vBulletin Manual - The Import Process

The instructions for the different import systems vary, but they all follow a common formula.

Firstly, you will be asked to enter some details about the bulletin board you are about to import. These will usually be file-paths to necessary files, or the name of a database. This screenshot shows the initial page for the UBB6 import script.

As you can see, the appropriate filepaths have been filled in. Once all the information is provided, click the [start import] button.

At some point during the import, you may reach a step where you can associate imported users with existing users. This is especially useful if you are importing another board into an existing, active vBulletin.

The associate step allows you to make an association between a user from your vBulletin board, and the corresponding user from the board to be imported, so that duplicate users are not created.

For example, if i was importing a UBB board where I was also a member, I would associate the UBB member Kier with the vBulletin member Kier by entering Kier's vBulletin user id next to the name of Kier in the list of UBB members. A complete list of your vBulletin members, together with their user ids can be found by clicking the appropriate link on the association page.

Click this link to show the complete list of your existing vBulletin members, together with their userid.
The list of members for the imported bulletin board probably spans several pages - use this control to jump to different pages of the list.
When all associations are done, click this link to proceed.
The imported member Kier is the same person as the vBulletin member Kier, so the userid of the vBulletin member, Kier is inserted here. (When you have finished a page, click the associate users button at the bottom of the page).

The final step of the import process will be to clean up the database and update the counters.

For more information about updating counters, see the 'Maintenance' section of this manual.