[mikeda37]

@leokhoa
I didn't know about the post, but since I only did an overwrite installation, I believe the steps taken were the same. After that, I installed versions 6 and 8 several times.
The data folder itself remains, but it isn't being loaded and doesn't appear as a database.
Even if I create an empty database with the same name beforehand and then copy the files into the database folder, it remains empty with no tables displayed.
Is there any way to recover the data?

[mikeda37]

@leokhoa
It's possible that files directly under the data folder became corrupted after multiple reinstallations.
Since I only backed up the database folder.
My apologies for the trouble.

[leokhoa]

@mikeda37 : There should be no issue with the data after many reinstallation. Can you please show me:

1. Some screenshots or video to see your current version of MySQL and data dirs?
2. The my.ini

[mikeda37]

@leokhoa
Thank you for your reply. I also don't think the installation itself was the problem, but I probably replaced files directly under the data folder while doing various things. I don't remember clearly.
Luckily, I was able to copy the data from the production environment, so I gave up and recreated the database from the beginning.

[ikhsantutorial]

info link laragon versi 8 nya kak, share disini dong help me, please

[ARGreen]

Just upgraded from 6 to 8 and all looks good however don't seem able to run mysqldump via the terminal as it complains about access rights?

[ARGreen]

Yes I can do that also here is the latest log entry:
2026-03-05T13:11:01.876788Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010097] [Server] Insecure configuration for --secure-file-priv: Current value does not restrict location of generated files. Consider setting it to a valid, non-empty path.
2026-03-05T13:11:01.876839Z 0 [System] [MY-010116] [Server] C:\laragon\bin\mysql\mysql-8.0.30-winx64\bin\mysqld (mysqld 8.0.30) starting as process 2812
2026-03-05T13:11:01.900321Z 1 [System] [MY-013576] [InnoDB] InnoDB initialization has started.
2026-03-05T13:11:02.670339Z 1 [System] [MY-013577] [InnoDB] InnoDB initialization has ended.
2026-03-05T13:11:05.058659Z 0 [Warning] [MY-013829] [Server] Missing data directory for ICU regular expressions: C:\laragon\bin\mysql\mysql-8.0.30-winx64\lib\private.
2026-03-05T13:11:05.181295Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010068] [Server] CA certificate ca.pem is self signed.
2026-03-05T13:11:05.182224Z 0 [System] [MY-013602] [Server] Channel mysql_main configured to support TLS. Encrypted connections are now supported for this channel.
2026-03-05T13:11:05.184490Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010262] [Server] Can't start server: Bind on TCP/IP port: Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted.

2026-03-05T13:11:05.185949Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010257] [Server] Do you already have another mysqld server running on port: 3306 ?
2026-03-05T13:11:05.187076Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010119] [Server] Aborting
2026-03-05T13:11:06.343209Z 0 [System] [MY-010910] [Server] C:\laragon\bin\mysql\mysql-8.0.30-winx64\bin\mysqld: Shutdown complete (mysqld 8.0.30) MySQL Community Server - GPL.
This looks strange too!

[ARGreen]

I created a backup copy of version 6 before I started this upgrade path and I have just run the laragon exe from that folder and it is up and running allowing me to open my existing local databases as normal. Not sure how I am going to be able to run version 8 and do that same? Are there any changes I could do to the old database like alter user and root logins and passwords before I export the data then export it and re-import it into version 8 maybe? I am not sure if that is even possible now I have gone through export/import process once?

[ARGreen]

Okay in the absence of any further follow up and my need to get into my data I decided to reinstall Version 8 over the top of the original. I ended up with a working version 8 that was using MySQL 8.0.30. Everything appears to be okay so the original problem occurred when I was last in this position and I decided to import my data to get to the latest MySQL 8.4.3. I am not sure if the problem happened because I exported my data using laragon version 6 and then imported it using laragon version 8? Is this a possibility as it's all I can think of as being the cause and putting me into a situation that I couldn't recover from without reinstalling version 8. Until I know the answer I don't want to attempt to import my data into the latest MySQL version.

[leokhoa]

@ARGreen : The cause of the issue is: you have some users in MySQL 8.0.30 that use mysql_native_password plugin which is deprecated in MySQL 8.4.3
To verify, run:

SELECT user, host, plugin FROM mysql.user;

You may need to update to caching_sha2_password on then dump and import.

Note: You don't need to reinstall Laragon v8 over v6 to restore data. As long as the data dir is there, your data is safe. In my.ini:

• MySQL 8.0 datadir should point to data/mysql-8
• MySQL 8.4 datadir should point to data/mysql-8.4

[isitmeor]

I have Done this but i still get: Error establishing a database connection
dat: mysql-8.4 has all the data

[ARGreen]

okay thanks for your help I will try this tomorrow and see how it goes. If I am successful I will let you know. So in 8.0.30 I will alter all users including root using this command: ALTER USER user IDENTIFIED WITH caching_sha2_password BY 'password'; then dump the database and switch over to 8.4 and import the database. Fingers crossed.

…

On Mar 5, 2026 at 8:10 PM, <Leo Khoa ***@***.***)> wrote: @ARGreen (https://github.com/ARGreen) : The cause of the issue is: you have some users in MySQL 8.0.30 that use mysql_native_password plugin which is deprecated in MySQL 8.4.3 To verify, run: SELECT user, host, plugin FROM mysql.user; You may need to update to caching_sha2_password on then dump and import. Note: You don't need to reinstall Laragon v8 over v6 to restore data. As long as the data dir is there, your data is safe. In my.ini: MySQL 8.0 datadir should point to data/mysql-8 MySQL 8.4 datadir should point to data/mysql-8.4 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub (#1059 (reply in thread)), or unsubscribe (https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAPVDWLZ6NQI577DRDQVG6L4PHNMHAVCNFSM6AAAAABY7IR2K2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTMMBRGQ3DOMQ). You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[leokhoa]

That's correct; it should work. In the worst case, you can use the MySQL 8.0.30 along with its existing data. Please let me know how it goes so I can update the instructions to be more helpful for others.

[ARGreen]

Unfortunately I worked my way through changing all of the users to use caching_sha2_password and then I tried switching MYSQL versions but the same problem reappeared once again. It seems that as soon as I switch MYSQL it introduces this mysql_native_password plugin error and it refuses to go away after the switch. I switched back to 8.0.30 and the error still comes up when I try and open a connection using Heidi SQL. So I reinstalled Laragon version 8 once again and the problem completely disappeared once more. It seems to only happen when I switch MYSQL versions up to that point it works perfectly with 8.0.30. I guess something is getting wrongly changed during the switch but I have no idea what that would be. Reinstalling Laragon version 8 puts things back to how they should be and I am able once again to use my original MYSQL version. I guess I will have to stay with it setup this way for now.

[leokhoa]

@ARGreen : Thank you for the update. I'll work on reproducing these cases and improving the process.