How I upgraded to 4 from 3.8.4

[mandingo]

This is totally over-complicated,but it worked for me after some problems.
This might help some of you who are still having problems.
(Just an fyi,my forum was in a subdirectory to begin with,so this won't be helpful to those of you who have their's installed in their root directory)
also,per license agreement,you cannot have multiple forums running simultaneously,so turn off your existing forum, and keep the new directory secret while you do this.
Let's get started.
1. Download a fresh 3.8.4.
2. Create a brand new database.
3. Upload the fresh 3.8.4 to a new directory.
4. Install the fresh 3.8.4. using your current admin log-in and pass.

1. upload any smilies you might want to hold on to to the new forum

5. In your new admincp go to maintenance>database backup and just leave it open.
6. In a new tab (or window) go back to your existing forum.
7. Uninstall or disable any products or plugins.
8. admincp>maintenance>database backup.

1. Tick only the fields that exist in your new database.

9. Back the database up to your computer
10. Go to your new database's manager (phpmyadmin)
11. Import your backup into it.
12. In your "new" forum do the following

1. repair and optimize tables
2. update counters
   1. Update User Titles and Ranks
   2. Rebuild Thread Information
   3. Rebuild Forum Information
   4. Rebuild Post Cache
   5. Update User Names

13. If everything went right you should have a nice clean 3.8.4 with all your users,posts,forums,permissions,etc.no bells and whistles.

14. Rename your "old" directory.
15. Rename your "new" directory to your original ("forum" or whatever)
16. Download 4.0
17. Upgrade

1. make sure everything is in working order before you delete your old stuff!!

18. Download anything you might want from your old directory.
19. Say goodbye to your old directory and delete it
20. Enjoy!
21. If this is too much/confusing just ignore it, I am simply sharing how I did it after having some issues with the upgrade.
If this didn't work then no harm done,your existing forum is still there and you can try something else.