Non-InnoDB tables

[Balto]

Hello,

 

in the support section I see this message:

 

 

 InnoDB database tables typically perform more efficiently and reliably than other database engines such as MyISAM on most modern hosts when configured correctly. It is strongly encouraged to ensure all of your database tables are using the InnoDB storage engine, and that your hosting provider has configured MySQL for InnoDB use.

 

I have asked my hosting provider to convert all database tables to InnoDB, but they were unable to do it for these tables:

 

The Italian hosting provider replied this to me:

le tabelle pre_common_member_grouppm, pre_forum_post e pre_forum_postposition non possono essere convertite con InnoDB in quanto non soddisfano un requisito necessario: "può esserci solo una colonna automatica e deve essere definita come chiave".

Tra queste le tabelle pre_forum_postposition e pre_common_member_grouppm risultano essere vuote.

 

Which means:

 

"Tables pre_common_member_grouppm", "pre_forum_post" and "pre_forum_postposition" could not be converted with InnoDB because they do not satisfy a required setting: "there could be only one automatic column and it must be defined as key".

Between these tables, the tables "pre_forum_postposition" and "pre_common_member_grouppm" result to be empty.

 

Do you know how can I fix this?

Thank you!

[Marc]

Before I continue with the answer here, could yyou please confirm that "pre_" is your prefix for tables?

[Balto]

1 hour ago, Marc Stridgen said:

Before I continue with the answer here, could yyou please confirm that "pre_" is your prefix for tables?

I see "pre_" at the start of most of the tables, yes. Not all though, some of them start with "IP". Does that help?

[Marc]

You need to check your conf_global.php file, which will teel you what prefix you are using

[Balto]

27 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

You need to check your conf_global.php file, which will teel you what prefix you are using

No, the prefix looks to be IP:

 

 

[Marc]

That being the case, the tables that have pre_ on them are not actually being used and can be removed. Please of course ensure you take a full backup of your database first of all, before you do this

[Balto]

5 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

That being the case, the tables that have pre_ on them are not actually being used and can be removed. Please of course ensure you take a full backup of your database first of all, before you do this

There are lots of tables that have pre_on them which have lots of rows:

 

 

Would deleting them not create any problem?

Thank you!

[Marc]

The tables which are prefixed with pre_ you can get rid of and it shouldnt cause any issues, as those arent the tables your site is using.

[Balto]

1 hour ago, Marc Stridgen said:

The tables which are prefixed with pre_ you can get rid of and it shouldnt cause any issues, as those arent the tables your site is using.

I will try then that, thank you.

 

I am not an expert with that, but how is possible there is a table named "pre_ucenter_pm_members" with 7744 rows in it and I can delete it without affecting anything? I mean, how were those 7744 rows been created then?

Thank you!

[Mark H]

That table name is not one which we use in the software. It's full name suggests it was created by some other software.

Did you ever perform a conversion from another brand of forum software, for example?

EDIT: In thinking further.... it could have been created by a 3rd-party plugin or app. Do you have or did you have one that enhances PMs?

[Randy Calvert]

It could have been a backup created earlier or it could have been a conversation or something similar. If you don’t have a prefix specified the core software won’t use it. Now if other applications use that same database that might be related to it… but IPB itself should not actively be using it. 

[Balto]

14 minutes ago, Mark H said:

That table name is not one which we use in the software. It's full name suggests it was created by some other software.

Did you ever perform a conversion from another brand of forum software, for example?

EDIT: In thinking further.... it could have been created by a 3rd-party plugin or app. Do you have or did you have one that enhances PMs?

Not sure about that, because I have taken over the forum from another admin, so I'm not sure what happened in the previous years.

But my question is, what happens if I delete those tables now? Something will be lost/broken?

Thank you!

[Mark H]

12 minutes ago, Balto said:

Not sure about that, because I have taken over the forum from another admin, so I'm not sure what happened in the previous years.

But my question is, what happens if I delete those tables now? Something will be lost/broken?

Thank you!

Make sure you perform a full database backup before you delete any tables, but once you've done so, you can delete any tables that start with "pre_" (note the underscore), then just wait to see if anything suddenly isn't working.

It's really not possible to predict what may happen after that, since no one knows how those tables were created, or by what process they were.