• Registered: 2008-03-21
  • Posts: 8

Topic: Lost forum data when upgrading. Help.

Somehow, somebody hacked into our site and deleted the public html folder. My whole site was gone, but then I found there was a backup in the tmp folder (an updated one instead of my old backup on my harddrive). I uploaded that and got the site back, but I had to delete this ludur.php file in the forums/lang directory, because my FTP client wouldn't upload that file. Good thing too, because it was a virus file with a bit of code that's related to this phpbb virus that's on our site, which I believe is unrelated to this problem, but I should mention it anyway. So, the site came back fine, except for the forums, they came back without my background image. All the user & post data was still there, just no background image. I decided to upgrade the forums (I was running 1.2.17) and then figure out how to get the background back on there.

So I tried following the migration instructions. I didn't make a database backup because I didn't know how to and it looked really confusing, and I figured that's just to be safe and not necessary. I got the new forums up, but of course they had the default style instead of my customized style. Now, this is the only part I don't completely remember: after that, I think I just deleted the whole forum directory because I didn't want to customize it again, and I just uploaded the old 1.2 forums back. But after I did this I noticed when I clicked on a thread or a username, it goes to a white screen and says "error: unable to fetch post info." It still listed all the threads, but there was no data behind them. So I then uploaded the 1.3 forums again, and it says: "Your PunBB database is out-of-date and must be upgraded in order to continue. Please run db_update.php in order to complete the upgrade process." I click the db_update.php, and then it says "Your database is already as up-to-date as this script can make it."

Also, when I login to Cpanel and go to the Msqyl databases, I can still see the forum database there. It doesn't look like it's gone, but I don't know.

What should I do?

  • Registered: 2008-03-21
  • Posts: 8

Re: Lost forum data when upgrading. Help.

Anyone? I uploaded the 1.2 forums again, you can see them here: http://jforcegames.com/forums/

As you can see, clicking on a thread will bring you to the error page, and so will creating a new account.

Also, I digged into the database a bit deeper, and I can see all the individual posts, so I know they're not gone. It seems like there should be an easy fix to this, so I would much rather do that than start the forum over.

  • Utchin
  • PunBB senior member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-02-09
  • Posts: 760

Re: Lost forum data when upgrading. Help.

First you always need to make sure you have a back up of both the files and DB. Some hosts keep back ups them self but i wouldn't count on it.

Enable debug mode and go to a post, see what the error says, Then try find that post in the DB.

If you belive this gets too complicated, you can email me your login details and Ill see what I can do.

Sorry. Unactive due to personal life.
  • Registered: 2008-03-21
  • Posts: 8

Re: Lost forum data when upgrading. Help.

OOoo, thanks. Getting closer. In debug mode it says:

File: /home/jforcega/public_html/forums/viewtopic.php
Line: 186

PunBB reported: Unable to fetch post info

Database reported: Unknown column 'u.use_avatar' in 'field list' (Errno: 1054)

When I take out 'u.use_avatar' everything works fine, I can see all threads. Except when I click on a username it brings:

File: /home/jforcega/public_html/forums/profile.php
Line: 897

PunBB reported: Unable to fetch user info

Database reported: Unknown column 'u.use_avatar' in 'field list' (Errno: 1054)

So I took out u.use_avatar again, but then it says the same thing except this time it's u.save_pass.

I'm gonna stop here and see if you know the solution to this.

  • Utchin
  • PunBB senior member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-02-09
  • Posts: 760

Re: Lost forum data when upgrading. Help.

Them two fields arnt in the standard PunBB core. What extensions do you have installed?

Sorry. Unactive due to personal life.
  • Registered: 2008-03-21
  • Posts: 8

Re: Lost forum data when upgrading. Help.

Ummm, I think the only thing I installed is CAPTCHA for sign ups.