Contact Us

If you still have questions or prefer to get help directly from an agent, please submit a request.
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Please fill out the contact form below and we will reply as soon as possible.

  1. Fotoware Alto
    • End-User Manual
    • User Guides
    • Solutions
    • Terminology
    • API Changelog
  2. Fotoware Veloz
    • Managing users and groups
    • Configuring archives
    • Configuring workflows
    • Configuring site behavior
    • Navigating and searching to find your assets
    • Working with your assets
    • Editing asset metadata
    • Uploading files
    • Version Control in Fotoware
    • Albums - Creating and sharing collections
    • Placing assets in a CMS
    • Working with the Fotoware Pro interface
    • Using the Fotoware plugins
    • Consent management
    • User guide to FotoWeb for iPad (Legacy)
    • Picture conferencing with FotoWeb Screens (Legacy)
    • What's what in Fotoware
    • GDPR
    • Fotoware Veloz releases
    • Activity Exports
    • Example workflows
  3. Fotostation
    • Getting started with Fotostation
    • Viewing, selecting and sorting files
    • Managing your assets with archives
    • Adding metadata to assets
    • Searching for assets
    • Working with your assets
    • Version Control in Fotostation
    • Automating tasks with Actions
    • Configuring metadata fields and editors
    • Configuring Fotostation
    • Configuring Fotostation for multi-user environments
    • Troubleshooting Fotostation
  4. Fotoware Flow
    • What is Flow?
    • Getting started
    • Flow dictionary
  5. Fotoware On-Premises
    • Getting started
    • Index Manager
    • FotoWeb
    • Color Factory
    • Connect
    • Operations Center Guide
  6. Integrations and APIs (Fotoware Veloz & On-Premises)
    • The Fotoware API
    • Creating integrations using embeddable widgets
    • Authorizing applications using OAuth
    • Auto-tagging
    • FotoWeb Drag and Drop export
    • Integration using webhooks
    • Optimizely and Episerver plugin documentation
    • User Interface Integrations
  7. Fotoware Mobile
    • User guide for Fotoware Mobile for iPhone and Android
    • User guide to FotoWeb for iPad (Legacy)
    • User guide to FotoWeb for iPhone and Android (Legacy)

Contact Us

If you still have questions or prefer to get help directly from an agent, please submit a request.
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Please fill out the contact form below and we will reply as soon as possible.

Support

Table of Contents

Note Prerequisites Uninstalling the FotoWeb MongoDB service Uninstalling Feature Release 19 Mongo DB Upgrading the database files Before upgrading Upgrading Configuring FotoWeb Note Installing the new Feature Release software
  • Home
  • Fotoware On-Premises
  • FotoWeb
  • Installing FotoWeb (On-Premises)

Upgrading from Feature Release 19 to Feature Release 20

30. July 2025

Elaine Foley

Table of Contents

Note Prerequisites Uninstalling the FotoWeb MongoDB service Uninstalling Feature Release 19 Mongo DB Upgrading the database files Before upgrading Upgrading Configuring FotoWeb Note Installing the new Feature Release software

Note

This is a draft article that is subject to change. 

 

 

Prerequisites

  • Backup customer data (typically everything at C:\ProgramData\Fotoware) before starting the upgrade. For more information, see Backing up the FotoWeb databases.
  • Backup MongoDB data (DBPATH folder) before starting the upgrade. To do so, it is sufficient to duplicate the DBPATH folder. You can restart if something goes wrong during the incremental upgrade process.

     

Uninstalling the FotoWeb MongoDB service

  1. Stop the existing MongoDB service by running net stop fwmongodb. 
  2. Remove the FotoWeb MongoDB service using the Windows service, services.msc.
  3. If you are using an external MongoDB service, you must stop it manually.
     

Uninstalling Feature Release 19

Uninstall Feature Release 19 software using the standard installer, for example, in Windows Control Panel. The uninstaller stops all FotoWeb services, including the FotoWeb MongoDB server.
 

Mongo DB

FotoWeb stores some data in the MongoDB database. Starting with FR20, the latest version of this database must be installed on the system before installing Fotoweb. MongoDB server community edition (“mongod”) can be downloaded from www.mongodb.com.

Install MongoDB as a Windows Service with the following configuration parameters:
Data Directory:  C:\ProgramData\FotoWare\FotoWeb\Operations\MongoDBData.

 

Upgrading the database files

When upgrading from FR19, the MongoDB data directory will already contain data that must be upgraded from the MongoDB version 4 format used by FR19. This upgrade must be done in single-version increments, from version 4 to version 5, then to version 6, then to version 7, and so on. The corresponding software version must be used for each upgrade step.

Before upgrading

  1. Open the Services Control Panel Applet and make sure the newly installed “MongoDB Server” Windows Service is stopped.
  2. Go to the MongoDB Community Edition release archive on www.mongodb.com (https://www.mongodb.com/try/download/community-edition/releases/archive at the time of writing) and download the Windows x64 zip archive for each major version between 4 and the current. At the time of writing, these are: 
  • Version 5.0.31 (“mongodb-windows-x86_64-5.0.31.zip”)
  • Version 6.0.23 (“mongodb-windows-x86_64-6.0.23.zip”)
  • Version 7.0.20 (“mongodb-windows-x86_64-7.0.20.zip”)
  1. Also, download the MongoDB command line tool, MongoDB Shell, as a zip file from https://www.mongodb.com/try/download/shell.
  2. Unzip all the downloaded files into separate directories.
     

