Magento 2.4.6 – Key Improvements, Upgrade & Features

Magento 2.4.6, the latest version of the ecommerce platform, brings a range of new features and performance improvements that are sure to excite both shop owners and developers alike.

Notably, this release introduces PHP 8.2 while removing PHP 7.4 and includes over 300 quality fixes and enhancements. However, what sets this release apart is the introduction of the Magento Community Prioritization Process, which was launched in October 2022.

This new initiative enables developers to participate in core code development by casting public votes on tickets and issues, ultimately determining what updates will be included in future releases.

In this blog post, we will dive deeper into the updates and improvements in Magento 2.4.6 and provide a step-by-step guide on how to update to this latest version.

Magento 2.4.6 Release Notes Highlights

Magento 2.4.6, officially released on March 14, 2023, brings a range of benefits for shop owners and developers, including enhanced security, improved performance, and significant bug fixes. With every upgrade, Magento delivers new features and functionality, along with essential security enhancements. The latest release of Magento, version 2.4.6, offers a wide range of exciting new features and improvements.

Let’s explore some of the key highlights of this release and discuss how they can benefit your online store.

1. Security Enhancements

Adobe is dedicated to enhancing the security of the Magento platform, and the latest release, Magento 2.4.6, includes various improvements to accomplish this. Some notable updates in this release include:

• Eight security fixes & platform security improvements. Read more at Adobe Security Bulletin.
• Filled the gaps in Admin action logs with more specific auditing of admin actions.
• Fixed issue regarding reCAPTCHA validation failure at unexpected error during payment processing.
• A new setting system configuration (disabled by default) was added to require email confirmation when an admin user changes their email. When enabled, the application will request email confirmation every time the admin user changes their email address.

2. Platform Enhancements

Magento 2.4.6 has made several enhancements to improve the overall user experience.

For example:

• The platform now supports PHP 8.2, with PHP 8.1 continuing to work, but support for PHP 7.4 has been removed.
• Additionally, Composer 2.2.x and ElasticSearch 8.x are now supported, and Redis 7.0.x is supported while Redis 6.2 remains compatible until April 2024.
• OpenSearch has become the default search engine for Adobe Commerce, and it is also supported as an independent search engine for Magento Open Source.
• While support for MariaDB (LTS version) remains, upgrading to MariaDB 10.6 is recommended.
• Furthermore, the DHL scheme has been migrated from v6.2 to v10.0, and outdated JavaScript libraries have been updated to the latest versions, with outdated dependencies being removed, but they remain backward compatible.

3. Performance and Scalability Enhancements

This release has a major focus on improving speed and performance. The enhancements to the platform improve ease of use, particularly for Merchants. With these improvements, Merchants can now perform bulk operations in just minutes, saving them valuable time and effort.

In regards to performance enhancements, the Magento 2.4.6 update supports:

• Category Children Tree Processing: The release includes improvements to the category processing system, specifically for nested children trees. That means, Merchants can now efficiently process categories with nested children trees, resulting in significant performance improvements. The system has been refactored to enhance loading response time, making it faster and more efficient. As a result, more than 1500 categories can now be easily searched, streamlining operations for merchants.
• Bulk Cart Operation Response Time: Bulk cart operations have also been sped up due to the optimization of query response times. That means more than 500 simple or configurable products can be added to the shopping cart.

If we talk about scalability enhancements, Magento 2.4.6 can help store owners:

• Limit Number of Products: The new setting can limit the number of products displayed in the product grid. The limit is set to 20,000 by default, and this limit only affects product collection with UI components.
• Enhance Order Processing: Magento Open Source/Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 can now handle and process 1000 simultaneous orders in a minute, i.e., 15 orders in a second, due to custom database load balancing configuration.
• Improve Product Import Performance: There is a new endpoint in REST /rest/import/csv that can now Increase import performance up to 100,000 records per minute.

