MyBB Community Forums

So my forums just began getting this error and I don't know why. I assume it's time for an upgrade... As it's literally been years. I've been putting it off Cuz I didn't want to lose my custom theme and reinstall any plug ins. Can anyone give me any steps to upgrading my forums I'm running 1.6.9 so whatever the suggested upgrade? And does anyone know how to keep my plug ins and theme?

Thank you for any help you can give. Also if you can give a pointer on this error I'm having not sure if it'll effect the upgrade?

If your MyBB is on MySQL, the error is probably caused by MySQL's sql_mode or commonly known as strict mode. Try to alter MySQL's setting on sql_mode to see if this error would go away. Read MySQL's reference on sql_mode for more info: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/en/sql-mode.html

On MyBB upgrade: https://docs.mybb.com/1.8/install/upgrade/ and always make a backup of your site, including all files and database tables.

Current major version of MyBB is 1.8. So before upgrade, you might want to check if all your plugins that are in use have MyBB 1.8 support. As for themes/templates, you can always make modifications by yourself.

Sadly im on a shared server so it cant be switched off strict mode. I also attempted the upgrade it hung and then stopped loading . been stuck on this screen for hours "Updating Database
Performing necessary upgrade queries..."
Just odd.. my forums have worked for years without issue... now people cant post or reply to threads.. and I cant figure out what to do.

You should drop a support ticket to your hosting provider for help, by asking them if MySQL version/setting has been changed.

Current upgrade script for old 1.6 versions has some glitches of being stuck on some processes like your situations. See:
https://community.mybb.com/thread-225596.html
https://github.com/mybb/mybb/pull/3842 (has been merged)

You can manually edit these files listed in https://github.com/mybb/mybb/pull/3842/files in your MyBB 1.8.21 copy, and then you may run through the upgrade well.
Or just wait for the version 1.8.22 that was pre-released days ago and would probably been released soon I think.

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Remember to make backups and better to upgrade your forum in a local test environment first.

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Oh, it just has been released..

Check https://mybb.com/versions/1.8.22/ .

Is that a new plugin installation?
I'm not sure how it worked before without this error?
The error might be trying to insert a null value into a field where it is not permitted.
mybb_threads firstpost field in 1.8.21 specifies No null, 0 default value. Same for a clean 1.6.9 installation.

I have not added a plug in for over 5 years as a matter of fact i havent made any changes in over 5 years. I tried installing 1.8.22 and thats where I got the hangups. Ive tried to go back now im getting this error

MyBB has experienced an internal SQL error and cannot continue.

SQL Error:
1300 - Invalid utf8 character string: 'FB'
Query:
SELECT * FROM mybb_sessions WHERE sid='8d0867a2106194a732856d5bbea2525b' AND ip=X'493d43fb'