[Forum] 4.0 upgrade - DON'T DO IT if you have any Mods - and probably, don't do it period!

[Maltair]

I was running 3.8.4 on two forums.

One of the forums gets a LOT of traffic, the other not so much yet.

I decided to try the 4.0 upgrade on the lesser traveled forum (fortunately). My forum immediately went kaput - couldn't even access the forum front page or Admin control panel. This was on December 24th.

Eventually vbulletin tech support suggested that I edit my vBulletin config.php file currently on the server by adding the following line after the <?php line:

define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);

to disable all mods.

Forum is still dead. No matter which forum I click on, I get the error: Invalid Forum specified. The blog is completely dead too - evidently vbulletin never thought to provide a free blog update for those of us who paid for both forum and blog.

Anyway, my forum has been dead for four days now. In my tech support thread, someone appears to have promised to revert my forum to 3.8.4, but nothing has been done yet. Still waiting.

[steven s]

It has been said from day one that mods will probably not work. Especially when they edit templates.
Sounds like you don't have any backups of your 3.8 files or database.

[Maltair]

The point of this thread is to forget about 4.0 unless you want a plain Jane forum that is inferior to a rocking 3.8.4 + Mods forum.

At the moment, I can't even have a plain Jane forum, as 4.0 doesn't work at all.

[Wsh]

Seems more like an operator issue in terms of getting it to actually work -_-

I have a site and yes it sucks not having the mods, but everything transferred in terms of members, threads and actual data.

[Ace]

Eventually vbulletin tech support suggested that I edit my vBulletin config.php file currently on the server by adding the following line after the <?php line:

define('DISABLE_HOOKS', true);

to disable all mods.

"Eventually"?

You are told to disable/uninstall all plugins when you Upgrade your forum... the 4.0 code is different to the 3.x one, so the plugins try to call database tables that don't exist, and your forum doesn't function.

Forum is still dead. No matter which forum I click on, I get the error: Invalid Forum specified. The blog is completely dead too - evidently vbulletin never thought to provide a free blog update for those of us who paid for both forum and blog.

Invalid Forum Specified - that sounds like a rewrite not working. Which URL structure are you using? Try the default, Standard vB URLs one if you can.

Blog - unless you upgraded to Suite, Blog won't work with 4.0.

[R1-Limited]

The point of this thread is to forget about 4.0 unless you want a plain Jane forum that is inferior to a rocking 3.8.4 + Mods forum.

At the moment, I can't even have a plain Jane forum, as 4.0 doesn't work at all.

I understand your situation as well as the complaint. In all honesty, I think this is a given and it was foolhardy to assume that the mods for anything below 3.8.4.xxx will work with 4.0

I have a plain jane install, yet as the mods I wanted are updated to be 4.o complaint, I will add them. I think IMO a little more research on your part would had circumvented your issues.

You do offer a great heads up, do not do as I did Post though

[Kefallon]

This message does not line up with my perceptions, i have a 3.8.4 board with a dozen or so mods.
I merely did so background research added the line in the config file to disable mods and disabled them from the control panel and the upgrade went through without a hitch.
I have little to no software knowledge but after investigating it had no issues perhaps i could suggest a little less haste and a bit more attention to detail could help many who have problems...
Before anyone says it the CMS is flawed and i will be stay with wordpress for now whilst those skilled at software sort oput the problems but the forum in my opinion runs fine...

[Maltair]

Blog - unless you upgraded to Suite, Blog won't work with 4.0.

This is another major point - if we paid for BLOG, then we should get 4.0 Suite free now!

[Lynne]

vboptions > server settings > friendly URLs > set to Standard See if that fixes the issue.

As for the rest, it has been said time and time again that most likely your mods will not work in 4.0. It's also been said that you should make a backup before upgrading. It's also been said that you should do a practice upgrade on your test site first. It's also been said..... oh boy, too many to keep listing when they've all been listed before.

[Mark.B]

The point of this thread is to forget about 4.0 unless you want a plain Jane forum that is inferior to a rocking 3.8.4 + Mods forum.

At the moment, I can't even have a plain Jane forum, as 4.0 doesn't work at all.

I have a modified 3.8 board, but I'm fully aware that upgrading to 4.0 will stop most of the modifications working *in their current form*.

I need to convert those modifications. In many cases they will (or already have been) converted by their original authors.

But I know not to rush in and upgrade, I need to do some work first. This isn't a limitation of the software at all, it was also the same when I went from 2.3.4 > 3.0.0

[TimL]

I just upgraded one of my slower forums and I'm in total agreement. It not worth the time and definitely not worth the ridiculous amount of dollars they are asking.

I have smilies issues and I had to disable all mods. I feel as if I have been rip off on the purchased of the Blogging software as I can't use it unless I pay for CMS which I do not want. In addition, I lost all of my custom templates and I can't create new templates unless I do a full upgrade. I see a few changes in the control panel, other than that....It would make more sense to stay with 3.8. I can't even get a Paypal mod so I can request donations to help with cost. So for me....I'm sticking with 3.8 for a long time and I'm looking for a way out of using vbulletin in the future. This entire transition reminds me of a Nazi takeover and I want no parts of that.

[vivamexico55]

vboptions > server settings > friendly URLs > set to Standard See if that fixes the issue.

As for the rest, it has been said time and time again that most likely your mods will not work in 4.0. It's also been said that you should make a backup before upgrading. It's also been said that you should do a practice upgrade on your test site first. It's also been said..... oh boy, too many to keep listing when they've all been listed before.

Should've been integrated as a warning in the upgrade process if it was that important ("Hey, you have lots of mods, you gotta disable them before upgrading or things will break! Proceed?")

[R1-Limited]

This is another major point - if we paid for BLOG, then we should get 4.0 Suite free now!

Now that I 110% agree with, I updated my licenses fr blog and VB prior to the announcement f price change. Personally, this is why I keep my own jar of vasoline, it has sand in it, at least then I know when I am beng screwed

[dutchbb]

Smart admins wait until all mods are ported... You can only blame yourself for this.

[steven s]

Smart admins wait until all mods are ported... You can only blame yourself for this.

I don't necessarily agree.
A smart admin create backups, tests to make an educated decision.
They don't blame others for their mistakes. They need to take some responsibility for their actions.