Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration – The Complete Guide [2024]

Released in 2015, Magento 2 is an upgraded version of the Magento platform with new features and better performance. The latest Magento 2 release line is good enough to perform the migration for Magento 1 users.

Furthermore, Adobe declared Magento 1 end of life in 2020, which means the older release line will no longer receive updates, security patches, and official support. That triggers a security alarm for Magento 1 users.

Therefore, migrating Magento 1 to Magento 2 has become unavoidable for merchants to continue selling online hassle-free.

We’ve prepared a complete step-wise guide to help you easily migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

What are the Possible Methods for Magento 2 Migration?

Before jumping to that question, let’s clarify this: Regarding other Magento migrations, online merchants usually deal with the process with just a few clicks from the admin panel. However, approaching the Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration is far from the previous migrations you’ve performed. The reason is that both versions differ significantly in database structure, so the migration process can now be seen as a migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

There are three main ways to migrate your store from Magento 1 to Magento 2 (Adobe Commerce). They are:

• To migrate manually by using the Magento Migration Tool
• to hire a developer or a team of Magento specialists to perform the task.
• To use an automated migration service. (e.g.: LitExtension)

However, underlying the first two choices are some drawbacks:

Manual migration: Using the Magento Migration Tool requires highly technical skills. You must fix code, back up the database, and repair or fix corrupted databases.

3rd parties intervention: If you need to handle the migration process alone, consulting Magento is a wise decision of your life that makes you hesitant. It charges around $50-$80/hour, and the all-out cost over the interaction might increase to $500-$2500.

Using an automated migration service: This method is widely believed to be the most advanced for migrating data from Magento 1 to Magento 2. You will migrate data with an automated solution. It can transfer products, customers, orders, multi-stores, CMS pages, etc. The solution provides additional options that allow you to extend the possibility of migration, such as customer passwords, SEO URL migration, etc.

Reasons To Migrate From Magento 1 Magento 2

Any trusted software will evolve to meet the evolving demands of business owners and consumers. Magento 1 helped eCommerce businesses grow earlier in the day; however, its capabilities and technical support grew outdated as time passed. Magento 2 is the brand new version launched by Magento to meet the demands of modern eCommerce stores. Magento 2 overcomes the significant disadvantages present in Magento 1 and gives its users a memorable experience. Learn more about 12 compelling reasons to switch from Magento 1.1.1 to Magento 2.

Enhanced Safety

Magento 1 remains exposed to cyber-attacks and is highly vulnerable to bots, hackers, bugs, etc. This is because the platform stopped releasing security patches as of June 2020. This means your eCommerce store’s data is no longer secure. Information that is sensitive about your customers, such as their credit card information, personal address, password for their email, and more, could be accessed and sold by hackers to earn profit.

Customers will only purchase products from your store if doing business with your company is safe. Therefore, an increase in sales will also damage your image. Magento 2 is secure data encryption. With the upgrade, your site is protected from cyberattacks, which makes your company more secure and trustworthy to customers.

Seamless Updates

One of the significant disadvantages that Magento 1 has Magento 1 is that it is incredibly complicated for users to install updates to Magento extensions. Numerous businesses invest lots of time and effort during this procedure. Furthermore, the eCommerce store needs to be updated to ensure the proper functioning of your website. Magento 2 has LESS, HTML5, and CSS3, making updating your store much more straightforward. It has assisted various merchants to run their businesses more efficiently and enjoy the benefits of the most recent capabilities.

Database Segmentation

Magento 1 had a single database for customers, administrators, and developers. It could have been a better design since it did not accommodate their specific requirements and resulted in the overflow of databases. In contrast, Magento 2 has divided the database into three categories: customer data, order information, checkout, and product data. It removes the necessity for codependency among the categories. For instance, overloading the administration pane will improve the user experience. Each segment functions independently, avoiding a negative impact on the other.

Mobile-friendly

In 2021, eCommerce had a significant market share, and research suggests eCommerce will grow shortly because of technological advancements and the changing purchasing habits of consumers. The hectic modern-day consumer lives prevent them from regularly going out to buy from traditional shops. The convenience online stores offer them is unparalleled. This is why store owners must ensure that their websites have mobile-friendly user interfaces to draw customers to their stores and make it easier for administration. Magento 2 is a responsive, mobile-friendly design that can be adapted to any smartphone screen and provides an enjoyable shopping experience for customers.

