HTTP to HTTPS migration - 16 years of posts- detailed guide?

[MacrossWorld]

Hi,

Would like to convert my forum from http to https (self hosted)
Is there a definitive guide for how to do the conversion, with specifics on how to fix the http over https images being served without errors? (which I read a lot about)
For posts that reference other posts, do I need to do any SQL work to change the paths?
How do you handle existing search indexes from say google, that have http but the server is now https? Does it automatically redirect?

There is a lot of uploaded content, about 16 years and over a million something posts.

Thank you for any information you can provide
Shawn

[VaBeach_Guy]

I just had my host (GoDaddy), install the SSL for me. To my knowledge (which could be incorrect), the http/https switchover, shouldn't need any work within your database. Mine didn't (on two different boards, one that's many years old, one that's just about to turn 2 months old). 

[opentype]

To serve external images over https turn on “Serve images from local server” in the Posting settings. 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by opentype

[MacrossWorld]

Thanks for the info,

If I enabled "Serve images from local" does it retroactively go and grab/download everything, or is just items from that point forward?

I guess I will just try the https conversion and see what breaks (existing links within the forums, external google search indexes, etc)

Worst case I can switch back to http and tackle the items one by one, and if the https switch does anything to the db, restore from a snapshot before the conversion.

[opentype]

5 minutes ago, MacrossWorld said:

If I enabled "Serve images from local" does it retroactively go and grab/download everything, or is just items from that point forward?

It’s up to you. You can choose to regenerate old posts or not. (and you should choose “yes”).