Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Prune Private Messages - Age Based

I recommend that anyone interested in this add-on install Periodic Prune PMs instead.

WORKAROUND:I have been unable to find the time to update this or to fix the incorrect counts problem. For those having this issue, use one of the "Send PM to all members" add-ons and send a message similar to the following:

To update PM counts to the correct value, simply delete this message. vBulletin will automatically then reset your PM count correctly.

I've also just discovered this new add-on for vBulletin 3.7x: Periodic Prune Pms [Cron Job - Fully Controllable].


WARNING: I have discovered that, at present, the individual PM counts (user.pmtotal and user.pmunread) are not updated by this script and therefore running the script will leave members with inaccurate PM counts. I am currently seeking a way to fix this.


This add-on prunes old private messages based on age, and cleans up message receipts.

The add-on was adapted for vBulletin 3.6x from amykhar's Mass Delete Old Private Messages for vBulletin 2.2x (see https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=27421).

Thanks to Jacqueline at the http://www.vbulletin.org forum, and Sarah and Jorrit787 at the http://www.theadminzone.com forum for assistance with the MySQL queries.

This is designed to run as a cron job.

Upload to your ./includes/cron/ folder. Then set up a new scheduled task as Prune PMs with your preferences as to frequency.

The attached prunepms.php file deletes PMs after 60 days:

PHP Code:

$time = time() - (60 * 24 * 60 * 60); 

 print ("Pruning old private messages... <br/>");
 $query = "DELETE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pmtext . * , " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pm . * FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pmtext, " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pm  WHERE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pm.pmtextid = " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pmtext.pmtextid AND " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pmtext.dateline < $time";
 mysql_query($query);

 print("Records deleted: ");
 print (mysql_affected_rows());
 print ("<br/>"); 


It also deletes ALL PM receipts separately (this is because trying to delete receipts linked to the age-based PMs resulted in PMs without receipts being ignored for deletion):

PHP Code:

 print ("Pruning private message receipts... <br/>");
 $query = "DELETE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pmreceipt . * FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pmreceipt WHERE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pmreceipt.pmid > 0";
 mysql_query($query);

 print("Records deleted: ");
 print (mysql_affected_rows());
 print ("<br/>"); 


Feel free to personalize these settings for your own requirements.

I'll support this add-on to the extent that I can but be aware I am not expert at either PHP or MySQL.

[Shazz]

*Edit NVM
Im working on it now..

[hal05]

Worked great, installed!

[NFLfbJunkie]

Will this MOD delete any private messages that are saved in created pm folders?

[djbaxter]

I'm not 100% certain but, unless they are stored in the database somewhere other than the pm and pmtext tables, the answer is probably yes.

[Endurer]

Cool! Digitalpoint forums have this on their board and I would love to have it.

[Shazz]

Schdule task time for some reason never wants to update this
have to always click *Run now*
Tested on 2 sites and not working

[high]* Shazz uninstalls[/high]

[djbaxter]

How did you determine it's not running? Please note it's not writing to a log file.

[Shazz]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

How did you determine it's not running? Please note it's not writing to a log file.

Its easily to tell by how schedule task time dosen't update automatically.

[djbaxter]

Hmmm.... okay. You can still run it manually for now - we're working on a new version of this, in any case.

[PossumX]

Would you consider adding an option to exclude certain usergroups, by ID #? This would allow the Admin and Moderators (and others if chosen) to be immune from the pruning activity, which is appropriate on many forums, and would be worth the control level, in my opinion.