Techniques to support modification of certain data in a database during an upgrade to a new version. In one method, objects in an original database are marked as either modifiable or read-only, with changes being allowed for modifiable objects during the upgrade. An upgraded database of objects is generated based on objects in the original database (e.g., by copying objects in the original database and upgrading the copied objects to new schema and binaries). Changes to modifiable objects in the original database (e.g., after these objects have been copied) are logged. After the upgraded database has been created, objects in this database may be updated (e.g., individually or all at once) by identifying modifiable objects in the original database having changes not yet incorporated into the upgraded database and updating objects in the upgraded database based on the modified objects in the original database.