How to Upgrade vBulletin Forum

Everyone like to upgrade differently but I am a bit on the careful side (simply because I don't want to start all over again because I lost everything that's been done so far)

First, backup your mySQL database (not that it should be affected, but life would be horrible if it did get messed up here)

1. Open phpMyAdmin.
   
2. Click Export in the Menu to get to where you can backup you MySql database. Image showing the export menu.
   
3. Make sure that you have selected to export your entire database, and not just one table. There should be as many tables in the export list as showing under the database name.
   
4. Select"SQL"-> for output format, Check "Structure" and "Add AUTO_INCREMENT" value. Check "Enclose table and field name with backquotes". Check "DATA", check use "hexadecimal for binary field". Export type set to "INSERT".
   
5. Check "Save as file", do not change the file name, use compression if you want. Then click "GO" to download the backup file.
   

Prepare the files in the new install

remove the favicon.ico

remove /install/install.php (like the readme.txt says to)

rename /includes/config.php.new to /includes/config.php (like the readme.txt says to)

I like to reference my existing config.php to fill out the config.php that I just renamed that is included in the new version of vBulletin.

Okay, now that your exisiting is prepared, I download the current /forum/ directory locally and run a compare tool that checks one directory (new vbulletin/uploads directory) to the existing (forum) directory. The downfall to doing this method is it will take awhile to download your existing forum if you have alot of files. Like we utilize the Downloads II mod which means a lot of files will be downloaded. The advantage is, now you have a full backup of your install.

Chronosync is my favorite compare tool because you can do a Analyze which will show you what will be copied. Then I sync the files from forum to upload directory (it won't overwrite the new files, just what isn't there).

Then I upload that to /forum.new/ on my site. Rename my current /forum/ to /forum.old/, then rename /forum.new/ to /forum/ and run site.com/forum/upgrade.php

Recovering from a bad upgrade....

rename forum to forum.bad and then rename forum.old to forum

Restore your Database:

1. Open phpMyAdmin.
   
2. On the "SQL"-page , unclick the show query here again.
   
3. Browse to your backup of the database.
   
4. Click Go.