[Steven Zahm]

@ Mark

re: My only concern here is that WP itself has not been updated

Valid concern. Connections requires WP 4.2. So updating Connections without first updating WP would be bad because Connections uses functions in WP 4.2 that did not exist in WP 3.5.

You should not update Connections until WP is brought up to date. iF you are not permitted to bring WP up to date, you should leave Connections on the version that is presently installed.

Sorry that I have no better answer for you.