Trying to upgrade from EE 2.5.5 to 2.9.90 - the infamous white screen problem

Question

So Im trying to upgrade an EE site and when I follow the instructions... All I get is a black white page. No error messages, nothing.

Interesting when I enable debug=1 in index.php, I do see this error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STATIC, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or '$' in /var/www/vhosts/default/htdocs/run/EllisLab/ExpressionEngine/Core/Autoloader.php on line 46

Any ideas or hints really appreciated.

I dont have any special modules or plugins.

Paul

Answer 1

The error points you to line 46 of the Autoloader.php file. That line of code is:

if ( ! isset(static::$instance))

This line of code will only run in PHP 5.3.0 or newer.

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ExpressionEngine 2.9 requires PHP 5.3.10 or newer and you're getting the error because your PHP version is older than this.