<p>Did this issue occur on your local machine or in production?
Here is a list of common issues and solutions: <a href="https://craftcms.com/knowledge-base/failed-updates" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://craftcms.com/knowledge-base/failed-updates</a></p>
<p>You can still make a backup from your database to save as much as possible. Your issue might not be fatal for the database.</p>
<p>I would suggest you to provide us with the relevant error message you are seeing. Without it we can only guess at what the issue might be.</p>
<p>It is also recommended to update via CLI instead of using the interface using <code>composer update</code> or <code>php craft update</code>: <a href="https://nystudio107.com/blog/updating-craft-cms-without-headaches#3-update-via-cli" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://nystudio107.com/blog/updating-craft-cms-without-headaches#3-update-via-cli</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-13T12:21:07.397Z
2023-09-13T12:21:07.397Z
Matthias
<p>I haven't got around to do much with Craft yet, but I think I've installed it correctly - everything seemed to be working fine, but when I clicked the &quot;update&quot; button today, it broke. I now just see an error page that complains about Json in a whole lot of documents.</p>
<p>I'm utterly out of my depth here and don't know what to do. I'm guessing I might need to reinstall Craft, but how do I do that without loosing any of the existing data? I didn't make a backup since I trusted the update would work just fine. And how do I figure out what went wrong in the first place, so that it doesn't happen again?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-13T13:21:01.323Z
Hey Erica, sorry you experience these problems. In order to help you, I'd recommend that you add as much information as possible in your question.

The error messages that are shown to you oftentimes contain important information on what is broken. You should consider to share the content of the errors you see.
Max Strebel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-14T19:38:37.830Z
Hey Erica, can you please update your question with more details (perhaps a screenshot) of what you're seeing on the error page?
Jalen Davenport
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-12-13T09:55:30.697Z
Just to update: I ended up giving up on Craft, at least for now. I think part of the problem might lie in me having installed it "manually" rather than using github and composer and what else was mentioned, but I have no idea how to use that (and it seems like overkill to invest time in setting all that up just for one simple site). Thanks for trying to help though.
Erica
<updates><json>
Help! Update caused Craft to break
# Help! Update caused Craft to break

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-09-13)

I haven't got around to do much with Craft yet, but I think I've installed it correctly - everything seemed to be working fine, but when I clicked the "update" button today, it broke. I now just see an error page that complains about Json in a whole lot of documents.

I'm utterly out of my depth here and don't know what to do. I'm guessing I might need to reinstall Craft, but how do I do that without loosing any of the existing data? I didn't make a backup since I trusted the update would work just fine. And how do I figure out what went wrong in the first place, so that it doesn't happen again?

**Tags:** updates, json
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hey Erica, sorry you experience these problems. In order to help you, I'd recommend that you add as much information as possible in your question.  The error messages that are shown to you oftentimes contain important information on what is broken. You should consider to share the content of the errors you see.  
> **username_2**: Hey Erica, can you please update your question with more details (perhaps a screenshot) of what you're seeing on the error page?  
> **username_0**: Just to update: I ended up giving up on Craft, at least for now. I think part of the problem might lie in me having installed it "manually" rather than using github and composer and what else was mentioned, but I have no idea how to use that (and it seems like overkill to invest time in setting all that up just for one simple site). Thanks for trying to help though.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2023-09-13. Score: 2

Did this issue occur on your local machine or in production?
Here is a list of common issues and solutions: <https://craftcms.com/knowledge-base/failed-updates>

You can still make a backup from your database to save as much as possible. Your issue might not be fatal for the database.

I would suggest you to provide us with the relevant error message you are seeing. Without it we can only guess at what the issue might be.

It is also recommended to update via CLI instead of using the interface using `composer update` or `php craft update`: <https://nystudio107.com/blog/updating-craft-cms-without-headaches#3-update-via-cli>


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