[Forum] VB 3.8 and VB 4.1 merge/upgrade

[Crossbow]

I have read many post on this matter but I am so confused so what I done is bought a brand new VB 4.1 and installed it on another web host under a new domain ext. Same name but instead of .com we used .info to test the new software. I need to know how can I take the user and post data base from our old VB 3.8 and add it to the new VB 4.1? The reason we done this instead of just upgrading the old forum is because there have been to many hands working in the old one over the years so we thought it would be best to just start from a new VB 4.1 with hopes we could upload the old users and all their topics. Am I crazy here or can this be done with out a lot of headaches? Thank you in advance for any help on this matter.

[Steve Machol]

Note: The only supported and recommended way to upgrade is as per the documentation.

One *unsupported* way you can try is to install a new copy of vB to a new database, then use Impex to import the old data to the new one. Please read the online Impex import instructions here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex

Also please view the 'After the Import' instructions here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex_cleanup

Note: This will change all your existing user, post, thread and forum ID numbers. So all posted links will no longer work, as well as search engine results from prior to this import.

[Crossbow]

Thanks Steve. Sounds like this is going to be a nightmare job. We have over 30,000 members on the old board and this is the only reason we need to try and move them all to the new software. Once we have that done we will then change it back to .com and hope it will still be working right. If this all goes south on me would you be willing to help for payment?

[Steve Machol]

The only paid service we provide is to do a straight upgrade.