[XYZ500]

I have a vB forum 4.2.2
I just purchased another vB forum 4.2.2

Now I want to merge the two forums and make them one big forum.

Is it possible to do? If so, please list down the instructions.

Thanks!

[Dave]

That's going to be extremely tricky, especially if both forums are big:
- There may be 2 different users who share the same username over both forums.
- A bunch of unique identifiers of threads/posts/users,etc. will exist in both forums, for example that means a bunch of links which exist in posts of forum B will point to the wrong location once it has been merged with forum A.
- A lot of other tables will have to be merged. (And then you have the issue with the unique identifiers again, especially when a table contains a relation with a user of forum B.)

It sure is possible but this is not a matter of simply following instructions, it's not something you can do in 1 hour.
I read somewhere that it may be possible to merge with Impex, not sure though.

[Brandon Sheley]

It's very easy to merge forums, it really doesn't matter the size of the forums.
You can associate users by email address.
You'll need impex
https://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/impex_guide

[Lynne]

You will want to use Impex. ImpEx is not hosted on Github - https://github.com/internetbrands/vbimpex

[RichieBoy67]

I have done this many times using Impex.

[XYZ500]

@above all

Wasn't Impex only supposed to be used to convert other platform forums to vB forums?

What I understand is that Impex is quite easy to use. You don't need to be very technical to be able to use it (because I'm not).

Dave says its extremely difficult, while others in this thread says its very easy. So which one is it? :/ I'm confused now.

Can I use Impex on my laptop to do this merge? i5, 4GB RAM, 4MB DSL connection.

Following are the forum sizes:

Forum 1:-
MySQL database size: 18MB
Users: 373
Posts: 792
Threads: 249

Forum 2:-
MySQL database size: 950MB
Users: 12000
Posts: 510,000
Threads: 56,000

[Brandon Sheley]

I guess I should say it's easy for me. It is a bit technical and can be daunting for those who aren't familiar with it but I've literally done 100's of imports using impex and it's actually my favorite part of vbulletin these days.
Lynne is right, it's now at github and it does do vb 4 > vb 4.
There may be some errors along the way, but usually a google search will get you on the right track.

Neither of those databases are that large, updating the counters afterwords will likely take longer then the import itself if there are no issues.

[Dave]

@ECZ
Apparently it's easy if you use Impex, manually however, is a different story.

[XYZ500]

Can somebody be kind enough to list down the steps to do the merge using Impex?

[Lynne]

Brandon already posted a link to the guide - https://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/impex_guide

[XYZ500]

Hey all. I'm doing another import. I uploaded Impex files to the directory where the vB is located. I can't seem to figure out how to get the 'import' button into the adminCP. And I can't remember how the last time I did it.

I can access impex system from domain.com/impex/index.php but I tried doing it like this once before and it messed up things. I'll prefer doing it from the adminCP import button like last time.

--------------- Added 12 Jun 2015 at 20:54 ---------------

What is meant by these messages on the impex importing page?

Warning: Declaration of vb4_000::get_post_parent_id() should be compatible with that of ImpExDatabaseCore::get_post_parent_id() in ..../vbimpex-master/systems/vb4/000.php on line 143

Warning: Declaration of vb4_000::update_poll_ids() should be compatible with that of ImpExDatabaseCore::update_poll_ids() in ..../vbimpex-master/systems/vb4/000.php on line 143

Warning: Declaration of vb4_009::init() should be compatible with that of ImpExModule::init() in ..../vbimpex-master/systems/vb4/009.php on line 170

--------------- Added 13 Jun 2015 at 02:06 ---------------

Importing seems to be completed. Impex took 286 mins to complete the import. Most time taken on the posts. But there are a few issues.

I can't see the imported forums (categories and all) in the admincp.
The forum stats are showing "Welcome to our newest member, a" I don't have any username a. This is some kind of an error/bug.
The forum stats show no number or figure in front of 'Members:'

The increase in the forum stats threads and posts seem to be fine.

Any suggestions what to do?