Thank you for the reply.
About two months ago (during the first attempt to upgrade, then to 2.4), I had to go into MySQL to make edits to allow for the upgrade to complete. However, although the upgrade appeared to be successful, I was still unable to add any new content to FO. Meaning, I could see my old data and post new content (tasks, notes, events, etc.), I would receive the email confirm for each new item, but wasn't able to see them or find them on the site. I turned on debugging and still couldn't figure out the problem.
Meanwhile since my original post in this forum (above), I redid this part of the upgrade, getter further along (past the redirect issue), but then saw fatal errors while upgrading past ver 2.3.x
So, after 4 different attempts to upgrade (going from ver 2.2.2 to ver 2.4.x as well as to 2.5), I've decided to stick with ver 2.2.2 (the originally installed version). I've reverted back to my backed up dbase and files, and I'm back up and running (for the first time in over two months I can successfully add tasks, notes, events, etc.)..
Thanks again for the reply. But I have to say in my over ten years of working with open source applications and projects, big and small (ie. linux, icecast, php, drupal, joomla, open office, libre office, and many more), for a project this large, mature, and developed, these community forums are not where they need to be to provide the confidence and support needed..