Modernized Tech Stack

Magento 2 gives you the most current versions of the technology stacks. It allows for more significant flexible deployment and more customization. Magento 1 has outdated technology and a high conversion rate; more support is needed for this particular version. Naturally, people would only want to invest in a dated technology that is inexpensive and lengthy. Magento 2 has additionally been updated to the minimal versions of the technology stack; for example, PHP 5.5 is the most incompatible. This is among the main reasons for migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

Payment Gateway

Payment Gateways are an integral element in any eCommerce website’s development. With secure payment gateways, consumers can not purchase products at your shop and earn profit. Additionally, one of the negatives of the technological boom is the rise in cybercrime. Businesses need to protect their clients from online fraud and insecure transactions. Magento 2 offers integration of secure payment gateways, such as Braintree and PayPal. In addition, the release of Magento 2.3.3 will also include central improvements to these payment gateways.

Admin Interface

Handling routine business operations, regardless of size, can be exhausting. It is essential to keep track of daily sales, the consumer’s interaction on the web, inventory information, and profits. It would be easier for store owners to manage all the above functions from one screen. Magento 2 has a remarkable admin interface that allows you to customize features to suit your needs.

The customized admin panel makes managing your business easy, giving you access to crucial business data in your reach. In addition, launching new products using the most recent Magento 2 admin interface is easy due to the four times quicker product import features.

Improved Scalability and Performance

Google considers various factors when ranking mobile search results, including performance and scalability. The updated and upgraded Magento 2 offers users more performance and efficiency with its cutting-edge capabilities.

For instance, PHP 7 supports built-in tools for image compression and web application accelerators such as varnish caching, reduced and included Javascript, which minimizes background browser activities on the client’s machine, and so on. Furthermore, Magento 2 can also take on larger orders than Magento 1. This means more customers will be able to take advantage of your goods!

Advanced Testing Abilities

The management of your own eCommerce business is not a part-time task. Developers must write and correct code to modify and update feature designs, layouts, etc. Human beings make mistakes, and code might not be perfect the first time. In Magento 2, developers can use trial programs to test the effectiveness of the code and make adjustments to it. This prevents adverse effects on the fundamental functions of the site. Below are a few tests incorporated into the Magento 2 testing framework.

• Unit Tests
• Static Tests
• Performance Tests
• Integration Tests
• JavaScript Unit Tests
• Legacy and Migration Tests

All these test developers save time and effort due to Magento 2’s powerful testing capabilities.

Modernized Checkout

According to Optinmoster, shoppers leave a website if they find the checkout process difficult. A significant loss of customers solely because of your checkout experience is a foreseeable loss. When you switch to Magento 2, you can remove this drawback.

Caching

Websites that load slowly are the primary reason for decreased consumer visits, poor SEO rankings, low sales, poor consumer trust, etc. One of the reasons people opt to buy from online stores is that it’s more convenient and speedier for them. They need more time to shop in the mall or load websites. The slow loading times frustrate them, creating the wrong impression for your business.

Caching happens when frequently-used pages are saved to reduce the time it takes to load. Magento 2 has in-built page caching that can speed up load time. It also has implemented changes to enhance the caching capabilities of browsers for static content.

Customization

The Magento 2 codebase has been wholly revamped to allow everything relevant to a module to be filed within a single directory of the module. The separation of business and presentation logic makes it easy to customize and maintain. Why wait? Make your store more customizable to meet your customers’ and store’s demands and maximize your profits!

The Complete Magento 2 Migration Steps

So, you’ve decided to complete the Magento 2 migration. This is an intelligent decision. To complete your Magento 2 migration, you must follow the steps below.

Step 1: Plan Your Migration

The migration involves transferring every aspect of Magento 1 to Magento 2, including databases and themes, custom extensions, and more. You must search for replacements for your third-party extensions and themes in Magento 2, some of which could increase the total cost of migration.

Planning the Magento 2 migration can help you cut costs and maximize your budget.

The most important things to take into consideration include:

• List the extensions from third parties you need to use in Magento 2.
• Find extension replacements on the official Marketplace.
• Select a different theme for your theme for your store in Magento 2.
• Select the data you would like to move into Magento 2.

Consider the Magento 1 to Magento 2 change as an opportunity to improve your store. It is possible through:- 

• Eliminate pages that are not needed
• Eliminate any data that is no longer needed and remove log files
• Make an SEO report
• Backup to your store on Magento

It is recommended that you complete a backup of Magento 1 in advance. This backup can help restore your store in case of data loss or mishap.

