Hi,

Upgrading an on-premise Odoo 18 database to Odoo 19 is possible, but it follows a specific process. Odoo treats database upgrades as part of its migration service. According to the official documentation, upgrades are normally handled by Odoo SA—you upload your database to their upgrade platform, and they return the migrated version. This ensures that all core modules and accounting rules are updated correctly.

For on-premise users, you can’t fully perform the database upgrade yourself. However, your technical team can prepare and test the migration process. The main steps are:

    Prepare your current Odoo 18 database

        Make sure it is clean: close open transactions, fix errors, uninstall unused or broken modules.

        Back up your database and filestore.

    Submit the database to Odoo’s Upgrade Service

        Upload the dump of your Odoo 18 database through the official upgrade platform.

        Odoo will process it and return a database compatible with Odoo 19.

    Handle custom modules

        Odoo only migrates the standard code. Your technical team must adapt and migrate custom apps/modules to ensure compatibility with v19.

        This usually requires code refactoring and testing on a staging server.

    Test the upgraded database

        Restore the upgraded database in a staging environment running Odoo 19.

        Verify all workflows, customizations, and integrations.

    Go live

        Once testing is validated, back up production again.

        Restore the migrated database into your Odoo 19 instance and switch users to the new system.

The database upgrade itself must go through Odoo’s upgrade service, but your team is responsible for preparing the v18 database, adapting custom modules, and testing everything before go-live.

Hope it helps

We will start testing the upgrade of Odoo Online databases in October. If all goes well, we will then allow On Premise and Odoo.sh databases to be upgraded in November.

It could be earlier or later - we want to provide a smooth experience - so will adjust based on how well the first several thousand upgrades go.

Databases need to be sent to the Odoo migration service.