And Now This

[mitek]

Finally got everything where i thought it should owrk. openbase error resolved. Other issue resolved but now i am getting this weird error when I know every path is correct etc. Plesk on centos, dedicated server. Converting PHPBB3.0.12 to latest smf, Paths are dead on correct. No problems at all. Both databases in place. No issues PHPBB forum loads up, smf forum loads up...two separate domains

Have attached screenshot. I cannot for the life of me see why this is happening. The first time i tried to run the converter it hung up at teh first stage and wouldnt go any further BUT at least it workd. I have uploaded every version of converter i can find same problem. Im running out of ideas especially when I KNOW for sure the path has not changed, databases are where they always have been etc

And yes all paths are correct double and triple checked. Its a hair pulling situation at this point

Just makes no sense at all...

[mitek]

I don't know if I placed this or not and waited too long to edit my original post. I have tried the converter in chrome, firefox, and IE11 with same results. I KNOW the paths are correct for both the SMF insall (working and live forum) as well as the PHPBB 3.0.12 forum (also working and live)

I'm beginning to think I may be using the wrong converter. This is the error I get now:

Unable to find the settings for phpBB3. Please double check the path and try again.

Before that in Firefox I could actually get to the conversion process BUT it would just stay on that page for ever...

Which converter should I be using.. the one in the downloads section or one of the others that I keep seeing in threads where other people have had issues converting from this particular version of phpbb3.0.12 to SMF.

Any help is appreciated. I have restarted Apache, rebooted the server and no matter what I still am getting the path issue. I have searched this forum and other high and low and it seems the information for THIS particular error is almost non existent and always is answered with you must have the path wrong BUT its really not.

So if there is a sql file or converter file i should be using outside the norm, I would appreciate any assistance.

Thanks so much. I figured after 43 views on the original request someone other than myself would have ran into this very issue, knowing they did have their path information correct. I am thinking maybe I didn't explain the problem well enough.

I am a true computer technician wit ha brick and mortar business, and have hosted websites and NUMROUS forums (SMF PHPBB VB XenForo etc) and have had continuous dedicated servers since 1997. I am not new to this by any means BUT this conversion I was hoping would be rather simple as we only have around 3800 members, 150,000 or so posts all told and a not so large database (638MB total I believe)

Right now the error is just making no sense whatsoever as paths are /var/www/vhosts/domain/httpdocs for both the PHPBB forum under one domain name and the NEW SMF forum under another domain name..same MySQL server etc localhost on 3306

Thanks again.. I need a guru or someone who has ran into this same issue before.

Plesk on Centos Linux

Mike/Mitek

[Antes]

To be sure, did you download the converter from this link (https://download.simplemachines.org/?converters;software=phpbb) ?

[Ricky.]

Perhaps, it is permission related problem, are both virtual hosts (for smf and for old phpbb) created under same user ?

[mitek]

In reply to both replies and posters..first and foremost thanks.

Yes I am using the converter from SMF's converter page for PHPBB.

At first I thought it was permissions as well, so I made sure same owner same everything both domains.. same subscription information etc (Plesk uses subscriptions aka people)

No matter what get the same error "Unable to find the settings for phpBB3. Please double check the path and try again."

I then thought well lets try this. I created a folder inside the SMF forums domain and named it forum. I then rsynced/cp'ed the original PHPBB forum (the one I'm trying to convert) complete file and folder structure to the new folder named forum that I created on the SMF domain..same error. config.php is there and permissioned correctly on the original PHPBB domain as well as the rsynced version I copied over. I was hoping that if I placed both forums inside the same httpdocs folder that it would somehow work..but alas even that didn't work.

So I am literally stuck. For whatever reason the error "Unable to find the settings for phpBB3. Please double check the path and try again." keeps coming up no matter what or how I do it and its not like I'm stupid. I have worked with this stuff for over 20 years...

It just makes no sense to me whatsoever why it would keep spitting out that same error over and over.

ONE time I refreshed the page as opposed to clicking continue and it moved to converting files BUT sat on that page for hours ad nothing was copied or converted at all, so I just clicked that one off as a snafu...because I cannot reproduce it in any browser.

I have tried in Chrome, Firefox, IE11, Edge, and even Opera and no matter what, even though I KNOW everything is correct as far as paths and permissions I keep ending up with that same "Unable to find the settings for phpBB3. Please double check the path and try again." error.

Maddening to say the least. I really want to move to SMF but at this point I guess I'm just stuck with using PHPBB3 because no matter what I cannot get the converters to work at all and I have tried every copy or every converter in every thread I can find in this community. I even searched through Plesks forums and found another post much like mine and he too had tried everything without success and of course no help there at all.

PHPbb 3.0.12 to SMF 2.0.14 should be a fairly straightforward conversion I would think. Its not a newer version of PHPBB its the next to the last production version of the 3.0.X series before PHPBB went to versions 3.1 and now 3.2 (from mods to extensions)

I have gotten to the point that I hate PHPBB because of its limitations and I know I wish to move to SMF. I probably could manually convert every post etc by hand but heck that would take years..so right now I am just lost..

Thanks again for any help. I was hoping that someone other than myself had ran into this exact issue and had come up with a fix or rewritten converter but I don't believe that is the case.

Mike/Mitek

[Ricky.]

I can understand that could be frustrating as sometimes there is really small thing but causing big havoc as we can't find it. Btw, have you considered of trying it on local development environment ie. download it on local setup and try there ?

[mitek]

I tried every way possible even on a mirrored local system.. nothing would work. However I did find some super nice people that do this as a living with an almost 100% success rate and very reasonably priced.  I am using them and am very happy to have found them.

They use no scripts at all and once its converted they even make sure everything works perfectly and to your satisfaction and you dont pay one thin dime if ANYTHING is wrong..can't beat that.

All I know is once we are converted to SMF and unless they (SMF development) just create a totally ****** version sometime in teh future I wont be leaving anytime soon. I have had it with PHPBB and about the only thing I would even consider other than SMF would be XenForo.

We were on SMF years ago but started having massive security issues so we moved to phpbb in 2012. Worst mistake we ever made. I am adding a few add ons and mods that I definitely will need and use, and about 5 themes... past that I am just leaving it alone

Thanks to everyone that tried to help m,e, but these converter scripts are just useless if you have PHPBB on a Plesk Server.. they simply will not work no matter what you do. Save the headache, spend a few hundred dollars and dont worry about it.. its the only way to fly.

Im so glad i chose this route and to ell with these useless converters, at least on a fairly large forum and a little older version... just aint worth the pain.

Mike/Mitek