I'm sure many of you out there have used phpBB at some point. To those who enjoy running forums and online communities, specifically supporting phpBB, I am about to tell everyone how to restore the forums database from one website, to another. This is presuming you do not have any mods or hacks installed. Some of you may find this information useful.

Here is the scenario:

Let's say you have forums running phpBB version 2.0.17 (currently the latest one). You have decided that you want to move your forums to a whole new URL and provider, and as an added bonus, change the title of your forums. This may scare some people, but it's really not that hard IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. We'll say that your website is http://www.forumsofphpbb.com/. This is known as your "Domain Name". And your forums file is called /phpBB2/. This is known as your "Script Path". Therefore, your entire link would look like so...

http://www.forumsofphpbb.com/phpBB2/ or ... http://www.forumsofphpbb.com/phpBB2/index.php (it will be directed to the same link no matter what)


Now, you have to move your forums to your site. Let's say the new Domain Name is called http://www.newdomainphpbb.com/. We will also be changing your Script Path too, so now let's call it /forums/. Here is what your forums should look like on your new site...

http://www.newdomainphp.com/forums/ or ...
http://www.newdomainphpbb.com/forums/index.php (once again, it will be directed to the same location no matter what)


You will need the following:
Templates - You may have additional templates for your forums. Be sure to save copies of these. They are located in your /templates/ directory file, within your Script Path.
phpBB x.x.x - The current version of your phpBB forums. Do not get an older or newer version than the one that your forums are currently running off of. If you do, your forums will NOT run.
Smilies - Save them as well, if you have any.


Procedure:
- Go to your ACP (Admin Control Panel) --> General Admin --> Configuration --> Default Style --> SubSilver
- Click Submit
- General Admin --> Backup Database --> Full backup (YES) and Gzip compress file (NO) --> Start Backup
- Save the file to your desktop
- [ Note: if your forums are over 2MB, it may be best to also make a 'Structure-Only backup' and 'Data only backup' as well. A useful tool that could also help you restore a large database is BugDump. It breaks up your backup so you can restore it in smaller chunks. You can download the file here: http://www.ozerov.de/bigdump.php ]
- On your new site, you will need use your Control Panel to make a MySQL database, a user for that database (take not of the password you grant that user), and grant that user ALL permissions access to that database
- Now you need to download your phpBB version. I suggest you try getting it from this link: http://www.phpbbhacks.com/phpbbinfo.php . If you do not see it there, try getting it from http://www.phpbb.com instead.
- Once it is downloaded, you need to extract the entire file to your Desktop. You will need winzip (www.winzip.com) or winrar (http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm) to do it, depending on the file you are downloaded
- After it is extracted, you will be renaming it (as we said above) to the new Script Path called /forums/ in this case.
- Using your FTP, upload your file to the root directory of your site at http://www.newdomainphpbb.com/
- You will need to use Internet Exploer to change the permissions of the 'config.php' file to 777
- Now go to this link: http://www.newdomainphp.com/forums/install/install.php
- You will go through the installation procedure. Be sure to fill out all the information properly, and at the bottom click 'Install'
- Now you will need to delete two files, the 'install' and the 'contrib' files
- Change the permissions of the 'config.php' back to 311 (the same as the other files)
- You will now have full access to your forums, but now you need to restore the database
- Go to your ACP (Admin Control Panel) --> General Admin --> Restore Database --> locate your file, then click 'Start Restore'

IMPORTANT NOTE: NO NOT LEAVE YOUR ADMIN CONTROL PANEL YET!

- Got to your General Admin --> Configuration --> and set the Domain Name and Script Path.

The Domain Name will be: http://www.newdomainphpbb.com/
The Script Path will be: /forums/
Next you click Submit

Restore your smilies, and templates back to their proper directory, as it were in your other site. You can now re-apply your templates and smilies to be used once again.

Your phpBB forums should now be restored. That wasn't so bad, was it?

P.S. Don't forget to tell your members where you are!



This post has been edited by snlildude87: Sep 9 2005, 04:00 AM

Thank you snlildude87.

I'm sorry about the tripple post. I didn't mean to do it.

I'm glad you like my tutorial. =D

thanks for this turotral i am currently not uding this board but if i do in the future and ever have to do it i will reffer to your tutorial you put here thanks again

This is a very good tutorial! Just added this page to my favorites because I really need to move a phpbb board over here when i'll get my subdomain. Thanks a lot for it. I belive it's very useful for most of us ;-)

You are very welcome TripleH13 and Adrian. I'm glad you will use this.

If anyone runs into trouble along the way, simply post about it here and I will try to answer any questions you may have.

hi although i'm not using the phpbb projects.but it's still a good forum software.
and i 'd like to know if there is more skins with that?if there is lots of skins,and based on the standards i think i will choose phpbb.
do you know punbb,it's based on phpbb i think,they are just lots of similar.
guangdian

Thanks for the tutorial it is useful for those who do not install mods and hacks etc in their phpbb forum.

I would like to know what kind of more step would have involved for those who have installed mods like quick reply, spell check and few more mods?

It will be nice to have tutorial or guide on those as well. Thanks.

Thanks. I have this tutorial bookmarked now as well. Good job.