4. Accessibility Updates

Magento 2.4.6 release has prioritized the development of an improved retail experience on Venia (PWA) that is more accessible, functional, understandable, and resilient. The release includes significant enhancements, some of which are worth mentioning:

• The Sign in button’s visible label now corresponds to its accessible name for improved accessibility.
• Buttons on the storefront now have more descriptive and memorable names to enhance usability.
• Search filters on the shop now have verbal descriptive captions for Has Video checkboxes to enhance accessibility.
• The storefront’s page functionalities are now fully accessible to users who rely solely on a keyboard for navigation.

5. GraphQL Performance Enhancements

In the latest release of Magento, Adobe has implemented several enhancements aimed at improving the performance of Magento 2 GraphQL. Some notable enhancements include:

• Response times have improved when querying products in categories for which category permissions are enabled and that contain many customer groups or shared catalogs.
• GraphQL resolver operation has been optimized.
• Product permissions are now optimized to be applied to product collections instead on a per-product basis improving performance.
• New mutations have been added named as deleteCustomer.
• Improved Category tree rendering performance response time in GraphQL, specifically when querying categories with category permissions enabled.
• Improved response time of the bulk cart operations through GraphQL.
• The loading of category children by refactoring code has been improved by removing unnecessary method calls, improving category tree caching, and recursively loading category data through GraphQL.

6. Braintree Payment Features Upgrade

The Adobe Commerce/Magento 2.4.6 release includes a variety of enhancements to the Braintree payment system, some of which are highlighted below:

This release of Magento 2 includes improvements in the Braintree Payment system, such as:

• The Pay Later buttons and banners have been enabled for Italy and Spain.
• LPM (Local Payment Methods) webhook has been added.
• Added Fraud Protection and ACH webhooks.
• The PayLater messaging has been activated for the PayPal Vault.

7. PWA Studio and Page Builder

• Page Builder v.1.7.3 is now compatible with Magento Open Source 2.4.6.
• PWA Studio v.13.0.x is now compatible with Magento Open Source 2.4.6.

Magento 2.4.6 fixed issues

Adobe Commerce (Magento) version 2.4.6 comprises approximately 300 upgrades and refinements that enhance platform quality, improve GraphQL caching performance, increase accessibility, refine payment methods, and bolster modules integrated with Google.

Some key fixed issues are:

• The problems related to Magento installation, upgrade, and deployment have been addressed, leading to a boost in performance.
• Bulk products are now updated via API and filtered in the grid without throwing errors.
• Button workflow in Checkout and Review order process is easily accessible with keyboard inputs.
• Now, no Full-page cache is flushed unless the ordered product is out of stock.
• Data is now cached successfully when the L2 cache is configured.
• Improved Display Out of Stock Products functionality on the storefront inventory as expected when the option is enabled.
• Allows Admins to add as many simple products to a configurable product also with a salable quantity of 0 to their shopping cart.
• Shoppers can add as many simple products to an existing configurable product. Previously, Magento open source displayed the error: “Something go went wrong with default view.”
• After an order is created from the Admin, Adobe Commerce no longer sends duplicate emails to the customer.
• Merchants can now specify a custom external SMTP provider.
• Customers who exceed the maximum number of login failed attempts can now login after a password reset.
• Shipping rates for FedEx, USPS, and UPS are calculated correctly when the Free Shipping Cart rule is set to match only a subset of items in the cart.
• Outdated JavaScript libraries have been updated to the latest versions.

But still, there were issues with Magento 2.4.6, which Magento has addressed in the new 2.4.7 version. Currently, it’s a beta version, but there are some interesting developments and fixes done there. Let’s look at them.

About 2.4.7 Beta

Adobe already has plans to replace 2.4.6 with 2.4.7 soon. The beta version of 2.4.7 is already out, and you can expect the final release to be live in a few months.

