Need help doing the large upgrade

[Captain X]

WHereas this error points to illegal mix of collations. What collation is your database on?

I don't know.  Where would that information be?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

There've been a couple of problems reported recently with upgrade failing when run in Chrome, but works in other browsers.

(Waits for it ........ )

[Captain X]

Well, I tried it in FireFox as well, and that just gets me:

Code Select Expand

Error!
Unknown Error!

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Can't find previous topic, but OP got same error in Chrome, upgrade ran successfully in Edge.  Shouldn't really matter, php runs server-side, but that's what was reported.

You may not be able to upgrade from 1.1.13 in php 7.3/7.4.

[Captain X]

Unfortunately it wasn't working in whatever it was on either.  Just wouldn't even start.

I did try doing a fresh installation, too, but that ran into some kind of error as well that I posted about up-thread.

[Captain X]

Well, I just tried WaterFox and that doesn't make any difference either.  Still get the 1267 error when it's updating the ban system.

Any advice people might have would be helpful.  Not sure it this is some issue with the "home" vs. "home2" thing, or what exactly I can do about that.  Or even on how to do a fresh installation from scratch since it doesn't seem to like using the same smf directory for some reason.

[Kindred]

We have no idea what you are talking about with home vs home2

[Captain X]

When I start either the installation or the upgrade, it warns me that it thinks my directory settings are wrong.

Warning!
It looks as if your board directory settings might be incorrect. Your board directory is currently set to "/home/captainx/public_html/smf" but should probably be "/home2/captainx/public_html/smf". Settings.php currently lists your paths as:

    Board Directory: /home/captainx/public_html/smf
    Source Directory: /home/captainx/public_html/smf
    Cache Directory: /home/captainx/public_html/smf/cache

If these seem incorrect please open Settings.php in a text editor before proceeding with this upgrade. If they are incorrect due to you moving your forum to a new location please download and execute the Repair Settings tool from the Simple Machines website before continuing.

The thing is, the settings should be correct as they are, and whether attempting a fresh install or the upgrade, they do still start running.  So I don't know if this is the source of my problems somehow or not.  The only thing I have to go on is that I get an error number 1267 while the upgrader is updating the ban system.

[shadav]

well that would be a server path and you'd need to ask your host
if you use ftp what is the path is it home/yaddayadda or home2/yaddayadda

an error when trying to update the ban system, do you have a lot of bans in place?

[Captain X]

well that would be a server path and you'd need to ask your host
if you use ftp what is the path is it home/yaddayadda or home2/yaddayadda

Apparently that actually is the case.  I wonder if the host did something, because I could never see it in my FTP uploader, and it's only now that I looked in the file manager of my cpanel that I see that it's home2.  Which makes me wonder now how exactly my old forum was working if that was the case.  Or how the upgrader is working up to the point that it is.

an error when trying to update the ban system, do you have a lot of bans in place?

Yes.  I had a really bad problem with spammers registering and then posting their crap in random forums.  I also have the "stopforumspam" mod.

[Kindred]

banning spammers is actually a bad way to deal with them.

Delete the accounts, remove the bans and then use QUESTIONS (20-30 questions, ask 2-3 at registration) to prevent them from registering in the first place.


SFS won't choke the upgrade....    honestly, neither should bans (I had a forum with several thousand bans before clean up --   upgrading still only took a few hours -- and most of that was the 2.5 GB database with several million posts)

[Captain X]

What might the problem be then?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Who's your host?

[Captain X]

Hostgator

[shadav]

ug...well....that does explain a bit
get a different host, please for the love of bejesus

[Steve]

And please, for the love of bejesus, don't move to Godaddy.

[Captain X]

Okay...  So...  Is there anything I can do in the meantime as far as getting this to work?

[shadav]

try emptying out your bans
use home2 as the server path not home

[Captain X]

How?  The old version no longer loads under PHP 7.4.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

If you're stuck, go here and register with same username.  I'll set up a private board for you where you can attach the database (can't do it here) and I'll upgrade it.

But would be simpler to just move to a better host and upgrade there.