Moving Xenforo to a new webhost

[Nicky Vermeersch]

Basically I want to move my already excisting installation of Xenforo to another webhost while leaving all the information (threads, user accounts, permissions, settings) intact.

Though I want to start the Xenforo installation from 'scratch', by removing all the plugins and possible modifications that were made to that installation. I noticed there are a lot of folders that were made by addons, but I'm afraid that if I start to manually delete files and folder, that I will break something.

Is it possible that I for example make a brand new installation for Xenforo, then change the config.php so that it uses the database that I had before? Would this also incorporate the configuration settings I made to my previous Xenforo installation?

 

[CTXMedia]

Is it possible that I for example make a brand new installation for Xenforo, then change the config.php so that it uses the database that I had before? Would this also incorporate the configuration settings I made to my previous Xenforo installation?

No, unfortunately that won't be possible - it doesn't work like that.

I'd also recommend that if you want to remove all your add-ons etc., you do it via the ACP before you move so that you have less to move/worry about when you do migrate to another server.

NB: One point to note though - I've found that even when you remove add-ons they often leave their files behind in the /library folder so it may be worth installing a brand new 'test' install of XF so you can see what a clean /library folder looks like; then remove the add-ons in your current install one-by-one and after each one remove its files from the /library folder.

IMPORTANT: Please do take a full backup of your XF files and database before doing any of this - just in case anything goes wrong.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Jeremy]

I know there's a thread about this somewhere. Basically...

1. backup your database (as it currently stands)
2. uninstall all add-ons
3. remove all add-on files.
4. Run Health Check to see which files aren't default XenForo.
5. Re-upload from a fresh Zip to get pristine XenForo.
6. Backup your database (without all add-ons).
7. Download site to your local computer or transfer server -> server.
8. Import database on new server
9. Change DNS to point to new server.

I believe cPanel has a transfer tool that can do 6->9, but I'm not sure...

 

[Paul B]

It's not that difficult to delete the add-on files, they are always in their own directories.

However, if you want to go ahead with your plan, uninstall all add-ons in the ACP.
If you want to revert to the default style, create a new style and set it as the master and delete the existing ones.
Then you will need to selectively delete the content from the server, ensuring you don't delete the /data and /internal_data directories as they contain avatars and attachments.
You will then need to upload the upgrade .zip package and edit the config.php file to match the database.

Really though, my advice would be to just uninstall the add-ons and delete the related directories.

 

[Nicky Vermeersch]

Okay! Thanks for the help guys

 

[Paul B]

NB: One point to note though - I've found that even when you remove add-ons they often leave their files behind in the /library folder

They always leave the files behind.

Removing the files is a manual process, the uninstallers don't deal with them.

 

[CTXMedia]

They always leave the files behind.

Removing the files is a manual process, the uninstallers don't deal with them.

Ah, okay, thanks for the clarification.