Upgrading from Solvo 1.x to 2.0

Your schools, users, students, fees and settings stay exactly as they are. The upgrade replaces the code and adds new tables and columns; nothing is deleted.

Already on 2.0.0?

Upload Solvo-v2.0.1-update-from-2.0.0.zip over your site (it holds only the changed files, including the corrected config/license-server.php), add the daily verify_license.php cron job, then open System & licence and press Check again now. No database update is needed.

Before you start

Back up the database (cPanel → phpMyAdmin → Export, or mysqldump).
Back up storage/ (uploaded photos, logos, documents) and your .env file.

Steps

Download Solvo-v2.0.1-upgrade-from-1.x.zip. It contains every file except the installer, .env and storage/, so it can't overwrite your data or settings.
Upload its contents over your existing Solvo folder (File Manager → Upload → Extract, or FTP), replacing files when asked.
Sign in as Super Admin and open System & licence. Under Database you'll see that an update is waiting. Press Update the database now. (With SSH: php scripts/migrate.php.) It is safe to press twice — only changes that haven't been applied are run.
Still on System & licence, check the Licence card says active. Your 1.x SYNC_KEY is picked up automatically; you can also paste the key there.
Add the new cron job — send queued email and SMS, every 5 minutes — copying the command from the Scheduled jobs card on the same page. Keep your existing jobs.
Open Email & SMS engines and press Send test email. Your 1.x SMTP / Resend / Africa's Talking settings carry over; you can now also pick Mailgun, Mailchimp Transactional, SendGrid, Brevo, Postmark, Amazon SES, ZeptoMail, Elastic Email, MailerSend, Twilio, Advanta, Celcom Africa, Infobip, Vonage, Termii or a custom HTTP gateway.
Optional, when convenient: - Appearance — default light/dark mode, theme and sidebar style. - Branding & payments — upload a dark-background logo alongside your existing one. - Live chat — set your welcome and away messages and saved replies. - Ask schools to set their Brand colours and switch on their chat under Live chat → Settings.

If the licence screen appears before you've run the database update, enter your key and Super Admin details there: the activation screen applies the database update itself before saving the key.

What changes for your users

A new look, with light and dark mode and colour themes everyone can choose from the top bar.
Emails are now full branded HTML designs with the school's logo and contacts; SMS wording is tidier.
A "Chat with school" button for parents and students once the school switches chat on.

Custom CSS

If you edited the old stylesheets (dashboard.css, marketing.css, auth.css, legal.css, school-site.css), those files no longer exist: every page now uses assets/css/solvo-app.css or assets/css/solvo-site.css. The old variable names (--navy, --orange, --muted …) still work and follow the active theme. See THEMES_AND_BRANDING.md.

Rolling back

Restore the database backup and the previous files. 2.0 only adds tables and columns, so 1.x also runs on an updated database if you need to go back in a hurry.