I see a few reports about issues with J3.8.0, but given that I have experienced no problems on 12 production Build.R sites and two T3 sites, maybe my methodology would be something to consider.

I *always* take an Akeeba backup. (Why not? Akeeba basic is fully functional, and free.)

Then I update *all major plugins,* particularly Regular Labs (No Number) who constantly publish updates. I also update some forms programs. Not all of these are on the Joomla update system, so I have manual copies in my private cloud drive. If the component is paid, I pay; usually a renewal is discounted.

Finally, I run the Joomla updater.

Have experienced no issues whatsoever doing it this way.

There is a lot of problems if updating from much older versions of Joomla to 3.8

If the site has followed the step by step joomla updates then it seems to be ok unless there is incompatible Joomla extension

However, Joomla versions 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5 then not so good

Seems the step needs to be to jump to 3.6 and then up

And as you say always turn on the Akeeba plugin so it backups automatically before any Joomla update

Thanks for the post

Cheers
Paul

Yes, I would agree one needs to climb the steps to 3.6

(But I always turn OFF the automatic backup plugin; on previous updates, it sometimes resulted in the blank white page. hmmm....)

hmm you might be right there with the automatic backup but I do turn it up

Got a feeling the button on the control panel did cause some problems like the jce one does on J2.5.28

Cheers
Paul