Odoo 20 is out, and with it the question every Odoo user meets once a year or two: when, and how, do we upgrade? The database conversion itself is Odoo's job, and it is reliable. What goes wrong is everything around it: a module nobody listed, a report that changed, a team that discovers the new screens on Monday morning. This checklist helps you upgrade to Odoo 20 calmly.
Do you need to upgrade now?
Odoo supports each major version for three years, then gives two more years to complete the upgrade. When a new version comes out, the oldest supported one gets closer to the end of its support. On Odoo Online, the intermediate versions must be upgraded a few weeks after the next one is released. So the real question is not whether, but when: a test upgrade costs little, and it tells you how much work is waiting. The new features are in our overview of Odoo 20.
The five steps of an Odoo upgrade
- Request an upgraded test database: from the database manager on Odoo Online, from your project on Odoo.sh, or with Odoo's upgrade script on your own server.
- Upgrade the code of your extra modules to the new version, if you have any.
- Test the upgraded copy, and report what goes wrong to Odoo's support.
- Plan and request the production upgrade once the tests are clean.
- Check the first days in production, and report any late issue.
You can request several test databases: one early to measure the work, one later to rehearse the real day.
Before you request anything: list your modules
The database cannot be upgraded until every module installed on it exists for the target version. Make the list first, from the Apps menu with the default filter removed:
- Standard Odoo apps: Odoo handles them.
- Apps from the Odoo Apps Store: open each app page and check that the vendor publishes it for Odoo 20. Write to the vendor if it is missing.
- Modules written for you: the developer must port them. Count this in the budget and the planning.
- Studio customizations: they are upgraded with the database.
Remove what nobody uses any more: every module you uninstall now is one less to port and to test. On your own server, also check the system: Odoo 20 needs Python 3.12 and PostgreSQL 16 or later.
Test like a user, not like an administrator
Opening a few screens is not a test. Ask the people who do the work every day to run their real flows on the test database:
- A complete sale: quotation, order, delivery, invoice, payment, credit note.
- A complete purchase: request for quotation, receipt, vendor bill.
- The printed documents and the emails your customers receive.
- The automated actions, the integrations with other software, and the exports your accountant uses.
- The searches and filters people use every day, and the translations of your documents.
Write down each problem with the steps to reproduce it. A precise ticket gets fixed; a vague one goes back and forth.
What changes with your hosting
- Odoo Online: the upgrade starts from the database manager. If you do nothing before the deadline, Odoo upgrades the database for you.
- Odoo.sh: the upgraded copy arrives on a staging branch, where your modules are updated at each commit. Production is upgraded from the production branch, and goes back to the previous state if it fails.
- Your own server: Odoo's upgrade script sends the database to the upgrade platform and brings it back converted. The server must be able to reach that platform.
What the upgrade service does not do
For Enterprise customers, upgrading to the latest version is included: standard apps, Studio customizations and modules under an Odoo maintenance contract. Everything else is up to you: modules from other vendors or written in-house without such a contract, data cleaning, and training your team. The service does not switch you from Community to Enterprise, does not change your hosting, and does not go back to an older version. On Community, there is no official upgrade service: plan the upgrade with your partner.
The day of the switch
Choose a quiet day, tell everyone when Odoo will be unavailable, and keep a backup taken just before. After the upgrade, run the same flows as in the test, in the first hour. Plan a short session to show the team what moved on the screens: most upgrade complaints are habits, not bugs.
Based on the Odoo upgrade documentation. Conditions depend on your edition, plan and hosting: check them for your own database.
Our apps in your upgrade
If you use our apps, each app page lists the Odoo versions it is published for, and every version runs the same automated tests before release. Moving to a new version? Tell us which apps you use, and we check them with you.
A question about your upgrade? Write to support@sharqix.com, we answer within one business day.
