How to Move PHPBB to a New Server
If you administrate a forum powered by phpBB and want to move to a different server when you switch hosts or domain names you can do so without losing any of your pages, posts or user data. In fact phpBB even includes a back-up and restore option from within its dashboard that you can employ to complete this move even if you are unfamiliar with Web coding or databases and do not have access to a PHP administrative tool such as phpMyAdmin.
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Instructions
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Backing Up
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1
Log in to your phpBB dashboard in your Web browser. Click the "Server Settings" link from the "General" tab and set the status of "Force server URL settings" to "No." Save any changes. Then click "Board settings" from the left pane and select "Yes" to "Disable Board" while you are moving it. Save the changes.
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2
Click the "Maintenance" tab in your phpBB dashboard. Click "Backup" from the left and enable all options by clicking "Select all." Select "Gzip" as the file type, enable the "Download" option and click "Submit" to download your forum back-up. This process may take a few moments.
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3
Launch your FTP program and connect to the server that houses your phpBB forum. Navigate to the phpBB directory and select all files and folders. Double-click or right-click and choose "Download" to save them to a directory on your computer. This process may take a bit of time depending on your connection and the files on the server.
Restoring
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4
Log in to your new server via FTP and upload the phpBB files via FTP. They should retain the same structure on the new server as on the old server.
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5
Upload the zipped database back-up from your computer to the "store" folder within the forum directory. Uploading may take some time if your back-up is quite large.
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6
Log in to the phpBB dashboard in your Web browser and click the "Maintenance" tab and click "Restore." You should see the name of your database file in a list.
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7
Select the file from the list and select "Start Restore" to move your old phpBB data.
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