Importing vb 3.6.8 to 3.8.4

[iz0n]

Hello,
I only have my exported entire SQL database in an sql file.
The old vBulletin database was in 3.6.8 version, and now i've purchased the 3.8.4 and installed it.
Is there a way to import the old database to the new one ? with impex ?
Thanks

[Almotmaiz.Net]

no impex need
upload your files (3.4.8) and setup the config.php file with your old db name/user and follow this steps http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/upgrade

[Zachery]

They are right, you should only use the upgrade. Impex is not designed for upgrades and will leave tons of data behind. Please use the normal upgrade method.

[iz0n]

Hello,
Thanks for the information, it worked fine.
The problem I have now is that I can not access or even see posts that were written in "arabic language" (90% of my posts).
Even the extracted database was in utf8_general_ci.
Is there any way to correct that ?
Thanks

[Steve Machol]

Still not clear what you did and why. Why didn't you just upgrade normally?

[iz0n]

i'm testing the new 3.8.4 on my local machine, i don't want to upload it on the server, until fully testing it.
I downloaded the database to my computer, and i'm testing it with easyphp.
I see that on the variables of pma there, it uses latin1, utf8 and utf8_unicode_ci.
On my computer, it's only uft8 and utf8_unicode_ci.
Even on PMA, on my computer, arabic usernames... can't be seen, nothing appear on them, so it's mysql problem.
I'm checking on google, maybe a solution is somewhere ;-)

[Steve Machol]

That is a problem with your transfer method or server setup. Please see this thread for methods to troubleshoot character set problems:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=259250