[Urgent] 3.4.X --> 4.0.11 -- All forum thread embedded links and signature links broken. Only reloads the page. +Other errors

[vpsBoard]

Strange error after updating from 3.4.8 to 4.0.11.

Example: https://vpsboard.com/topic/2463-list-of-community-links/ this thread I created in 2013. The links 'should' work, but you'll see they only reload the page / link to the page that they're displayed on. This also goes for member signatures...

Every member who had a signature with a URL in it going to their own website or elsewhere is now broken. When the URL is clicked, it only refreshed the page that the signature is displayed in.

Anyone else encounter this? It's going to be a massive pain to correct this one by one manually as there are too many members, and it's a burden on them if they have to update their signatures manually as well. How could this have happened? How can this be fixed?

Some members have manually updated their URLs in their signatures and they work now. If I post a new URL in a thread submission, it will work. It's all pre-existing content that is seriously messed up.

 

It also appears that emoticons are missing. Unsure how or why. There are no emoticon files and none available to select from when submitting a post. Typing out the shorthand that would normally automaticlaly convert to a smiley just prints the text smiley and no image replaces it. What's up with that?

 

Special characters are messed up. Even though during the UTF8 MySQL db conversion I specifically chose the option to maintain this data at the expense of a larger database. Yet topics like this are broke: https://vpsboard.com/topic/6803-★zionvps★pure-ssd★anti-ddos★kvmovz★1gbs★unmetered-traffic★bitcoins★cafrusa/ (For example, this is what it looked like BEFORE the upgrade: https://web.archive.org/web/20150329005831/https://vpsboard.com/topic/6351-★zionvps★double-ram★unmetered-traffic★ssd-cached★bitcoins-accepted★ovzkvm★ddos-protected★/ )

These are some serious issues. Posting here in case someone can help me before support responds (sometimes takes 24 hours). I need to get this fixed asap.

 

and yes... I did do the "something is not working right" in the IPB admin area. I know someone will tell me to do that first. I did already.

[vpsBoard]

Another bug / things broke after the upgrade. Location of the member shown has bad formatting, there are no spaces. Ex: LocationUSA is shown instead of "Location: USA"

 

This I can probably fix myself if I can figure out what to edit in the theme editor. I'm just using the default theme, btw. All I've changed is the colors. So this is quite annoying to be shipped and packaged this way.

 

Still no word on my support ticket sent 8 hours ago. I hope I can get this resolved as the other issues (URLs and special characters being broke) are quite troublesome.

[Dennis_87]

Looks like I have the same issues with links :/

Did just upgrade my forum from 3.4 to 4.0.11

[vpsBoard]

Looks like I have the same issues with links :/

Did just upgrade my forum from 3.4 to 4.0.11

Submit a ticket I guess.

They escalated my ticket over 24 hours ago to Tier II Support but was told that Tier II support doesn't work over the weekend. Was hoping I'd get an answer on Friday, but it's now Saturday so I guess I won't hear back until Monday at the earliest...

Are your emoticons missing from your forum as well? For some reason I have no emoticons on 4.0.11, not quite sure why or where they went but they're certainly gone.

[vpsBoard]

Looks like I have the same issues with links :/

Did just upgrade my forum from 3.4 to 4.0.11

Hey @Dennis_87, did this ever get resolved for you? I'm still waiting to hear back from my ticket I submitted over a week ago. My links are still broken on my forum and it's stressing me out. Just wondering if this was resolved for you or not.

[Dennis_87]

Same situation for me.

Links are still broken and waited for invison to respond to my ticket 6 days now.

[vpsBoard]

It is almost the weekend and the support doesn't work on the weekends... so I guess you and I will be waiting longer.

[AutoItScript]

If the links are missing / wrong then they've been converted incorrectly and the original links will be lost. A rollback to the backup of your pre-upgrade board is going to be the only solution. 

If we look at one of your links as an example:

<a data-ipb="nomediaparse" href="" http:="" rel="external nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>DailyServerDeals.com</strong></a>

You can see the href is completely gone. There is nothing that support will be able to do to get that back. They might be able to work out why it happened and fix it for future upgrades, but they will almost certainly say that a restore is the only option.

Edit: I lost about half my "share post" type links upgrading from 3.4.8 to 4.0.2. We only noticed after a week though so it was too late to rollback and we'd had loads of new posts.

[vpsBoard]

A rollback to the backup of your pre-upgrade board is going to be the only solution. 

You can see the href is completely gone. There is nothing that support will be able to do to get that back. They might be able to work out why it happened and fix it for future upgrades, but they will almost certainly say that a restore is the only option.

Absolutely not a solution or an option I will even consider at all. If this was presented as the 'only' option within a few hours of reporting the issue. Then, perhaps. Over a week later? No way.

Support responded to me earlier today and requested my latest 3.4.8 backup DB so I provided it for them. I am hoping they can take the post/signature data from that and properly re-import it to my live board. They said:

We'll need to look at it to compare it to the current post-upgrade result.

If I am told after all this waiting that I have to roll back and go back to IPB 3.4.X over this, I will ditch IPB all together and not look back. I was under the impression it was production ready based on announcements but my experience, as well as the experience of others indicated here would show otherwise.

I'm sort of kicking myself for not waiting another 6+ months for development to mature but I was having issues in 3.4.X that they were unable or unwilling to fix and the common impression was that I should upgrade to have those issues fixed as they did not exist in 4.0.X

[Janis Janpavlis]

I have the same problem! Do They managed to fix broken links ? I havent still recieved support help. 

[AutoItScript]

 

Support responded to me earlier today and requested my latest 3.4.8 backup DB so I provided it for them. I am hoping they can take the post/signature data from that and properly re-import it to my live board. They said:

Fingers-crossed. I guess in theory they could do another upgrade with your backup copy and then dump the posts older than a week and then import them into your live board. Quite a bit of work though and you'll lose edits to old posts made this week. I hope you get a solution. 

[vpsBoard]

in theory they could do another upgrade with your backup copy and then dump the posts older than a week and then import them into your live board. Quite a bit of work though and you'll lose edits to old posts made this week. I hope you get a solution. 

That is what I am hoping they will do.

[titos]

I too am having the same issue with links after upgrading.

[Kevin Hsu]

Same here.

[JasXPear]

+1 Same here, all links broken

[Lab Rats Rule]

Gee I assumed the conversion broke them, but now I think about it they were fine after the conversion.

[Ausy]

Another bug / things broke after the upgrade. Location of the member shown has bad formatting, there are no spaces. Ex: LocationUSA is shown instead of "Location: USA"

 

This I can probably fix myself if I can figure out what to edit in the theme editor. I'm just using the default theme, btw. All I've changed is the colors. So this is quite annoying to be shipped and packaged this way.

Go to Profiles, profile information, location, click the the location edit button and its under search and display options, display format. Changed to <strong>{title}:</strong> {content}

 

[vpsBoard]

Oh, I figure an update is in order: IPB staff resolved these issues for me and things are working as they should be. They used an old 3.4.8 backup I took right before the upgrade, exported the relevant data, converted them to work with the 4.0.X format and merged/overwrote that data (and that data only, nothing new) which fixed the links and special characters being broke after the upgrade.

 

Still unsure why it all broke, but doesn't matter. They fixed it and I'm sure they're aware now why it broke so it won't happen to others.