How to Use Divi to Move a Divi 4 Site to Divi 5

The short answer: if your site runs Divi 4 on mostly core modules, move it to Divi 5 on a staging copy now rather than in a hurry later: Elegant Themes promises Divi 4 support for at least 12 months after Divi 5's release on 26 February 2026, and the move costs nothing beyond the $89 a year licence you already pay (migration guide, pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026). The steps: back up and copy the site to staging, update everything, check third-party modules for Divi 5 compatibility, enable Divi 5 updates, read the Migrator's scan, migrate, test the pages that matter, then fold repeated styles into variables and presets one page at a time, by hand or with the Divi AI Agent, before the live site follows.

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Divi 4 sites keep working and keep getting security fixes, so nothing forces the move this month. What makes it worth planning is that every new Divi feature, the AI Agent included, now ships on Divi 5 only. For plans and the membership, see the Divi glossary entry.

Before you enable Divi 5:

1. What the move costs. The migration is included in the licence. The optional cleanup agent needs Divi AI, $193 a year, which includes a $5 monthly agent balance, and Elegant Themes puts the average cost of generating a whole custom layout below five cents, per the AI Agent page. For example, if each page cleanup cost as much as a full layout, 30 pages x $0.05 = $1.50, inside one month's balance.
2. The modules you already run. List every Divi Marketplace extension on the site and look for the Compatibility with Divi 5 tag on its product page. If many lack it, the migration guide says it is safer to wait.
3. A speed baseline. Run your ten most-visited pages through PageSpeed Insights now. A page with even one legacy module loads the whole Divi 4 framework after migration, so this baseline shows which pages gained and which did not.

What you need

• A full backup: database, uploads directory, theme and plugin files.
• A staging copy of the site, where the migration runs without touching the live one.
• An administrator login and access to your Elegant Themes account downloads.

Step 1: Back up and stage

Back up the entire Divi 4 site and create a staging site, as the guide's first step asks. Migration bugs can exist on complex or customised sites, and staging is where you find them.

Step 2: Update everything on staging

Go to Dashboard, Updates and update WordPress, Divi and every plugin. Running the migration on outdated software raises the chance of conflicts, per the migration guide.

Step 3: Check the third-party modules

Go back to the list from the checks above. Some plugin authors have opted out of Divi 5 entirely: such a plugin must be deactivated before Divi 5 can be activated, and its modules then show as shortcodes, per the compatibility article. Find those before you start, not after.

Step 4: Switch to the Divi 5 update path

In Divi, Dashboard, click Enable Divi 5 Updates, then Update in the Divi Overview card and Update now. The guide's checklist says to install Divi 5 without opening any pages yet.

Step 5: Read the Migrator's scan

Go to Divi, Divi 5 Migrator. It scans the site as soon as it opens, covering pages, posts, custom post types, Theme Builder templates, WooCommerce products, Divi Library items, widgets and presets, and flags items with unsupported modules in orange. Write down which modules cause the warnings; that list is your replacement plan.

Step 6: Migrate

Click Migrate This Site to Divi 5 and confirm. The Migrator converts compatible Divi 4 modules from shortcodes to the Divi 5 format and wraps unsupported ones in a backward-compatibility layer, which takes seconds to a couple of minutes, per the migration guide. Pages still using legacy modules show a Backward Compatibility Mode notice on the front end; that is expected.

Step 7: Test what visitors and editors touch

Visit the most important pages on the front end, open a few in the Divi 5 Visual Builder and edit a module, row and section, then check WooCommerce pages, menus, Theme Builder templates and third-party plugins. Rerun PageSpeed Insights on the ten baseline pages.

Step 8: Clean up the design system, one page at a time

This is the agent step, and it is optional. Years of Divi 4 work leave the same colour typed by hand a dozen times and spacing that differs by a pixel. The Divi AI Agent, opened from the Visual Builder sidebar, first runs a read-only scan in Ask mode that lists repeated settings without changing anything, per Elegant Themes' cleanup guide.

In Build mode it offers the repeated values as global variables on a screen called Choose layout values to convert, and nothing is created until you tick the values and click Create Variables. Saving a preset is tagged Destructive and always stops for your approval. The guide's advice is one page per request: scan, review, convert, check, then move on. Without the subscription, the same cleanup is done by hand with Divi 5's variables and presets.

Step 9: Go live, with the rollback in reach

When staging passes, repeat the move on the live site or push the staging copy. If something breaks, Divi, Divi 5 Migrator has a Restore Divi 4 Content button, then you return to the Divi 4 update path, per the rollback article.

What Elegant Themes' own articles warn about

• Rollback gets harder with time. Restore Divi 4 Content recovers only content built in Divi 4, and after two or more Divi 5 updates the built-in rollback no longer works; Divi 4 then has to be reinstalled by hand.
• One legacy module slows the whole page. It loads the Divi 4 framework for that page, so replace legacy modules on your busiest pages first.
• Caches after migration. For builder glitches, the guide says to clear browser, Divi and plugin caches.

Do it by hand first

Everything up to step 7 is included in the licence and covers the migration completely. Elegant Themes' migration guide closes by sending readers to the Divi AI Agent, which runs only with a Divi AI subscription at $193 a year on top of the licence and bills its model use through a wallet that Elegant Themes marks up, per the agent guide; clean up two pages by hand with variables and presets, and buy the agent only if the hand method does not scale to the rest.

FAQ

Can I go back to Divi 4?

Yes, soon after migrating: Restore Divi 4 Content in the Migrator, then roll back or reinstall Divi 4. The rollback article explains why the window narrows.

Do I need to rebuild my layouts?

No. The Migrator converts Divi 4 shortcodes automatically, and shortcodes from non-Divi plugins keep working as before.

How long will Divi 4 be supported?

At least 12 months after Divi 5's public release on 26 February 2026, with security and critical fixes but no new features, per the migration guide.