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### 2.3.2. Convert the old forum data

In the scripts directory of your Phorum5 distribution, you will find a script named phorum3to5convert.php. Instructions for using this script are given below. The script will convert your old forum to Phorum5. Everything, but permission levels, is converted.

Instructions from phorum3to5convert.php
This script will convert the data from a Phorum 3 database to a Phorum 5 database. It does not change any of the old phorum3 tables. The data is only copied over to the new Phorum 5 tables.

Instructions:

- Be sure your Phorum 3 is running a 3.4.x version. If you are running an older version of Phorum 3, first upgrade to 3.4.x.
- Copy or move this script one directory up, to the main Phorum 5 directory.
- Edit the $CONVERT variables in the beginning of phorum3to5convert.php to match the settings of your phorum3 installation (set there in the admin).
- Install Phorum 5 as usual. For speed and reliability, preferably use the same database as the database where Phorum 3 lives. Because Phorum 5 uses a table prefix (typically "phorum_"), the tables for Phorum 3 and Phorum 5 can safely live next to each other in the same database.
- Empty the phorum_messages and phorum_forums tables of the Phorum 5 installation. You can do this either by dropping all forums from the Phorum 5 admin interface or by issuing the appropriate SQL queries from the MySQL prompt or from a database tool like "phpmyadmin". The queries to execute are (replace "phorum" with your own table_prefix if you changed this during install):

      DELETE FROM phorum_search;

                      DELETE FROM phorum_messages;

                      DELETE FROM phorum_forums;

  I could do this from this script as well, but I would find that a little bit rude ;-))
- Turn off unneeded modules for the conversion. All modules hooking into common.php or some other general hook will be run while doing the conversion which will lead to at least a slowdown, unexpected side effects and some strange output.
- If you have shell access to your webserver, run this script using the shell from the command line. This is the preferred way of running the upgrade:

      shell> php phorum3to5convert.php

- If you do not have shell access, call the upgrade script from your browser:

      {phorum url}/phorum3to5convert.php

  *** THIS STEP MAY TAKE A WHILE ***
- Take a look at the Phorum 5 forums to see if everything was converted correctly.
- Delete the upgrade script phorum3to5convert.php.

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