Here’s how to upgrade your movable type installation from version 4 to the latest version 5.

Before doing anything, first things first. Make sure that you have an updated backup of your Movable type database and files. If you haven’t done it yet, now is the best time to do it. I’m not going to discuss on how to backup your database and files here as you should have done it already.

Now, let’s go straight to the upgrade; Assuming you have everything backed-up.

Download the latest Movable type release which is MT 5.04 as of this writing.

Rename the existing mt folder under your cgi-bin directory.

mv mt mt.old

Rename the existing mt-static, wherever you put it.

mv mt-static mt-static.old

Move the downloaded MT installer package to your cgi-bin and decompress it.

tar -vxzf MT-5.04-en.tar.gz

Set permissions of the decompressed files to 755. Change ownership when necessary too.

chmod -R 755 MT-5.04-en

Create a symlink of MT-5.04-en to mt folder inside your cgi-bin

ln -s MT-5.04-en mt

Create a symlink of mt-static inside the mt directory to your www directory; usually /home/your_username/www

ln -s MT-5.04-en /home/your_username/www/

Now, go to http://your_website/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi. you should be redirected to mt-wizard.cgi. Fill-up the required “static web path” and “static file path”. Configure the database connector you want to use, mysql is recommended.

Fill-up the required database details and submit configuration. Next, type in your username and password when asked to login. The upgrade should start immediately as soon as you logged in successfully.

Once the upgrade is finished, copy all custom themes you have on your old Movable type installation.

That’s about it, drop me a message should you encounter issues during the upgrade.