Whats the best way of doing this?

[Andy92]

Hey,

I have a forum thats been running for around 3 months now. It has a few hundred members, and basically i want to delete all the threads and categories and start again with them, but keep all the members, pms, etc.

Whats the best way of going about deleting just the threads and categories and starting again from scratch?

[veenuisthebest]

Go to AdminCP->Forums and Moderators->Forum Manager->See in Controls column and click dropdown->Delete Forum.

Doing so Deletes the forum, any subforums, and posts in the forum and any subforums. This action cannot be undone, so it is highly recommended that you make a backup of your database before doing this.

[Andy92]

Ok, but after i do this and delete them all, when i go to create a new category will it start with the id as 1 again, or will it continue from like 70 something? And will the same happen with posts?

[CommanderFluffy]

why dont you just go to your admin and prune all posts before july 2007 so your members dont get confused and completely messed up as to why the posts that might be still active vanish. some may think you have been hacked!

[veenuisthebest]

Originally Posted by Andy92

Ok, but after i do this and delete them all, when i go to create a new category will it start with the id as 1 again, or will it continue from like 70 something? And will the same happen with posts?

have never done this myself (and would never do)

Does ID's matter that much to you??

If yes, then do it in your test board first !!!!!! and see for yourself .. I think it would continue..

[Andy92]

Hmm, what if i go into mysql and empty the table? Thats after its been emptied by vbulletin. Then the ids will start again.

[veenuisthebest]

have thought about it earlier... but do you know which tables and how many to empty..

--------------- Added [DATE]1210711389[/DATE] at [TIME]1210711389[/TIME] ---------------

its not a big task.. but I suggest you and recommend .. that you open a support ticket for this before starting to empty tables .. atleast you should be sureeee enough which tables to empty.

By the way.. if you successfully do this.. do not forget to post back, what you did !! this would help other users to know

[CommanderFluffy]

well this is what i would sugest if you may take this line of action. delete the forum and start from scratch members and all.. cause thats what you are typically doing. well unless your website hasnt had an active member in months then just prune or delet all cause i highly doubt you can get back to id 1 again unless you reinstall

[Andy92]

Ok, what ive done is gone onto the admin cp and deleted all the forums with all the posts on, and also all the reputation.

Then to make sure just the reputation, posts and categories start from id 1 again, i have gone into PhpMyAdmin and basically emptied the threads, posts, forums and reputation tables.

Now they have all started from id 1 again, and everything is working!