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Importing from phpbb 3 stuck on ‘starting conversion’


  • richard.wil
    Participant

    @richardwil

    Hi All,

    Hoping someone out there can help me. I am converting my old website into wordpress and am trying to import my forum into bbpress but have run into a problem. I can’t seem to get the import to start.

    I fill in the database details on the import page using the details from my config.php file and then click start, the page displays the “Starting Conversion” status and the loading circle is spinning but that is as far as it gets.

    I had read all the pages and guides and forum posts I can find for a week but cannot figure out where I am going wrong.

    The forum I am importing is a very small forum compared to other websites and I have tried leaving the page on this status for 4 hours without any change.

    Is there somewhere I can find an error log that would tell me what is going on or would anywhere have any ideas would could be the cause of this

    Im running phpbb 3.1.5
    Wordpress Version 4.2.3

    Thanks in advance

    Richard

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

  • Robkk
    Moderator

    @robkk

    Current version of bbPress does not support imports from phpBB 3.1, next major release will.

    https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2716


    richard.wil
    Participant

    @richardwil

    Thanks very much for your reply and for the info, do you know approximately when that release would likely be?

    I have tried with various versions on phpbb and was getting the same error, so I thought it may have been that bbpress didn’t support 3.0.x so that’s why I actually updated. I can revert back my version.

    However I have tried with the 3.0.14 and with earlier versions and was getting this same problem. The status just sits on “Starting Conversion” and never moves or gives me anymore information.

    Would you know what this could be causing this or where I should be looking to find out what is stopping the process from starting?
    (I left it run for 5 hours the other day)
    I can convert back to the old version of phpbb if needed.

    Thanks in advance.


    Robkk
    Moderator

    @robkk

    I think it is pretty much when 2.6 is done it gets released.

    I think the version you want to revert to would be fine.

    The import being stuck could be normal, or there could be a post causing all the hold up.

    Import Troubleshooting


    richard.wil
    Participant

    @richardwil

    Ive tried the steps on this page, however i get stuck right at the first one, as when I click stop it doesn’t tell me any information about what row it was up to. It just stops and says something like: conversion stopped.
    Its as if it never starts the process at all. It seems like it is not getting any connection to the database/old forum


    richard.wil
    Participant

    @richardwil

    Ive recently tried installing version 2.5.7 bbpress and phpbb 3.0.14 but am still stuck.
    Ive also tried moving the data to another database on the same server
    Anyone know anything else I can try?
    How can I see where this thing is getting stuck? Is there any logs i can be checking?
    All I can see is just “Starting Conversion” every single time 🙁
    Its so frustrating….please help me im going crazy lol
    TIA


    Robkk
    Moderator

    @robkk

    I am sorry I barely know about importing into bbPress. I am just going to quote what Stephen said to similar issues during importation.

    What happens if you logout and log in again, also fully refreshing the import page would do the same thing, if you’ve left the import page open for too long without doing anything then the MySQL connection is dropped from the database and is most often the cause of only seeing Starting without any other error.

    It sounds like you are hitting this crazy freezing issue, it’s not easy to track down, but once you’ve found the offending database row you should be good to go.

    Following the instructions @robkk linked to above should help track it down, when I hit this issue if I’ve got 100,000 replies to import and it fails at 2,100, I’ll delete those first 2,199 reply rows from a working copy/backup of the database as a quick indicator of if/when the issue will crop again, helps to “scope” out whats going on.


    richard.wil
    Participant

    @richardwil

    Thanks for the advice
    I have tried following the above troubleshooting steps but it seems to be running into an issue right at the very start, it seems to not even start importing at all. So if I click stop it just stops and doesn’t show me any info on what it had imported, where it got up to. Should it display the detail in the import status window on the page? I also can’t see any topics, posts in the database or in the bbpress forum. Makes me think that it doesn’t even start the import process. Maybe it is getting stuck at the connecting to the database part of the process?
    I can’t seem to see any other details or messages other than ‘starting conversion’ and the little circle status symbol spinning.
    Where should I be looking to see more detail on what rows it is working on etc?

    The database *must* be located on the same database server as your target WordPress installation, you can import from a remote database server.

    Make sure you select “phpBB” from the dropdown at the top of the importer page.


    richard.wil
    Participant

    @richardwil

    Thanks for your reply.
    Yes, definitely selecting phpBB from the drop-down at the top of the page.
    Both the wordpress and phpbb3 databases are on the same web server. I enter in ‘localhost’ to connect to them both

    If you select a different forum from the dropdown, e.g. SMF what error do you get?

    Can you also try using an incorrect password, you should be seeing some kind of errors here rather than nothing each time.


    richard.wil
    Participant

    @richardwil

    Thanks.
    Just did these tests and I still get the ‘starting conversion’ but no error. It just keeps spinning.


    richard.wil
    Participant

    @richardwil

    Ive finally had some progress!!!! Finally getting something in the status box other than the ‘starting conversion’ lol

    I ended up installing another instance of wordpress in an old version: 3.9 and then installed bbpress plugin old version: 2.5.4

    Then when I did the import from the phpbb3 forums I had the import actually start! I think it must have been some compatibility issues on newer versions.

