Deleting "Ghost" Avatars
 

Awhile back, we did a server move and something didn't go quite right. I can't tell you what, exactly, because I didn't do the move, nor did I have any server side control over the forum at that time.

One of the peculiar things that happened (and that followed even when we moved again with no problems) is that we got a bunch of avatars in the Admin CP that are attached to no Category. In fact, the only reason I know they're there, is because when you delete an avatar, it takes you to admincp/image.php?do=displayorder page, where all your avatars are listed uncategorized. That's the only place you can see them.

Attachment 79450

As you can see, I can delete them one by one (which I have been doing off and on for the last few months), but it's tedious, as you can imagine, and there's over 70 pages with these - - (uncategorized) - - avatars. Is there any way to mass delete these using a query or through phpMyAdmin, etc?

I take it, this is a very peculiar occurrence.

I think it is pretty peculiar. I've never seen someone write about it before. I suppose you could do into phpMyAdmin and delete them that way or just change their category?

Doh! Okay, I've not really used phpMyAdmin prior to running my own server. Tends to slip my mind that I even have access now.

So basically, all I have to do is locate them in the avatar table in phpMyAdmin, select them and mass delete them? Simple as that?

I would try that on a test site and see if it works. I really hate doing things directly in phpMyAdmin when I am not positive it will have no effect on other things. If you can't do it on a test site, then make sure you backup your database prior to doing it. Also, if your avatars are in the filesystem, then deleting those lines from the database will not then delete the avatar files, just any reference to them.

I just got my test site setup, so I'll give it a try there. Yeah, most of these avatars are long gone and I'm actually a bit surprised some of them still show up. I'll post up any quirks. Thanks again.