Removing plugins

Hello.

I was wondering if anyone could provide some tips for me. I am an admin on a large vBulletin message board (duh, right). Anyway the database is about 3-4gb. We are running 3.5.4 and we are looking to upgrade to 3.6.1. We want to remove all plugins and kind of upgrade with a clean slate. What would be the best way to remove all the plugins/products and are there risks involved? I mean, can we just go into the ACP and Manage Plugins/Products and delete them that way, or is there a better option? Someone I know was talking about using the Impex system to wipe the database but that is something I'm unfamiliar with altogether.

Also, would modifications remain once the plugins/products are removed and we upgrade (template modifications) Could this cause issues?

Any help is appreciated. Right now I'm just looking to wipe the plugins/products clean and start over clean, with no plugins/products. I just want to make sure I take the right steps in doing this though.

Thanks for your time.

[orban]

If you delete all products and plugins from the admincp and revert all templates there won't be any modifications left.

UNLESS files are edited. But they will get overwritten when you upload 3.6. So you should be safe.

[bashy]

Will they be able to revert all templates? More so if they have added to the templates many times, or restored backups, I know if i ever wanted to do it this way there is no way i would be able to revert most of my templates

[ssslippy]

I recently did this, on a smaller board but I uninstalled all the plugins first. Searched through my forum directory for any non vbulletin files. Deleted them. I then proceded to upload 3.6.1 to the site and overwrote all files. Upon installation it will tell you what templates need to be reverted and will give you the option.

[orban]

Instead of clearing out the old folders just:

rename folder to old1236/

upload 3.6 to forums/

make installation

have backup ready in old1236/ in case you need any of the files

[Luggruff]

My tip is to find the plugins you have downloaded again, and simply do the process of the template changes included in their info.txt (or whatever) backwards.. take away what the hack info says you should add, and add whatever the hack says you should delete.

[COBRAws]

I keep track of my installed hacks into a txt and a directory with the original hacks zips. This is because its not the first time vBorg staff deletes a hack and then I dont know how to un-install it or make changes. When that happened it was a pain in the ass and I had to spent several hours trying to understand do I had to do.

Some plugins/products make database changes, like the IPTable hack (I cant recall the actual name, but it stores IPs used by members so you can keep track of their IPs), in case you uninstall this hack, you IP DB column will be dropped and the data will be lost.

I recommend you keep your installed hacks tracked, bookmarked or downloaded into your computer, so, in case something happens, or you need to upgrade your forum software you can have fast access to those files and also look for new versions available.

my 2cents