XF 2.3 Anonymous (deleted user) posts not showing up?

[haqzore]

For some reason - posts by a deleted member aren't showing.

We are working to re-assign some of these posts. Before, we would do a Search, open the thread/post result, and reassign the "Anonymous" users (a deleted user) post.

Now, a search result shows Thread: XYZ, Post # 10 as what I want.
When I click into that thread, the replies go from #9 to #11.

I haven't made any change that I remember to affect this?

 

[Rene_V]

Now, a search result shows Thread: XYZ, Post # 10 as what I want.
When I click into that thread, the replies go from #9 to #11.

Can you check the database and see if those posts are present there?

We are working to re-assign some of these posts.

I have coded an add-on that does that should you be interested. You can see it here:

[Price: 10 Euro] Restore deleted user / Re-assign user content

Overview: This add-on will assign the content of a deleted user to an existing user. That can be very handy if an user whose account was deleted registers again and all their previous content can be assigned back to them. But that's not all...

forumshelper.com

 

[haqzore]

Thanks for your reply Rene.

Can you check the database and see if those posts are present there?

I think so....
I searched xf_post for the exact thread ID, user = 0, message = a long & specific text string
The result comes up.

In this example, the front-end search result displays the reply as reply # 28:


In the thread, post # 28 is "skipped":


Here's the database search using that long specific text string. It has the same post_ID as when I hover-over the search result URL on the front-end, but shows position 27? (not sure if that's the same as the post # on the front end)

Can you check the database and see if those posts are present there?


I have coded an add-on that does that should you be interested. You can see it here:

[Price: 10 Euro] Restore deleted user / Re-assign user content

Overview: This add-on will assign the content of a deleted user to an existing user. That can be very handy if an user whose account was deleted registers again and all their previous content can be assigned back to them. But that's not all...

forumshelper.com

I wish this would work, but, I have other "Anonymous" posts that don't belong to this person. (The deletion was done in phpBB prior to a XF migration, so there are many posts by "Anonymous" by other members)

 

[haqzore]

AndyB helped me reassign one of these "hidden" replies through phpMyAdmin - so they do still exist in the database.

I've noticed this morning, though, that all of the Anonymous posts are hidden.

Ideally, I'd like to "unhide" them so as to allow staff members to continue slowly re-assigning them over time.

 

[Rene_V]

AndyB helped me reassign one of these "hidden" replies through phpMyAdmin - so they do still exist in the database.

He is a very helpful chap.

I've noticed this morning, though, that all of the Anonymous posts are hidden.

Ideally, I'd like to "unhide" them so as to allow staff members to continue slowly re-assigning them over time.

You can unhide them by changing their message_state to visible. That's assuming by them being hidden you meant that they are either soft deleted or in the moderation queue.

 

[haqzore]

He is a very helpful chap.

Incredibly so.

You can unhide them by changing their message_state to visible. That's assuming by them being hidden you meant that they are either soft deleted or in the moderation queue.

Unfortunately, this isn't it. When I filter xf_post to != visible, ~40 posts show up.
This user has a few thousand.

Here's what one of the "hidden" posts looks like in the database:



When AndyB helped me (he didn't know it was more than the 1 post) - I simply updated the user_id as needed.

I'm still trying to remedy the same thing I posted about here:

XF 2.3 Thread 'A way to search for all posts containing <text string> posted by Anonymous?'

Dec 30, 2025

We migrated from phpBB to XF 2 months ago.

Before the migration, an Admin pruned some inactive users. One of those pruned users came back, and we'd like to tie their posts to their newly registered account. The posts migrated & show as Anonymous (no linked username, etc... Just a black text username).

Since this user had the habit of "signing" most of their posts (as part of the post text) with their username -- is it possible to search for all posts containing that text string + posted by Anonymous? (I can't do perform a standard search, as Anonymous isn't a valid...

• haqzore
• Replies: 11
• Forum: XenForo questions and support

What we've been doing is - slowly over time - manual searches on the front-end and using AndyB's Change Author addon to fix them. Back then - until (????), they still showed on the front-end as posted by Anonymous.

Now, for whatever reason, they are "hidden".

 

[Rene_V]

Now, for whatever reason, they are "hidden".

When you say hidden, what does that mean exactly? In what way is it hidden? Because if the message_state value of a post is set to visible in the database, the post should be precisely that, visible.

 

[haqzore]

When you say hidden, what does that mean exactly? In what way is it hidden? Because if the message_state value of a post is set to visible in the database, the post should be precisely that, visible.

As shown here in the screenshot. The thread skips from post 27 to post 29.

In this example, the front-end search result displays the reply as reply # 28:
View attachment 340978

In the thread, post # 28 is "skipped":
View attachment 340980

 

[haqzore]

@AndyB saves the day again - he discovered this was a result of using this addon:

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/aixf-xfrm-count-under-avatar.10259/

Disabling the addon fixed the problem.