XF 1.5 Exporting necessary info to a new xenforo setup

[Xantam]

Good evening everyone,

So I decided that after 3-4 years my forum needed a spring clean.

I set up a new install on a new directory by renewing my license with xenforo. I then upgraded it from 1.4.0 to the latest 1.5 build. I upgraded all my plugins (having had to pay excess of £200 in total) for this upgrade, themes, etc.

Now I have 2 forums. One with clutter, my forum nodes/threads/users, and one with a clean finish, new themes and plugins, but no users or forum threads/nodes/etc.

How would I go about exporting the old users, nodes, threads, etc to the new forum and then removing the old setup?

I have tried to export users and import it to the new one, but because certain plugins were ditched on the cleanup there are columns which exist in the file which no longer need to be there and thus fail to import to the new forum setup.

All in all, I feel like I've either gone the long way about a simple process, or simply, (excuse my french), ****ed up.

If I remove plugins from the current forum that I don't have on the new one, will that get rid of the columns preventing the import?

How do I judge which tables I need to carry over as Xenforo seems to have a few tables for the same thing?

Any help is appreciated, I am a database dummy and really confused.

Many thanks,

 

[Paul B]

The built in importer will only import content/data in the core tables/fields.
It should ignore anything added by add-ons.

However, there's really no need to do what you're doing - it's fairly simple to revert an existing installation back to the default by uninstalling add-ons and deleting the associated files from the server.

 

[Xantam]

The built in importer will only import content/data in the core tables/fields.
It should ignore anything added by add-ons.

However, there's really no need to do what you're doing - it's fairly simple to revert an existing installation back to the default by uninstalling add-ons and deleting the associated files from the server.

I did think about that and there was a simple reason for doing what I am doing.
When I first started my forum, it was a novelty and I installed a ton of plugins I do not need. Lesson learned, definitely. However those plugins left a mess behind when I removed most of them. Now I just want to start again but retain the forum threads and users/usergroups. In my eyes this was the best way.
I also didn't want to do it live, to keep the most minimal amount of downtime. I also had no idea what files were needed by what plugins anymore and risked removing used files!

I'll try the default importing tool to see if that works, though I did want to cut out the bulk of the previous tables too.

 

[Paul B]

The only way to move the existing users and content to a new installation is via the built in importer.

It can't be done just by copying database tables.

 

[Xantam]

Now I have this:

Server Error
Mysqli statement execute error : Duplicate entry '1' for key 'PRIMARY'

1. Zend_Db_Statement_Mysqli->_execute() in Zend/Db/Statement.php at line 297
2. Zend_Db_Statement->execute() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php at line 479
3. Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->query() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php at line 574
4. Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->insert() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1638
5. XenForo_DataWriter->_insert() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1627
6. XenForo_DataWriter->_save() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1419
7. XenForo_DataWriter->save() in XenForo/Model/Import.php at line 617
8. XenForo_Model_Import->_importData() in XenForo/Model/Import.php at line 1627
9. XenForo_Model_Import->importThread() in XenForo/Importer/XenForo.php at line 1801
10. XenForo_Importer_XenForo->stepThreads() in XenForo/Importer/Abstract.php at line 124
11. XenForo_Importer_Abstract->runStep() in XenForo/ControllerAdmin/Import.php at line 189
12. XenForo_ControllerAdmin_Import->_runStep() in XenForo/ControllerAdmin/Import.php at line 241
13. XenForo_ControllerAdmin_Import->_startStep() in XenForo/ControllerAdmin/Import.php at line 184
14. XenForo_ControllerAdmin_Import->actionStartStep() in XenForo/FrontController.php at line 351
15. XenForo_FrontController->dispatch() in XenForo/FrontController.php at line 134
16. XenForo_FrontController->run() in /homepages/42/d559440055/htdocs/nsite/admin.php at line 13

But no idea what is duplicated... there is nothing there ... Any advice?

 

[Xantam]

I'm thinking the above error is because of a thread with the ID "1". Because I made a total of 5 threads to test the new forums before I imported everything over.

I imported the forum nodes over from my old forum which copied over my standard setup, presumably deleting the threads I had?
I used this URL portion index.php?threads/test.1 to try and get access to threads 1,2,3,4 and 5 to remove them in the hoped the duplication error would go away but when I try to access the threads, I get this:
You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action.
Which is really strange, it's like the threads are hidden somewhere. I've checked the node-tree and cannot find any hidden forums and none of the forums have any visible threads inside them. I have all the permissions so I am a little confused what is happening and why I cannot import my forum nodes over?

Any help is appreciated.
@Brogan

 

[Paul B]

I'm thinking the above error is because of a thread with the ID "1". Because I made a total of 5 threads to test the new forums before I imported everything over.

Correct.
You can't import into a forum with existing content and retain IDs.

You will have to uncheck that option, or start over with a new installation.