The beta version seems to be performing great from the tests and release notes published by Adobe. Plus, there have been several noteworthy changes in the beta version. Let’s explore the highlights:

• More than 200 quality fixes and enhancements compared to 2.4.6.
• Core Composer dependencies and third-party libraries upgraded to the latest available versions.
• Improvements and enhancements in GraphQL Performance, Caching Capabilities, & Increased Coverage.
• Support for Composer 2.5 has been added.
• Enhanced GraphQL coverage for custom attributes and caching abilities.
• 13 security fixes and other security enhancements, such as rate limiting for payment information transmitted through REST and GraphQL APIs.

There are several other exciting features that the beta version offers. And so far, it’s performing great. But we can’t say with certainty what the final version will carry for the user. And until it’s launched, you’ll have to work with the current version (2.4.6).

So, let’s get down to exploring the current version in greater detail below.

Magento 2.4.6 System Requirements

Please Note: Magento Open Source 2.4.6 introduces support for PHP 8.2. PHP 8.1 remains fully supported, but support for PHP 7.4 has been removed. You cannot run Magento Open Source 2.4.6 on PHP 7.4.

The system requirements for Adobe Commerce 2.4.6/Magento 2.4.6 have changed significantly from the previous version. They are as follows:

• Composer 2.2
• Elasticsearch 7.x or 8.x
• OpenSearch is tested on 2.5, and OpenSearch 2.x is recommended with this release (A default search engine for Magento Open Source on-premises and cloud deployments)
• MariaDB 10.6
• MySQL 8.0
• PHP 8.2 is Stable, but 8.1 is also supported
• RabbitMQ 3.9
• Redis 7.0
• Varnish 7.1
• Apache 2.4
• Nginx 1.18
• AWS Aurora (MySQL) 8.0
• AWS MQ 3.9.13
• AWS OpenSearch 1.2

Take a look at our blog on Magento hosting requirements, which provides information on how to host your Magento store on a server. In case you want to test out the performance in real-time, request a Cloudways Magento Demo for Free.

Magento 2.4.6 – Official Release Notes

Adobe has released the Magento 2.4.6 release notes for Adobe Commerce. You can check out the Magento 2.4.6 change log at:

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

How to upgrade to Magento 2.4.6

Before upgrading, it is essential to meet the upgrade prerequisites and prepare the environment. We highly recommend upgrading to a staging site and taking a full backup of the Magento application. This will also facilitate downgrading the Magento version if necessary.

Note: The Magento version 2.4.6 is not yet available on the Cloudways platform. However, it’ll soon be available.

Step 1: Enable Maintenance Mode

• Switch to maintenance mode to prevent access to your store during the upgrade process.

Run the following command:

php bin/magento maintenance:enable

Step 2: Create a Backup of the composer.json file

• Set the backup for your Magento application and its database.
• Set the staging environment for upgrade.
• Finally, deploy it in the production environment.

Run the following command:

cp composer.json composer.json.bak

Step: 3 Upgrade Packages

• Before upgrading to Magento ver 2.4.6, make sure to set up the package prerequisites as mentioned in the system requirements.

Note: Cloudways offers a one-click solution on its Platform to help users easily upgrade or downgrade their Magento versions.

Please Note: Although Magento 2.4.6 is compatible with Elasticsearch 8.x and it’s recommended to use this version, some users are still running Elasticsearch 7.9. Currently, Elasticsearch 8.x is not available on the Cloudways platform, but it will be available soon.

Step 4: Magento Upgrade with Composer

Note: The following instructions show you how to upgrade to 2.4.6 from 2.4.5 using Composer. 

To upgrade to version 2.4.6 of Adobe Commerce from version 2.4.5, you can use Composer. It’s important to note that Adobe Commerce 2.4.2 introduced support for Composer 2, which is required for upgrading to versions greater than 2.4.2.

If you’re currently using a version of Adobe Commerce that is older than < 2.4.1, you’ll first need to upgrade to a version that is compatible with Composer 2 (for example, version 2.4.2) using Composer 1 before upgrading to Composer 2 for versions greater than > 2.4.2 upgrades.