    However I did run into a fair few errors. I got a few errors where I had to click start conversion again and then it would get another error and have to click start again.

    It finally finishes but seems to have only imported replies and there are no forums or topics and the user accounts don’t import either.

    Wondering if anyone might know why and if anyone can decipher the output I get below?
    Any help would be greatly appreciated

    ———————————————————————-

    Repair any missing information: Continue

    Conversion Complete

    No reply_to parents to convert

    Converting replies (1200 – 1299)
    Converting replies (1100 – 1199)
    Converting replies (1000 – 1099)
    Converting replies (900 – 999)
    Converting replies (800 – 899)
    Converting replies (700 – 799)
    Converting replies (600 – 699)
    Converting replies (500 – 599)
    Converting replies (400 – 499)
    Converting replies (300 – 399)
    Converting replies (200 – 299)
    Converting replies (100 – 199)
    Converting replies (0 – 99)

    No tags to convert

    No super stickies to stick

    No stickies to stick

    Starting Conversion

    Repair any missing information: Continue
    WordPress database error: [Unknown column ‘topics.topic_replies’ in ‘field list’]
    SELECT convert(topics.topic_id USING “utf8”) AS topic_id,convert(topics.topic_replies USING “utf8”) AS topic_replies,convert(topics.topic_replies_real USING “utf8”) AS topic_replies_real,convert(topics.forum_id USING “utf8”) AS forum_id,convert(topics.topic_poster USING “utf8”) AS topic_poster,convert(posts.poster_ip USING “utf8”) AS poster_ip,convert(posts.post_text USING “utf8”) AS post_text,convert(topics.topic_title USING “utf8”) AS topic_title,convert(topics.topic_status USING “utf8”) AS topic_status,convert(topics.topic_type USING “utf8”) AS topic_type,convert(topics.topic_time USING “utf8”) AS topic_time,convert(topics.topic_last_post_time USING “utf8”) AS topic_last_post_time FROM phpbb_topics AS topics INNER JOIN phpbb_posts AS posts USING (topic_id) WHERE posts.post_id = topics.topic_first_post_id LIMIT 0, 100

    No topics to convert

    No forum parents to convert

    Starting Conversion

    Repair any missing information: Continue
    WordPress database error: [Unknown column ‘forums.forum_topics’ in ‘field list’]
    SELECT convert(forums.forum_id USING “utf8”) AS forum_id,convert(forums.parent_id USING “utf8”) AS parent_id,convert(forums.forum_topics USING “utf8”) AS forum_topics,convert(forums.forum_posts USING “utf8”) AS forum_posts,convert(forums.forum_topics_real USING “utf8”) AS forum_topics_real,convert(forums.forum_name USING “utf8”) AS forum_name,convert(forums.forum_desc USING “utf8”) AS forum_desc,convert(forums.left_id USING “utf8”) AS left_id,convert(forums.forum_type USING “utf8”) AS forum_type,convert(forums.forum_status USING “utf8”) AS forum_status FROM phpbb_forums AS forums LIMIT 0, 100

    No forums to convert

    No passwords to clear

    Starting Conversion

    Repair any missing information: Continue
    WordPress database error: [Unknown column ‘users.user_website’ in ‘field list’]
    SELECT convert(users.user_id USING “utf8”) AS user_id,convert(users.user_password USING “utf8”) AS user_password,convert(users.user_form_salt USING “utf8”) AS user_form_salt,convert(users.username USING “utf8”) AS username,convert(users.user_email USING “utf8”) AS user_email,convert(users.user_website USING “utf8”) AS user_website,convert(users.user_regdate USING “utf8”) AS user_regdate,convert(users.user_aim USING “utf8”) AS user_aim,convert(users.user_yim USING “utf8”) AS user_yim,convert(users.user_icq USING “utf8”) AS user_icq,convert(users.user_msnm USING “utf8”) AS user_msnm,convert(users.user_jabber USING “utf8”) AS user_jabber,convert(users.user_occ USING “utf8”) AS user_occ,convert(users.user_interests USING “utf8”) AS user_interests,convert(users.user_sig USING “utf8”) AS user_sig,convert(users.user_from USING “utf8”) AS user_from,convert(users.user_avatar USING “utf8”) AS user_avatar FROM phpbb_users AS users LIMIT 0, 100

    No users to convert

    Starting Conversion


    Robkk
    Moderator

    @robkk

    @richardwil

    You may need to hire a developer to do the import for you. Devs seem busy working on other aspects of bbPress and importing in general. And for me importing is a huge learning curve.

    I guess you can also wait it out with phpBB still until we fix the importer in 2.6.

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
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