vBulletin Manual - When Pictures are in the Database

By default vBulletin stores album pictures in the database for maximum compatibility. In order to store pictures in the file system, your server will need to have SAFE_MODE disabled. This is something that only your host can do.

You will be presented with the following screen if you have pictures in the database:

To begin the process of moving picutres to the database, select the desired method and press [Go].

You will then be presented with something like the following:

Note:

vBulletin tries to determine if you have SAFE_MODE enabled and may display an error message instead of the above screen. If this happens, you will need to contact your host about disabling SAFE_MODE for your site or choose to leave attachments in the database.

Full Picture File Path or Picture and Thumbnail File Path - this is the path where full pictures will be stored if you choose to allow direct access to thumbnails or where pictures and thumbnails will be stored if you do not.

This folder should be outside of your web root (usually the public_html or www folder). If you put this inside your web root, people will be able to bypass permissions and download any pictures that have been uploaded. Please use the full qualified path name to this directory.

This folder must be writeable by PHP. The easiest way to do this is CHMOD it 777 (consult your FTP, Telnet, or SSH documentation for more info on how to do this).
Thumbnail File Path - this is the path where your thumbnails are being stored. Unlike the "Full Picture File Path" setting, this path must be within your web root. Users will need to be able to access the files in this directory directly. It must be writeable by PHP. The easiest way to do this is CHMOD it 777 (consult your FTP, Telnet, or SSH documentation for more info on how to do this).
URL to Thumbnails - this is the URL to the "Thumbnail File Path" directory, relative to your main forum directory.

Press [Go] when you have entered a valid directories. vBulletin will test the directories for proper permissions and inform you if the permissions are not set properly.

The above screen is the final step before the actual moving begins. After pressing [Go] on this page, the moving of files from the database will begin.

After you press [Go], the pictures will be copied from the database to the file system. At the end of the process you will have pictures in both locations and will be presented with the following screen as confirmation that you wish to finalize the process by deleting all attachments from the database.

Pay close attention to the number of pictures that had errors. If you finalize, these pictures will likely be lost.

If you feel, all is well, select the <Yes> option to the right of Finalize and press [Go]. At the point all pictures will be removed from the database.