Private Message length cannot be changed to more than 1 Character

[Mark.B]

Thanks Mark,
That is exactly what I did, and the installation and upgrade went ahead smoothly. It's the strange behaviour with styles and Private Messages that was time consuming. I'll install on a separate domain as a test installation.
The next attempt will be with PHP 7.x rather than 5.6.35 which is what I currently have.

I would do that, but do it on a test mirror. Then post up with any issues you are having. We can then help you sort these out without your live site being affected.

Then, once all that is sorted, if you decide to go live with the upgrade, you'll know what needs sorting afterwards.

[UKCobra]

Thanks Mark,
That is exactly what I did, and the installation and upgrade went ahead smoothly. It's the strange behaviour with styles and Private Messages that was time consuming. I'll install on a separate domain as a test installation.
The next attempt will be with PHP 7.x rather than 5.6.35 which is what I currently have.

[Mark.B]

I have a set of basic instructions for vB4 > vB5 upgrades which always work well for me.

Firstly, get a test copy of your current site set up on its own URL (eg domaincom/testvb)
You'll need to use a COPY of the live database and a COPY of the live files.
Make sure the includes/config.php file references the COPY database and not the live.
Also while in config.php change the cookie prefix (it is 'bb' by default) to something else.
Upload the vB4 /install folder annd also upload tools.php into the admincp folder (tools.php is in the do_not_upload folder in the download package)
Run tools.php on the test site and use it to change the file path of the forum to reflect the test location.
Verify you can load the test site and can log in.

Then, once you have a working copy of your live site, follow these instructions:

vB3 / vB4 to vB5 Upgrade Instructions

****BACK UP THE DATABASE & FILES FIRST****

1. You need to remove all vB3 / vB4 files and folders out of the way first, (except attachments, avatars etc if you're storing these on the server).

2. Download and unzip the vBulletin 5 files.

3. You need to rename this file:

htaccess.txt

To:

.htaccess
(Note the 'dot' at the start)

4. You need to rename this file:

/config.php.bkp

To:

/config.php

Then, you need to rename this file:

/core/includes/config.php.new

To:

/core/includes/config.php

Then, in that file, you need to complete the following fields:

$config['Database']['dbname'] = 'forum';
Change forum to whatever your database name is.

$config['Database']['technicalemail'] = '[email protected]';
Change the email address to your own.

$config['MasterServer']['username'] = 'root';
Change root to the database username

$config['MasterServer']['password'] = '';
Enter the database password inside the '' marks.

All other fields should be left as default, unless your database is on a separate server, in which case this will need changing:

$config['MasterServer']['servername'] = 'localhost';

5. Upload all files to your server

6. Browse to yourforumpath.com/core/install/upgrade.php.

7. Enter your customer number and the upgrade will proceed.

8. Delete the /core/install directory after the upgrade has finished.

You should also edit core/includes/config.php, and also the config.php in the root, and change both the cookie prefix settings to match the one you set it to when creating the test mirror.

[UKCobra]

I was more concerned with the actual upgrade steps failing, and given the research I did this week, and the guidance provided on this forum, I felt I was prepared for that.
And it went smoothly.

What did not go smoothly was the weird behaviour and inconsistency of some of the config changes, which early on were intermittent, and latterly just plane crazy. The PM message count for example being stuck at 1 character.

I guess doing upgrades since 2002 with Vbulletin, and never having such issues means I have been very lucky.
I purchased VB5 in Oct 2012, and held off this long, as I would have expected the bugs and hurdles in moving to VB5 to have been mostly ironed out.

I'll have another think about how it will be possible to migrate to VB5. I did find the upgrade instructions jumped around quite a bit, so perhaps the vanilla install instructions are easier to follow and have a successful install. Some of the 'User added' comments at the bottom of each page were actually ambiguous and confusing.

Thanks for the feedback while I was troubleshooting the live issues, I do appreciate that.

[Mark.B]

With any upgrade, you should ALWAYS upgrade a test mirror of your site first. Rolling out a major upgrade to your live site when you haven't tested it is just asking for problems.

[UKCobra]

With further testing, I found I can not send PMs greater then 1 Character, and when I go into the CP to change it to ZERO it changes back to 1.

So with all these issues, I have decided to roll back to VB 4.2.5 as there are a multitude of issues that I just don't have time to work through. Wasted 12 hours on this today.
When I get the chance in the future, I'll go down the test route rather than upgrade the main site again.

The upgrade itself was painless, the mucking around after was very painful. A lost weekend day is not what I had expected.