Magento 2.4.6 Release Notes - Highlight Features & How to Upgrade in 2024

Magento 2.4.6 was launched on March 14, 2023.

Here it is - the long-awaited release of Magento 2.4.6 - which has many new features, enhanced performance, and bug fixes for shop owners and developers. According to the official Adobe 2.4.6 release notes, this version includes over 300 quality fixes and improvements. PHP 7.4 has been removed, and PHP 8.2 has been introduced instead. Are you ready to explore what has been done better in this latest version? To download Magento 2.4.6, you can visit here.

Magento 2.4.6 Release Notes Highlights

For shop owners and developers, Magento 2.4.6 delivers much more than they could have anticipated, including high security, performance, and significant bug improvements.

Security Improvements

Even though there are not any confirmed attacks that occurred, it is still recommended that admins should protect their Admin by using IP allow listing, VPN usage, two-factor authentication, and good password hygiene.

Security is always a top priority for eCommerce platforms, and Magento 2.4.6 comes with several security enhancements. The most notable improvement is that the reCAPTCHA validation no longer fails. Additionally, now email confirmation is required when an admin user updates his email.

Platform Improvements

Magento 2.4.6 has introduced several platform enhancements to improve users’ overall experience.

• PHP 8.2 support has been introduced, and PHP 8.1 is still supported.
• OpenSearch 2.5 is tested, and OpenSearch 2.x is recommended with this release, even though OpenSearch 1.x is still supported.
• Elasticsearch 8.x
• Redis 7.0.x is recommended as in 2024, Redis 6.2 will reach the end of life.

Performance & Scalability Enhancements

Performance and scalability are crucial for eCommerce platforms, and Magento 2.4.6 has introduced several improvements in this area.

• Limit the number of products shown in the product grid.
• Increase import performance up to 100,000 records per minute
• Enhance order processing
• Improve operations performance when having 100+ customer segments

GraphQL

You can find the following GraphQL enhancements in this Magento 2.4.6 release:

• Faster response time when products are queried in categories with category permissions
• Render category tree quickly if stores have a large number of categories
• Faster response time for bulk cart operations query
• Support order sorting in the customer query

Braintree Payment Enhancements

There are a lot of Braintree payment improvements in the Adobe Commerce/Magento 2.4.6 release, as below:

• Display the Pay Later button & messages for Italy & Spain
• Enable PayPal Vault
• Add Fraud Protection and ACH webhooks

B2B

Now two GraphQL schemas have been released:

• Purchase Order GraphQL: including all purchase orders creation, editing, and deleting)
• Purchase Order Rule GraphQL: including rules creation, editing, and deleting, as well as purchase order manual validation.

Improved Accessibility

This version focuses on improving the storefront experience (PWA):

• Descriptive accessible names
• Verbal descriptive labels included in the Has Video search filters
• Allow full-page storefront functionality access of keyboard-only users

Upgraded JavaScript libraries to the latest versions

Keeping up with modern web development, outdated JavaScript libraries have been replaced. In Magento 2.4.6, several JavaScript libraries are updated, including:

• jQuery: A popular library for DOM manipulation and event handling.

• RequireJS: Used for asynchronous module loading.

• Knockout.js: A powerful library for building dynamic user interfaces.

• Underscore.js: Provide utility functions for common programming tasks.

• Moment.js: Handle date and time formatting.

• TinyMCE: The rich text editor used in Magento’s content management system.

Page Builder & PWA Studio

Page Builder v1.7.3 and PWA Studio v.13.0.x work well with Adobe Commerce/Magento 2.4.6.

Significant Issues Fixed in the Magento 2.4.6

Adobe fixed hundreds of issues. You can find some significant fixed bugs below:

• Optimize Installation, upgrade, and deployment
• Update bundle product via API
• No longer flush full-page cache except when the ordered item is out of stock.
• Eliminate COD payment method if exempted for the country stated in the shipping and billing addresses.
• Add drag and drop feature to product custom options
• Allow shoppers to add items to their wish list after they log in
• FedEx, USPS, and UPS shipping rates are now calculated correctly even if the Free Shipping Cart rule is enabled to only a subset of cart items
• Enhance the performance of strings searches when the Minimum Terms to Match configuration is enabled.

Is Magento 2.4.6 worth it?

As you can see, Adobe Commerce (Magento) 2.4.6 has multiple improvements in the most significant areas that excite merchants and developers. This release motivates business owners to upgrade their websites to the latest Magento version and experience new functionality.

Adobe has posted official notes for the Magento 2.4.6 release. You can find the latest release notes here:

• Magento Open Source 2.4.6 Release Notes
• Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 Release Notes

However, please take note that this release may contain backward-incompatible changes. So, you should review these changes carefully before upgrading your website. Ensuring that extensions, themes, and third parties work smoothly is essential to avoid any negative impact on your business operations.

How to upgrade to Magento 2.4.6

System requirements

• PHP: 8.1 or 8.2
• MariaDB 10.6 (10.4 is still supported but not recommended)
• Composer 2.2.x
• Elasticsearch 8.x
• OpenSearch 2.x (1.x is still supported but not recommended)

Learn more about system requirements here

Steps to upgrade to the latest version of Magento

Manage packages

After preparing your system to make sure the version 2.4.6 will work well on it, you can start managing packages.

