Upgrading Oracle Apex on Windows

Introduction

In this post I will describe the steps required to upgrade Apex 22.2 to Apex 24.2.13 (the latest version at the moment this article was written).

1 Prerequisites

My test instance had the following tech stack:

• APEX 22.2
• Oracle Database 19c
• Windows 10
• JDK 17.0.12 64 bit
• ORDS 25.3
• Tomcat 9.0.115

2 Check the Current Apex Version

sqlplus "/as sysdba"
alter session set container=APEXPDB;
select * from apex_release;

22.2.3	2022.10.07	APPLIED

3 Stop Tomcat

Go to Windows Services and stop Apache Tomcat 9.0 Tomcat9 service.

4 Download the Latest Apex and Patch Set Bundle

Obtain the following software from the download page:

• Oracle APEX 24.2 – All languages
• Patch Set Bundle for Oracle APEX 24.2
  (37366599)

5 Unzip Apex

Unzip Apex to a new directory. E.g if the currently installed Apex directory is:

C:Oracleapex_22

The new directory:

C:Oracleapex_24

6 Run Upgrade Script

Connect to SQL*Plus as the SYS user to the PDB and run the “apexins.sql” script, specifying the relevant tablespace names and image URL.

cd C:Oracleapex_24
sqlplus "/as sysdba"
alter session set container=apexpdb;
@apexins.sql APEX APEX TEMP /i/

7 Recheck the Upgraded Apex Version

sqlplus "/as sysdba"
alter session set container=APEXPDB;
select * from apex_release;

24.2.13	2024.11.30	APPLIED

8 Copy Images

Copy the new images directory in the command line. Overwrite all the files when prompted.

xcopy /E /I C:Oracleapex_24images C:Tomcatwebappsi

9 Apply the Latest Bundle Patch 37366599

Execute the steps according to README.txt

unzip p37366599_2420_Generic.zip
 
cd C:UsersAdminDownloads37366599
set NLS_LANG=American_America.AL32UTF8
sqlplus "/as sysdba"
alter session set container=apexpdb;
SQL>@catpatch.sql

9.1 Verify that the Patch has been Applied

sqlplus "/as sysdba"
alter session set container=apexpdb;
select patch_version, installed_on
from apex_patches
where patch_number = 37366599;

13 2026-02-19 10:21:56

9.2 Copy the Images

Copy the images directory of the patch to the /images folder of the Oracle Application Express installation directory images sub directory. Overwrite all the files when prompted.

xcopy /E /I C:UsersAdminDownloads37366599images C:Tomcatwebappsi

10 Restart Tomcat Service

Go to Windows Services and start the Apache Tomcat 9.0 Tomcat9 service.

11 Healthcheck

Login to your Apex instance and verify that it works properly.