Title: Difficulty importing old database
Last modified: January 19, 2018

---

# Difficulty importing old database

 *  Resolved [denisecontent](https://wordpress.org/support/users/denisecontent/)
 * (@denisecontent)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/)
 * I recently took over as the web developer for [https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/](https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/).
   They have had 3 different versions of their website over the past 6 months! They
   want their old BBPress Forums set up on the current version of their website.
   I want to know the best way to do this. I presume I need to install the most 
   current version of this plugin. My difficulty is how do I get the old posts/comments
   imported into the new database? I understand that bbpress posts are in the wp_posts
   database where the regular website posts are. **I do not want to import any NON-
   bbpress posts into the database ONLY the bbpress posts** from this old database(
   from a 6 months ago back up). I have access to the database via phpMyAdmin – 
   is there a way I can sort out easily which one’s I need? If you need more information
   to assist – please ask!
    Denise
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fdifficulty-importing-old-database%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

 *  Thread Starter [denisecontent](https://wordpress.org/support/users/denisecontent/)
 * (@denisecontent)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9883044)
 * One more thing I have the old database working at [http://www.yougoatgouda.org/forums/forum/mhi-bulletin-board](http://www.yougoatgouda.org/forums/forum/mhi-bulletin-board)
   so we can see it at least.
 *  Plugin Author [Robin W](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin-w/)
 * (@robin-w)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9883202)
 * This plugin is a sub-plugin for the bbpress plugin, and I suspect you may not
   need this sub plugin, unless it is currently loaded to your site AND being used.
 * You may just need the bbpress plugin, but I support that plugin also, so we might
   as well deal with it here 🙂
 * If you list any bbpress related plugins (anything that says bbp or bbpress) from
   the old site, I can probably help you further AND I’D SUGGEST YOU DO THIS FIRST!!
 *  Thread Starter [denisecontent](https://wordpress.org/support/users/denisecontent/)
 * (@denisecontent)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9885565)
 * What I think is going on is that at some point in the last 6 months someone did
   a “fresh start” with the bbpress plugin which probably wiped the database of 
   bbpress.
 * As I said I have an older version (from 6 months ago) working at a different 
   url.
 * I have now uploaded THAT database onto [https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/](https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/).
 * Tomorrow I will delete all bbpress plugins off [https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/](https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/).
 * I will then upload the 6 month old bbpress plugins (since I got them to work 
   on yougoatgouda) to [https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/](https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/)
   and activate them.
 * Then I think I need to go into bbpress and import that 6 month old database. 
   Robin – is there anything else you can think of that I need to do? BTW I am amazed
   you are helping me – thank you so much!
 * Denise
 *  Thread Starter [denisecontent](https://wordpress.org/support/users/denisecontent/)
 * (@denisecontent)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9885578)
 * Wanted to add this is where I will be importing the Database in my Dashboard 
   I will go to – Tools – Forums
 *  Plugin Author [Robin W](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin-w/)
 * (@robin-w)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9886049)
 * Moving just forums and topics/replies is do-able, but the issue will be if the
   users aren’t the same on the two sites.
 * The key is that topics and replies are allocated to ID’s in the user table, so
   when you import if the ID numbers don’t match, then the wrong people will be 
   against the posts, which might cause more than a few resentments amongst your
   users if they are seen to be asserting something they didn’t say !!
 * I don’t know how good your phpmyadmin skills are, but in effect you’ll need the
   new site to have all the users who have posted topics/replies from the old one
   database with matching ID’s AND presumably you’ll want to keep any on the new
   site. This may not be an issue if the new site has brought forward from the old
   one. It might mean tons of work otherwise !
 * But assuming that say user 10 on the old site is the same as user 10 on the new
   site, you should be able to simply
 * 1. make a backup of the new site in case this goes wrong !!!!!
    2. on the old
   site go to dashboard>tools>export> and select forums/topics/replies and export
   3. go to new site and go to dashboard>tools>import (and install the wordpress
   importer if needed) and then import your file.
 * That should be it, but you might need to come back for further help
 *  Thread Starter [denisecontent](https://wordpress.org/support/users/denisecontent/)
 * (@denisecontent)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9887006)
 * I tried those steps and I got the error message below. I did not try the repair
   function. It looks like marxisth_bb.thread is the main problem…should I click
   repair – just being nervous.
 * Denise
 * Repair any missing information: Continue
    WordPress database error: [Table ‘marxisth_bb.
   thread’ doesn’t exist] SELECT convert(thread.threadid USING “utf8mb4”) AS threadid,
   convert(thread.forumid USING “utf8mb4”) AS forumid,convert(thread.replycount 
   USING “utf8mb4”) AS replycount,convert(thread.postuserid USING “utf8mb4”) AS 
   postuserid,convert(post.ipaddress USING “utf8mb4”) AS ipaddress,convert(thread.
   title USING “utf8mb4”) AS title,convert(post.pagetext USING “utf8mb4”) AS pagetext,
   convert(thread.open USING “utf8mb4”) AS open,convert(thread.sticky USING “utf8mb4”)
   AS sticky,convert(thread.dateline USING “utf8mb4”) AS dateline,convert(thread.
   lastpost USING “utf8mb4”) AS lastpost FROM thread AS thread INNER JOIN post AS
   post USING (threadid) WHERE post.parentid = 0 LIMIT 0, 100 No topics to convertNo
   forum parents to convertStarting Conversion
 *  Plugin Author [Robin W](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin-w/)
 * (@robin-w)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9887023)
 * hmmm – not at all sure what is going om there – don’t know what is ‘converting’
 * You should not have a table called marxisth_bb.thread – bbpress uses custom post
   types – unless it is a verion 1 bbpress forum on the old site – no idea how they
   worked, or not a bbpress forum.
 * Are you not just doing export/import rather than running any converters?
 *  Plugin Author [Robin W](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin-w/)
 * (@robin-w)
 * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9923407)
 * nothing further heard – marking as resolved

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

The topic ‘Difficulty importing old database’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/bbp-private-groups.svg)
 * [Private groups](https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbp-private-groups/)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/bbp-private-groups/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/bbp-private-groups/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/bbp-private-groups/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/bbp-private-groups/reviews/)

## Tags

 * [database](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/database/)
 * [importing](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/importing/)

 * 8 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Robin W](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin-w/)
 * Last activity: [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/difficulty-importing-old-database/#post-9923407)
 * Status: resolved