Also, ensure that you’re running a supported version of PHP to avoid any compatibility issues.

• Now that you’re done reading the note, you must install a new version of the magento/composer-root-update-plugin package as a prerequisite.

Before upgrading, you must run the below commands:

composer require magento/composer-root-update-plugin ~2.0 --no-update

composer update

• Check the Composer Version

Run the following command:

composer -v

Below is the command for both Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce. You can use either one based on your preference.

• Magento Open Source:

composer require-commerce magento/product-community-edition --no-update

• Adobe Commerce:

composer require-commerce magento/product-enterprise-edition --no-update

Here’s a breakdown of the above mentioned command:

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

• Product: (Required) The package to upgrade, i.e., product-community-edition for open source and adobe product-enterprise-edition.
• Version: (Required) The version of Magento or Adobe you want to upgrade.
• –no-update: (Required) Disable the automatic updates

Install the required version of Magento 2.4.6

In our case, run the following command:

composer require-commerce magento/product-community-edition 2.4.6 --no-update

Step 5: Composer Update

Run the following command:

composer update

Step 6: Update the Database Schema and Data

Run the following command:

php bin/magento setup:upgrade

php bin/magento setup:di:compile

Run the following commands to ensure everything goes smoothly

php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f

php bin/magento cache:clean

Step 7: Disable Maintenance Mode

Run the following command:

php bin/magento maintenance:disable

Downgrade to Other Magento Version

Downgrading to any other Magento version is always painful and is not recommended because you need to downgrade the whole LAMP stack. However, due to compatibility issues, there may be situations where merchants or developers may need to downgrade to an older version to maintain their store and keep their business running.

To revert from Magento 2.4.6 version to any other version, follow the below steps:

Step 1: Enable Maintenance Mode

• Switch to maintenance mode to prevent access to your store during the downgrade process. We strongly recommend backing up your store and databases before downgrading.

Run the following command:

php bin/magento maintenance:enable

Step 2: Composer Backup

• To create the composer backup, run the following command:

cp composer.json composer.json.bak

Step 3: Downgrade Packages

Before reverting to Magento ver 2.4.5, make sure to downgrade the package’s prerequisites as mentioned in the system requirements.

Such downgrade:

• PHP 8.2 to 8.1
• Elasticsearch 8.X to 7.17
• MariaDB 10.6 to 10.4
• Redis 7.0.x to 6.2

Note: Direct downgrade will through an error like

Step 4: Downgrade Magento with Composer

• To downgrade/revert to the earlier version, run the following command and specify the magento version you’d want to downgrade to.

Run the following commands for Magento 2.4.5:

composer require-commerce magento/product-community-edition 2.4.5 --no-update

composer update

• In this step, the packages (modules) are getting downgraded, and some are removed to the earlier versions which are not compatible with the version.

Then run all the following commands:

bin/magento setup:upgrade

bin/magento setup:di:compile

bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f

bin/magento cache:clean

• Check the magento 500 internal server error if you are facing issues after reverting back/downgrading to any other Magento version.

Step 5: Disable Maintenance Mode

Run the following command:

php bin/magento maintenance:disable

Features Removed From Magento 2.4.6

This new version of Magento includes backward-incompatible modifications. A few of the features that are removed from the latest version are mentioned below:

• Support for PHP 7.4 was removed from Magento open source/Adobe Commerce from this release.
• Composer 1.X has been removed
• Outdated JavaScript libraries and dependencies have been removed.
• jquery-migrate has been removed from the Commerce and Magento Open Source code bases.
• Zend framework (ZF1) components that have reached the end of life have been removed from the codebase.
• The laminas/laminas-dependency-plugin Composer plugin has been removed.
• Removed dependency on the imagemin-svgo library.
• The Tagline and Layout configuration fields have been removed from all PayPal buttons in the Admin Styling section.
• Removed non-native array_first function from dev dependencies in the MFTF framework.

