Host Deactivated SMF - database too big. Safe to delete posts in MySQL??

[maggymaesmith]

 GD-Daddy said the database is too big.  No warning, just made it unavailable.  Cannot log into the forum to delete posts.

Is there a safe way to delete posts in php-MyAdmin? They say they are planning to check the size again in a few days and if it is still too big, it is toast.

I searched the forums for posts on deleting from the database but didn't find anything that helps much.

[vbgamer45]

Are you sure it is posts?
Check your smf_log_Errors table.

in phpyadmin you should see the size of each table.

[maggymaesmith]

That was really helpful.  Thank you so much.   

Is it ok to empty?

I have another database question.  The SMF was built from VB tables years ago.  Is it safe to delete those?

[vbgamer45]

smf_log_errors is safe to empty.

VB Tables yes safe to remove. If in doubt do a backup first.

I would not touch other SMF tables.

[maggymaesmith]

I think you've saved the forum.  Thank you so much.

[vbgamer45]

If your error log is big. I would look into why errors are getting logged. And try to get those fixed.

[maggymaesmith]

Will do.  Although, the forum is many years old... I don't think the error log has ever been purged.

I looked at another forum on the same server and researched the most common error and it seems to be related to PHP 7.2 - so I've bumped PHP down to 7.1.

[maggymaesmith]

No New errors with PHP 7.1

[vbgamer45]

sounds good. Yeah SMF 2.0.15 works well with PHP 7.1 that is what I run my forums on.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Just a note, now that you have already bumped heads with GoDaddy, you may want to prepare yourself for a move to another host.
GoDaddy is just bad, and you will undoubtedly have trouble ahead with them if you stay, even if this particular trouble could be fixed simply by trimming the database.

How big is your database by the way?

[SMiFFER]

I found that the "post-edit-history" for each post can also take up a lot of memory.

Example: If you keep a forum-log like I do to keep track of all changes you made, then this one post can well have hundreds of changes - each saving a backup of the previous version.

[Looking]

GD-Daddy said the database is too big.

That dreaded host again. This is definitely the answer:

Just a note, now that you have already bumped heads with GoDaddy, you may want to prepare yourself for a move to another host.