I’m trying to import an old vBulletin (3.8.3) forum to a new bbPress (2.5.14) setupon WordPress 5.1.1 and the initial import looks great. It imports the users (~13k) says something about deleting their WordPress password, then a moment later it seems to hang and no matter how long I leave it we never progress.

Calculating forum hierarchy (0 - 99)
Converting forums (0 - 99)
Delete users WordPress default passwords (12700 - 12799)
Delete users WordPress default passwords (12600 - 12699)
Delete users WordPress default passwords (12500 - 12599)
Delete users WordPress default passwords (12400 - 12499)
Delete users WordPress default passwords (12300 - 12399)

Looking at the forum sections shows that it’s created the 22 forums and correctly set some of them as categories, they also show how many topics and replies are in each one correctly –

— Random Thoughts - Topics: 3,119 Replies: 54,698

But only 27 topics across the entire forum are imported. It’s the same 27 topics every time as well. To the point that if I stop the import, and hit the start button again, it imports these same 27 topics once more now showing 54. Is there an error log I can find that might show me why it’s hanging up? The bit above with the Calculating Hierarchy is the last update I ever get in the window. I added the lines to turn on debug logging in WordPress but nothing every shows up.

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); // turn on debug mode
if ( defined( 'WP_DEBUG' ) && WP_DEBUG ) {
	define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true ); // log to wp-content/debug.log
}

[@nfusionco Participant 5 years, 8 months ago]

Installed bbPress (2.7RC) to test and I like the improved dashboard for information but still having the import issue – though now I’m informed that it reaches step 6:

Step 6. No forum subscriptions to import
and just doesn’t move past that point. As a note there are no other plugins activated at all in my wordpress install – this is brand new and i’m starting out with the bbPress plugin since it’s the largest potential issue.

[@nfusionco Participant 5 years, 8 months ago]

Debug log included:

[12-Apr-2019 22:13:19 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Cannot pass parameter 1 by reference in /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php:1485
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php(1508): BBCode->Internal_GenerateOutput(1)
#1 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php(1891): BBCode->Internal_RewindToClass(Array)
#2 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php(2068): BBCode->Internal_ParseStartTagToken()
#3 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/classes/class-bbp-converter-base.php(1211): BBCode->Parse('[list=1][*]quee...')
#4 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/converters/vBulletin3.php(752): BBP_Converter_Base->callback_html('[list=1][*]quee...')
#5 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/ in /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php on line 1485

[@nfusionco Participant 5 years, 8 months ago]

Continuing the troubleshooting here in case someone has an idea. Upgraded vBulletin to 4.2.5; can’t access the site directly anymore but the database is still fine. Tried to do the bbPress import once more fresh and it hangs still at “Doing Step 6” with No forum subscriptions to import. The debug is a little differnt now though:

[13-Apr-2019 02:09:24 UTC] PHP Warning:  "continue" targeting switch is equivalent to "break". Did you mean to use "continue 2"? in /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php on line 225
[13-Apr-2019 02:09:24 UTC] PHP Warning:  "continue" targeting switch is equivalent to "break". Did you mean to use "continue 2"? in /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php on line 237
[13-Apr-2019 02:09:24 UTC] PHP Warning:  "continue" targeting switch is equivalent to "break". Did you mean to use "continue 2"? in /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php on line 241
[13-Apr-2019 02:09:25 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Cannot pass parameter 1 by reference in /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php:1485
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php(1508): BBCode->Internal_GenerateOutput(1)
#1 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php(1891): BBCode->Internal_RewindToClass(Array)
#2 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php(2068): BBCode->Internal_ParseStartTagToken()
#3 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/classes/class-bbp-converter-base.php(1211): BBCode->Parse('[list=1][*]quee...')
#4 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/converters/vBulletin.php(754): BBP_Converter_Base->callback_html('[list=1][*]quee...')
#5 /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/w in /var/www/vhosts/mydomain.com/dev.mydomain.com/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/parser.php on line 1485

[@nfusionco Participant 5 years, 8 months ago]

Here is the value in my _bbp_converter_query string so you can see right where the issue is happening each time I believe.

SELECT value_id, meta_value FROM lT8Kj0L7_bbp_converter_translator WHERE meta_key = '_bbp_old_forum_id' AND meta_value = '40' LIMIT 1

Clicking Pause & Start never continues on and instead imports the same 27 topics it did previously each time you pause and start growing topics by 27 over and over.

[@nfusionco Participant 5 years, 8 months ago]

10 days of trying & no progress or response. If I come up with any solution outside of deleting BBPress & using another plugin I’ll come back and update.