Unless I'm missing it, I'm not seeing any difference in the videos 2 and 3 that demonstrate the difference between the Auto Merge Method of upgrade and the Manual method of upgrading? Where's the Auto Merge Method?

Also- please delete my post for Issue 40- wrong issue, wrong subject

Short summary:

The Auto-Merge method doesn't require that you copy items from your old web.config file to a new one. You simply unzip the UPGRADE DotNetNuke package into your web directory.

The Manual method requires that you move some items from the prior web.config to the new one. Since it's manual, it is prone to error.

But you still need to copy over information such as connection strings, app settings and machine keys? So it's still a manual process. I thought that it would somehow merge the contents of my current web config with the update web config

No, the whole point is that you no longer have to copy anything from your old web.config.  The "auto merge" part of the upgrade process does that for you.  Settings from your old web.config are used in the new one.

Joe,

Just to be clear, the auto-merge method is not available for upgrading DNN versions prior to 4.6.1, correct? I am upgrading a 4.4.1 install and I will need to make all those changes for a 4.9.1 upgrade....AM I CORRECT?

I think you have to have upgraded to 4.6.2 to be able to use auto-merge for upgrades.

yes correct - its 4.6.2 onwards that as automerge available

So, is there any reason why I shouldn't just do a manual upgrade to 4.9.1? If not, I think I just need to connect the db in two places (I don't need to mess with the machine key, correct?).

You can use the manual method to upgrade to whatever version you require.

However I would test it first before attempting on your live site. You may find you get errors and if you do the solution will more than likely be to upgrade to 4.6.2 first and then to 4.9.1.

If you decide to go straight to 4.9.1, use the manual method as outlined in the tutorial, make sure you copy across the required fields such as connection string, machine keys, installation date, etc.

I would say that the manual method is more prone to errrors than the auto-merge method.

Also, upgrade to 4.9.2 rather than 4.9.1.  That upgrade was released a week ago and fixes some errors in the 4.9.1 release.