1. Activate maintenance mode

To block users from accessing your store while you carry out upgrades.

bin/magento maintenance:enable

2. Disable all cron jobs

To prevent data corruption during the upgrade process, it’s important to disable all cron jobs before starting if there are any asynchronous processes, such as message queue consumers, currently running.

Adobe Cloud:

./vendor/bin/ece-tools cron:disable

Magento Open Source:

bin/magento cron:remove

3. Start all message queue consumers manually

To ensure that all messages are consumed, it is advisable to start all message queue consumers manually.

bin/magento cron:run --group=consumers

You should wait for the cron job to finish before proceeding. You can monitor the job’s progress by using a process viewer or by running the ps aux | grep 'bin/magento queue command repeatedly until all processes have been completed.

4. Back up composer

cp composer.json composer.json.bak

5. Change packages

Have specific packages added or removed For instance:

composer remove magento/product-community-edition --no-update

Sample data should be also upgraded:

composer require <sample data module-1>:<version> ... <sample data module-n>:<version> --no-update

• Adobe Commerce:

composer require
magento/module-bundle-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-widget-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-theme-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-catalog-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-customer-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-cms-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-catalog-rule-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-sales-rule-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-review-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-tax-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-sales-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-grouped-product-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-downloadable-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-msrp-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-configurable-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-product-links-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-wishlist-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-swatches-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/sample-data-media:100.4.*
magento/module-offline-shipping-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-gift-card-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-customer-balance-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-target-rule-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-gift-registry-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-multiple-wishlist-sample-data:100.4.*
--no-update

• Magento Open Source:

composer require magento/module-bundle-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-widget-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-theme-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-catalog-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-customer-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-cms-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-catalog-rule-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-sales-rule-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-review-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-tax-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-sales-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-grouped-product-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-downloadable-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-msrp-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-configurable-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-product-links-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-wishlist-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/module-swatches-sample-data:100.4.*
magento/sample-data-media:100.4.*
magento/module-offline-shipping-sample-data:100.4.*
--no-update

6. Upgrade your instance

You can upgrade your instance by using the following syntax for the composer require-commerce command:

composer require-commerce magento/<product> <version>
--no-update [--interactive-root-conflicts]
[--force-root-updates] [--help]

The command includes the following options:

• <product> (required): Specifies the package to be upgraded. For on-premises installations, the value should be either product-community-edition or product-enterprise-edition.
• <version> (required): Specifies the version of Adobe Commerce or Magento Open Source to upgrade to, for example, 2.4.3.
• --no-update (required): Disables automatic dependency updates.
• --interactive-root-conflicts (optional): Allows interactive viewing and updating of outdated or customized values that do not match the version being upgraded to.
• --force-root-updates (optional): Overrides all conflicting custom values with the expected Magento values.
• --help (optional): Provides usage details for the plugin. If neither --interactive-root-conflicts nor --force-root-updates is specified, the command retains the existing conflicting values and displays a warning message. You can refer to the Plugin Usage README for more information about the plugin.

7. Update the dependencies

composer update

Update metadata

1. You may update the “name”, “version”, and “description” fields in the composer.json file according to your requirements.

2. Apply updates

composer update

3. Clear the var/ and generated/ subdirectories:

rm -rf var/cache/*
rm -rf var/page_cache/*
rm -rf generated/code/*

4. Update the database schema and data

bin/magento setup:upgrade

5. Disable maintenance mode

bin/magento maintenance:disable

6. Restart Varnish if needed

If you are using Varnish for page caching, you need to restart it after completing the upgrade process. service varnish restart

Double check

After completing the upgrade process, you should check whether the storefront URL is loading properly in a web browser to ensure that the upgrade was successful. If the storefront fails to load properly, it may indicate an unsuccessful upgrade.

If the application generates a We're sorry, an error has occurred while generating this email error, you should take the following steps:

1. Reset the file system ownership and permissions with root user privileges.

2. Clear the contents of the following directories:

var/cache/
var/page_cache/
generated/code/

3. Check your storefront in your web browser again.

Let Mageplaza help you upgrade from only $399

If you’re a Magento 2.x user planning for a version upgrade, Mageplaza can help. With our team of experienced Magento developers, you can rest assured that your website will be upgraded with the utmost care and attention to detail.

Mageplaza’s Magento 2 Upgrade Service offers several outstanding benefits, including:

• Access to a team of experienced Magento experts who can handle all aspects of the upgrade process.
• Customized upgrade plans tailored to your specific needs, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free transition to the latest version of Magento 2.
• Guaranteed data security, as all data is backed up and securely migrated during the upgrade process.
• Improved site performance and speed, as the latest version of Magento 2 includes performance optimizations and bug fixes.
• Compatibility with the latest extensions and third-party integrations, ensuring your store can take advantage of the latest features and functionality.
• Ongoing support and maintenance to ensure your store stays up-to-date and running smoothly.
• Affordable pricing options, with transparent pricing and no hidden fees.

We’ll help you upgrade your Magento store in 5 simple steps:

• Step #1: Analyze your website
• Step #2: Prepare a staging site
• Step #3: Upgrade
• Step #4: QA test & fix bugs
• Step #5: Make your site live

Magento 2 upgrade service by Mageplaza can help your store move to the latest version with 100% security, with no downtime and no data loss. Don’t let an outdated website hold you back! Upgrade your store now and stay ahead of the competition!

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