Additionally, checking your site’s SEO before Magento 2 migration is crucial.

Use tools like Screaming Frog to check the website’s technical performance and export the report. You can also utilize Google Search Console to get an overview of your website’s position and general Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

These reports can help monitor the impact of Magento 2 migration on your store’s SEO.

Step 2: Install Magento 2 on Staging Server

It’s time to build the foundation for your brand new store and set up the Magento 2 store configuration. Before installing Magento 2 on the staging server, meet all Magento 2 system requirements for the specific version.

It is possible to use the installation of Magento 2 in multiple ways. Here’s the most straightforward method of installing Magento from an archived file:

• Get the Magento 2 package archive. Download the Magento 2 package archive (.zip, .tar, and .gz) and add it to the directory root.
• Extract the archive package from the server’s root directory.
• Use the Magento 2 Setup Wizard and finish the setup procedure.
• Create an administrator account and then begin to customize it.

Step 3: Install and Configure Data Migration Tool

After that, you must install the Magento Data Migration tool for the M1 to the M2 transfer process. You can install it using Composer.

NOTE: You need to install the Data Migration Tool of the identical version to the Magento 2 store. You can verify what version you have installed on your Magento 2 store by using the command: php bin/Magento –version.

Change the data Migration Tool’s package to the. JSON file. 

For instance, if you’re using Magento 2.4.7. Tool:2.4.7

The installation will require Developer authentication keys. Take these steps to obtain your login keys:

• Go to Magento Marketplace.
• Log in to your profile, then navigate to Your Products > Access Keys.
• Click Create a New Access Key.

To finish installing the data migration tool, use the public key to sign in and the private key for your password.

The script and configuration files needed for the Data Migration Tool’s configuration and script files Data Migration Tool. 

You must create a config.xml file in the directory you want to use for the data transfer.

Step 4: Perform Magento 1 to Magento 2 Migration

It’s time to complete your Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration using this Data Migration tool.

We’ll use this to move all information, including settings and configurations related to shipping, payments, and taxation.

However, before you do, remember the following points in your mind:

• Be sure your Data Migration Tool has access to the internet.
• Stop all other operations within Magento 1 except order processing.
• Then stop the Magento 1.x cron job, excluding the essential ones.

Magento Settings Migration

Then, using the SSH Terminal, go into Magento 2’s root directory and run the following command to complete the conversion from Magento 1 to Magento 2. 

A successful message will appear in the display when the settings transfer is completed.

Magento Data Migration

Afterwards, you can move all your Magento 1 data to Magento 2, including categories, product orders, customers, rating lists, and wish lists. You can do this by applying the CLI command:

If the Magento 1 to Magento 2 data migration is successful, a triumphant display will appear on the screen.

The data transfer process will stop in the last-known-good state if any error occurs.

You can also activate the incremental updates to update the upcoming orders and data from Magento 1 to Magento 2. 

Step 5: Make Required Changes to Migrated Data

After the settings and data have been transferred from Magento 1 to the Magento 2 platform, you can manually review the product information, configuration, and other information to confirm a successful migration. Then, set up the sales and payments regulations and other aspects in the Magento 2 backend to meet your business needs.

You must install extensions from third parties, such as Magento 2 extensions, to add more functions to the store.

Step 6: Launch Magento 2 Store on a Live Server

Now, you’re all set to open your brand-new Magento 2 shop.

But before the launch, the store must undergo an initial test run. Make a few purchases to ensure everything’s ready to go!

Are you ready to launch your newly upgraded Magento 2 online store? The steps are:

• Set the Magento 1 store into Maintenance mode.
• Start Magento 2 cron jobs.
• Use the keys Ctrl+C within the Tool for Data Migration window to stop the incremental updates.
• Change the index of Magento 2 stock indexer.
• The pages are cached in Magento 2.

Check your Magento 2 site in staging and ensure everything works properly. 

Conclusion

Transforming into Magento 2 is a step that takes patience, time, and money. However, it’s similar to changing an old model car to a new one. It’s not easy initially; you must become accustomed to it. But after that, it’s fun, and you’ll experience an entirely new degree of ease. The migration process can often be risky and come with obstacles. Still, AddWeb Solution, you don’t need to work. Thanks to the expert Magento migration team, your business is safe. Hanam, Please don’t be scared to enhance your online business by opting to use a Magento development agency, as our team will help you resolve queries at any stage of development.

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