Migración controlada: Solucionando el error de compatibilidad PHP en WordPress antiguo

While troubleshooting my XAMPP environment, I encountered a fatal PHP compatibility error. The system reported that __autoload() is no longer supported in modern versions of the language.

The initial diagnosis

Initially, we identified that my WordPress 4.7.29 installation was trying to execute obsolete PHP code.

I then decided to switch the Apache configuration directly to use PHP 8.4 without making other changes first.

The refined migration strategy

After realizing that jumping straight to PHP 8.4 with such an old version of WordPress was risky, I outlined a safer path forward.

This new plan involves backing up the MyISAM tables and reverting temporarily to PHP 7.1 to ensure stability. We will then update WordPress in a separate test environment before attempting to introduce intermediate versions of PHP.

By validating the site progressively, we can avoid losing any accumulated work while moving from the older setup to modern standards.