Upgrading

  1. Open a Terminal Window and CD into the bin directory under the directory where you unzipped MongoDB version 5.0.31.
  2. Start the MongoDB 5.0.31 server with the following command:

    mongod.exe --dbpath C:\ProgramData\FotoWare\FotoWeb\Operations\MongoDBData --port 27017 
     
  3. Open another Terminal Window and CD into the bin directory under the directory where you unzipped the MongoDB Shell. 
  4. Upgrade the database files with the following command:

mongosh.exe --eval "db.adminCommand({setFeatureCompatibilityVersion:'5.0'})"

  1. Switch to the first terminal window and press Ctrl-C to stop the MongoDB server.
  2.  CD to the bin directory where MongoDB version 6.0.23 is unzipped. Start it with the same command line as in step 2.
  3. Switch to the second terminal window and upgrade to version 6 with the following command:

mongosh.exe --eval "db.adminCommand({setFeatureCompatibilityVersion:'6.0'})"

  1. Switch to the first terminal window, stop the server with Ctrl-C, CD to the MongoDB 7 bin directory and start the MongoDB 7 server with the command line from step 2.
  2. Switch to the second terminal window and upgrade to version 7. Notice that the command for this is slightly different:

mongosh.exe --eval "db.adminCommand({setFeatureCompatibilityVersion:'7.0',confirm:true})"

  1. Switch to the first terminal window and stop the server with Ctrl-C.
  2. Open the Services control panel applet and start the MongoDB service.
  3. Switch to the second terminal window and do the final upgrade to version 8:

mongosh.exe --eval "db.adminCommand({setFeatureCompatibilityVersion:'8.0',confirm:true})"

  1. Close both terminal windows.

The unzipped files and downloaded zip files were only needed for the upgrade process and can now be deleted.


Configuring FotoWeb 

In  C:\ProgramData\FotoWare\FotoWeb\ServerSettings\Configuration\System.settings file, set MongoDBPort to 27017 for the following two settings, and save the file:

  • <ServerDatabaseSettings>
  • <FotoWareDatabaseSettings>

We recommend using the default port  27017 or an alternative port. The legacy FotoWeb port 7200 is no longer allowed, and we recommend avoiding well-known ports.

Note

If you skip this step and leave the old ports in the system.settings file, the upgrade wizard will display the following error message and will not run. 

In this case, after fixing the port numbers, the upgrade wizard can be run manually via cmd: 

"C:\Program Files\FotoWare\FotoWeb\fwsetup.exe" -installModeReal
 

Check the content of C:\ProgramData\FotoWare\FotoWeb\Server Settings\Configuration\VideoTranscoderConfig.json to make sure it refers to the correct MongoDB port and FFmpeg path for video transcoding. Edit, if necessary. 

Example:


{"fwdb":{"host":"localhost","port":27017,"name":"fotoware","username":"","password":""},"db":{"host":"localhost","port":27017,"name":"videotrs"},"paths":{"deploy":["C:\\ProgramData\\FotoWare\\FotoWeb\\Operations\\Proxies\\Video"]},"tools":{"ffmpeg":"C:\\Program Files\\FotoWare\\FotoWeb\\Scripts\\Python\\fotoware\\videotranscoder\\bin\\win8x64"},"video":{"cpuCores":1,"quality":18,"compressionSpeed":6},"debug":false}

 

Installing the new Feature Release software

  1. Upgrade to the latest version of Index Manager.
  2. In the Index Manager Settings app, go to General  > Indexes and make sure the MongoDB host is updated to the new port number 27017 if you are using the Push metadata to FotoWeb server option.
     

 

  1. Install the FotoWeb FR20 release using the FotoWeb installer and following the upgrade process. FotoWeb FR20 has x64 architecture and installs files to C:\Program Files\FotoWare\FotoWeb.
  2. Install FFmpeg. For more information, see How to install FFmpeg for Fotoweb, Index Manager, and Color Factory.
  3. FotoWeb is proven to work with FFmpeg 4.4.1; new versions are not supported. Index Manager supports the new FFmpeg version 7.1.1.
updating transitioning

Was this article helpful?

Yes
No
Give feedback about this article

Related Articles

  • Refreshing tokens
  • Handling OAuth 2.0 errors
  • Good practice for requesting access tokens
eco-lighthouse-miljøfyrtårn

Company

  • About us
  • Resellers
  • Careers
  • Contact us

Help & support

  • Support center
  • Consultancy
  • Tech partners
  • Fotostation
  • System status

Trust Center

  • Legal
  • Security
  • Sustainability & ESG

Locations

Fotoware AS (HQ)
Tollbugata 35
0157 OSLO
Norway
FotoWare Switzerland AG
Industriestrasse 25
5033 Buchs (AG)
Switzerland

Copyright 2025 Fotoware All rights reserved.

  • Terms of service
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookie policy

Knowledge Base Software powered by Helpjuice

Expand