Steps before upgrade from 4.2.5 to 5 series

[Trevor Matthews]

Thanks Wayne, I understand the process now.

[Wayne Luke]

Your vBulletin 4 files aren't relevant and won't be carried over to vBulletin 5. vBulletin 4 Addon Products will be removed during the upgrade. vBulletin 4 styles will remain but will be inactive and do not work in vBulletin 5. vBulletin 5 doesn't store plugins in the database. Your current version of PHP is satisfactory. Though, PHP 7 will provide a performance boost.

We recommend first upgrading a copy of your database. To do this, you would follow these steps:

1) Backup your current database.
2) Restore the backup in a new database.
3) Create a new directory.
4) Upload your vBulletin 5 files to this directory.
5) Follow the upgrade steps in the vb5readme.html file.

The upgrade will import your vBulletin 4 database information into the new vBulletin 5 tables and delete the majority of tables used by vBulletin 5. There is no procedure to revert.

Once, you have tested vBulletin 5 to your satisfaction, turn off your vB4 forums and create a new backup. Point the files in your vBulletin 5 directory to your vBulletin 4 database and run upgrade.php again.

[Trevor Matthews]

Hi all

I am currenty removing all plug-ins from my 4.2.5 forum and tidying up all out of date files etc with the Suspect Files feature.

I only have Tapatalk and Everywhere Side Bar left as plug-ins.

Everywhere Side Bar seems to be not required for VB5 as there seems to be other ways to display the content I need to show on the side of the forum.

Should I remove Tapatalk completely before attempting the upgrade to VB5?
Should I install PHP 7 and see if it works on 4.2.5 before upgrading to VB5?
Currently I am on 5.6.30.

Many thanks.