5 Important Considerations when Migrating Magento 1 to Magento 2

Of course, right now the brutally honest answer for “Is it worth the effort to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2?” is simply “yes”. Thanks to the Magento 2, the eCommerce world has shifted more and more toward this Magento version, instead of the old and slow Magento 1. Wanna keep track with the latest trend? You must migrate to Magento 2 right now, especially when Magento declared to stop any support for Magento 1 after June, 2020.

In our previous post, we have conclude why you should upgrade to Magento 2, but what are the downsides? Migrating Magento versions from Magento 1 to Magento 2 sounds like a hassle of a task, and you should notice 5 Important Considerations when Migrating Magento 1 to Magento 2.

Now, let’s back to the topic

Important Considerations when Migrating Magento 1 to Magento 2

When deciding to move your store to Magento 2, it’s important to come up with a migration plan detailing what and when you need to do in the whole process, to help everything run smoothly. You all should know that Magento 2 Migration is including of migrating: data, themes, extensions and other settings.

1, The difficulty of Magento 2 Migration

Remember, Magento 2 Migration is truly a difficult process, as Magento 2 is a completely different both in architecture and database design.

While the automatic transfer tool is appreciated, there are certain areas of your website that need to be transferred manually.

Namely, areas where any media, store front design, user accounts, or access control lists are concerned. But keep in mind, the manual media migration process will differ depending on where users store data for their website.

To make sure you are doing the right things, you should follow Magento 2 Migration guide thoroughly.

2, Importing Media files requires more effort

Migrating media files such as images must be done differently than product data. Media data will need to be migrated manually.

This section applies to you only if you store media files in the Magento database. This step should be performed before migration of data:

1. Log in to the Magento 1 Admin Panel as an administrator.
2. Click System > Configuration > ADVANCED > System.
3. In the right pane, scroll to Storage Configuration for Media.
4. From the Select Media Database list, click the name of your media storage database.
5. Click Synchronize.

If the media files aren’t in the database, but in the system, you need to move them manually, from old directory to the media directory of Magento 2.

3, You can’t migrate extensions and themes

Magento 1 extensions are most likely not compatible with Magento 2. The Code Migration Toolkit can assist with migrating some extensions and custom code, but not all.

Both Magento 1 extensions and themes must be re-created to work properly with the new Magento 2 structure. To access a new version of themes and extensions, contact the developer of the products.

4, Manual Migration of Remaining Data

Not only the media, you need to migrate manually other data, like store front design or access control lists.

Magento 2 has a different design interface than the previous version, so website designs need to be manually recreated.

Magento 2 design in files have different locations and formats which must be adhered to, and layout updates stored in the Magento 1 databases need to be manually redone. These include widgets, category pages, product pages, and the like.

When it comes to user permissions and access control lists, everything must be manually recreated within Magento 2.

This includes the credentials for web service APIs, and any administrative user accounts or other accounts with special access privileges.

5, Considers the performance when it’s done

It’s possible the migration, despite planning, may not work perfectly. You may see error messages. Don’t fret! The process is not always perfect and any errors can be fixed by reaching out to knowledgeable Magento developers.