TIP: Upgrading from 1.0-beta3 to 1.1 (Panels 3.0-beta2 to 3.1), I lost all panels

Over the Summer our team built a site based around the then most recent releases of CTools and Panels: 6.x-1.0-beta3 and 6.x-3.0-beta2 respectively. Today I tried upgrading to the latest of each module only to have all panels disappear.

The steps I took were:

• Removed all existing files,
• Copied all of the new files into the same directory locations,
• Ran the upgrade script,
• Enabled page_manager,
• Checked admin/build/pages, everything was gone.

Before the upgrade we had custom pages, panel pages, panel nodes (We were in the process of migrating to using panel nodes to make SEO easier) and lots of mini panels, only the mini panels survived the upgrade, everything else disappeared.

So, because of the fact that I kept a database backup, I reverted back, and this time followed the steps in a different sequence:

• Removed all existing files,
• Copied all of the new files into the same directory locations,
• Enabled page_manager,
• Checked admin/build/pages, everything was still there!
• Ran the upgrade script.
• Checked admin/build/pages, everything was still still there!!

So, the lesson to be learned is: enable Page_Manager.