Technical notes

Here are the altered instructions from one of the instructions to upgrade phpBB from 3.0.x to 3.2.1 by Lumpy Burgertushie.

Prerequisites

• Your server must be running at least PHP 5.4 and less than PHP 7.1
• Your database must be running MariaDB 5.1 or MySQL 3.4 and higher or other supported databases
• All MODs for 3.0.x will be removed.
• Styles for 3.0.x will be removed.

Steps

SET FTP TRANSFER MODE TO BINARY to avoid future problems.

1. Backup up your board’s files and database
2. Remove all existing modules and modifications by doing the following:
   1. Overwrite all the modified files with original content (e.g. download original 3.0.x zip file and copy its content to your web), EXCEPTconfig.php
   2. Download the Support Toolkit. Install it and run the database cleaner to remove all old MODs from the database.
   3. Remove the content of phpbb_mods table
   4. Remove suspicious content of phpbb_modules table by checking module_basename. Here’s a list of typical modules to be removed:
      1. tapatalk – acp_mobiquo
      2. autoMOD – acp_mods
      3. ABB codes – acp_abbcodes
      4. RSS feed – acp_rss
      5. Calendar – acp_calendar
   5. Remove suspicious content of phpbb_modules table by checking module_langname. Here’s a list of typical modules to be removed:
      1. tapatalk – ACP_MOBIQUO
      2. ABB codes – ACP_ABBCODES
3. Put the board to “compatibility mode” by doing the following:
   1. Set default style to prosilver
   2. Deactivate all styles except for prosilver
      1. Choose prosilver as the replacement
   3. Ensure that the activated spambot countermeasure is one of the standard phpBB plugins (Simple image, GD image, GD 3D image, Q&A, reCaptacha).
   4. Disable memcache if you have it by editing switch acm_type to file in config.php
   5. Set British English as the only language pack in General / Board settings
4. Upgrade to 3.1 by doing the following:
   1. Delete all of your phpBB 3.0.x files EXCEPT for the following:
      1. The config.php file
      2. The /images/ directory
      3. The /files/ directory
      4. The /store/ directory
   2. Upload the contents of phpbb 3.1.11 zip to web folder and overwrite everything EXCEPT config.php
   3. Open yourdomain.com/yourphpbb/install/database_update.php
   4. Removeinstall directory
   5. Go to administrator’s page and check all the screens whether there are keys which are not translated. If you find any, remove them from phpbb_modules table by checking agains module_langname column.
   6. Purge the cache in General screen and refresh the page. You shouldn’t see any deprecated menu items from step above.
5. Upgrade to 3.2 by doing the following:
   1. Upload the contents of phpbb 3.2.x zip to web folder and overwrite everything EXCEPT config.php
   2. Updateconfig.phpentries as follows:
      $dbms = ‘phpbb\\db\\driver\\mysqli’;
      $phpbb_adm_relative_path = ‘adm/’;
      $acm_type = ‘phpbb\\cache\\driver\\file’;
   3. Browse to yourdomain.com/yourphpbb/install/ then click the update tab. Click update. then submit for update database only.
   4. The updater will most likely fail with timeout “The installer detected a timeout”. Login to ACP, which will warn you about unsuccessfull update. Click to retry database update. This time it should finish.
   5. Delete the folder named /install/
6. There you go 🙂