Magento 2.4.5 Release Update

In the past, Magento 2.4.5 was an update that focused on improving the platform’s features and enhancing its security. The release included around 290 quality fixes and improvements, covering areas such as platform quality, GraphQL caching, accessibility, and payment methods.

Let’s look into some significant highlights that were released in the 2.4.5 release and how it added more value for Magento users.

The Major Highlights of Magento 2.4.5

The Magento 2.4.5 release covered many enhancements and updates as follows:

Magento 2.4.5 Security Enhancements

• Access control list (ACL) was added to the inventory.
• Inventory template security was improved.
• reCAPTCHA support was added to the Gift Card forms, Wish List Sharing, and Creating New Customer Accounts.
• The MaliciousCode filter was upgraded to use the HtmlPurifier library.

Magento 2.4.5 Platform Enhancements

• Supported Composer 2.2.
• Supported jQueryUI version 1.13.1.
• DHL Integration schema version 6.0 was updated to v6.2.
• JavaScript libraries were updated to their latest version, and outdated dependencies were removed.
• Composer dependencies were updated to the latest version.
• A more user-friendly, understandable, and robust storefront experience was created on Venia (PWA).
• Improvements to the inventory template security were made.
• Was compatible with the Page Builder version 1.7.2.
• Was compatible with PWA Studio version 12.5.x.

Magento 2.4.5 System Requirements

The system requirements for Magento 2.4.5 were similar to Magento 2.4.4, with some improvements. They are as follows:

• Composer 2.2
• Elasticsearch 7.17
• OpenSearch 1.2
• MariaDB 10.4
• MySQL 8.0
• PHP 8.1
• RabbitMQ 3.9
• Redis 6.2
• Varnish 7.0
• Apache 2.4
• Nginx 1.18
• AWS Aurora (MySQL) 8.0
• AWS MQ 3.9.13

If you’re looking to host your Magento store on a server, be sure to check out our blog on Magento hosting requirement.

Launch the Magento 2.4.5 Application on Cloudways

Magento 2.4.5 is now available on Cloudways web hosting platform in 1-Click. Follow the steps below to launch Magento 2.4.5 on Cloudways:

Step 1: Select Magento 2.4.5 on Cloudways.

Step 2: Name your application, server, and project.

Step 3: Define Server Details
After Defining all the server details, verify all the information and click on Launch Now button.

Wait for a few minutes till the application launches.

Magento 2.4.5 is now installed on Cloudways server

Upgraded Hosting Stack For Magento 2.4.5

Cloudways has upgraded its stack with the latest server requirements recommended by Magento Official Devdocs. We ran tests to ensure that each server, cache, and database is configured rightly to meet the Magento 2.4 stack-related requirements.

The upgraded Cloudways Magento 2 hosting stack includes the new MariaDB and the latest Elasticsearch versions.

Conclusion

The latest Magento 2.4.6 release has significantly enhanced the platform’s performance, accessibility, and security.

This latest update offers store owners the ability to provide an enhanced shopping experience to their customers. The platform now supports PHP 8.2, Redis 7.0, OpenSearch 2.x, ElasticSearch 8.x, and has other updates in its core code.

Upgrading to the latest version of Magento is strongly recommended by the official Magento documentation, as each release brings new features and updates that make for a more robust ecommerce store and a better customer experience.

So what are you waiting for, upgrade today!

php bin/magento maintenance:enable

cp composer.json composer.json.bak

composer require-commerce magento/product-community-edition 2.4.6 --no-update

composer update

php bin/magento setup:upgrade

php bin/magento setup:di:compile

Jyotishna Kumari

Jyotishina is the Magento Community Expert at Cloudways and has 4 years of experience in web development. She has worked on e-commerce sites since the turn of the millennium and was working with Magento before version 1 was released. She loves to travel and explore new ideas whenever she finds time. Get in touch with her at [email protected].

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