diff --git a/src/upgrades/1.11.0/navigation_visibility_groups.js b/src/upgrades/1.11.0/navigation_visibility_groups.js
index 3567b3c9c1..4e3730b9cb 100644
--- a/src/upgrades/1.11.0/navigation_visibility_groups.js
+++ b/src/upgrades/1.11.0/navigation_visibility_groups.js
@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@ module.exports = {
 	name: 'Navigation item visibility groups',
 	timestamp: Date.UTC(2018, 10, 10),
 	method: async function () {
-		const navigationAdmin = require('../../navigation/admin');
-
-		const data = await navigationAdmin.get();
+		const data = await navigationAdminGet();
 		data.forEach((navItem) => {
 			if (navItem && navItem.properties) {
 				navItem.groups = [];
@@ -23,6 +21,38 @@ module.exports = {
 				}
 			}
 		});
-		await navigationAdmin.save(data);
+		await navigationAdminSave(data);
 	},
 };
+// use navigation.get/save as it was in 1.11.0 so upgrade script doesn't crash on latest nbb
+// see https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/pull/11013
+async function navigationAdminGet() {
+	const db = require('../../database');
+	const data = await db.getSortedSetRange('navigation:enabled', 0, -1);
+	return data.filter(Boolean).map((item) => {
+		item = JSON.parse(item);
+		item.groups = item.groups || [];
+		if (item.groups && !Array.isArray(item.groups)) {
+			item.groups = [item.groups];
+		}
+		return item;
+	});
+}
+
+async function navigationAdminSave(data) {
+	const db = require('../../database');
+	const translator = require('../../translator');
+	const order = Object.keys(data);
+	const items = data.map((item, index) => {
+		Object.keys(item).forEach((key) => {
+			if (item.hasOwnProperty(key) && typeof item[key] === 'string' && (key === 'title' || key === 'text')) {
+				item[key] = translator.escape(item[key]);
+			}
+		});
+		item.order = order[index];
+		return JSON.stringify(item);
+	});
+
+	await db.delete('navigation:enabled');
+	await db.sortedSetAdd('navigation:enabled', order, items);
+}