Please help: I haven't been able to upgrade to the latest version for weeks due to "database errors"

[Michael Parent]

When I try to upgrade There's a supposed database error, even though the forum and store all seem to work fine, and when I click "FIT THIS" it generates the following message and an enormously long list of manual things to do (all above my pay grade):

"There are some problems with your database. Normally it is safe to try to fix these problems automatically however if your community is large, you may want to run the necessary queries manually. If so, the queries to run are:"

and at the very bottom of the huge list there's a "Fix automatically" button, and after clicking that and letting it do it's thing I swear the list of supposed errors or manual fixes It's asking me to do is even longer.

I used to be able to send support requests, but apparently all our accounts have been downgraded to needing to reply on these forums?
 

[Jim M]

32 minutes ago, Michael Parent said:

I used to be able to send support requests, but apparently all our accounts have been downgraded to needing to reply on these forums?

I will address this before your support concern as there is some confusion here. Your account has not been downgraded. You still get the same great support that you used to before except it is now started here via our community. Not only will our staff be attending to your requests but also our clients (handy when you have an issue outside our support hours). You can also search our trove of support requests here for similar to issues like yours (like the below). Our staff still have the ability to securely access your community via the stored details in the Client Area or transfer your topic to a ticket if it requires further attention from our developers. 

41 minutes ago, Michael Parent said:

When I try to upgrade There's a supposed database error, even though the forum and store all seem to work fine, and when I click "FIT THIS" it generates the following message and an enormously long list of manual things to do (all above my pay grade):

In accordance with the below topic, please go to ACP -> Support and ensure that your database is in UTF8MB4 and in InnoDB. 

 

[Michael Parent]

Thanks for the help @Jim M
To clarify for any other future person who runs into the same problem, it's Admin control Panel and then "Get Support".

Once there I was able to use the system there to convert the database to this suddenly required format, but I had to use Cpanel for the site to manually edit a file to finish the job.

No such luck with converting to InnoDB tables, apparently I'd need to contact my hosting provider for that, BUT on a whim and since I didn't have even more time to spend on this today I decided to try upgrading again and this time it worked, so apparently converting the database to sql_utf8mb4 was required but the second change was not.

 Regarding whether or not removing direct support tickets is a downgrade, it most certainly is. The forums already existed, direct tickets were removed. This is a way for some of users' problems to be resolved before the actual Invision tech staff need to get around to it, by being helped (at no expense by Invision) by other users. In other words, this off-loads some presumably decent amount of technical support onto the very user base that pays for Invision to stay in business in the first place. Why doesn't Invision offer a built in discount system for forum members who actually resolve customer problems for Invision? Is their time doing Invision work for them not worth anything?

Also, now that the technical support is forums only, the help seems to be more in the flavor of, "OK, you're no expert on PHP, databases, etc, but follow these confusing and sometimes not quite right instructions in this link, and get back to us after however many hours of confusion and frustration reading through walls of text and trying to do things you've never done before if you can't figure it out." instead of actually fixing the issue for the paying customer directly.

I wish instead of the error report blasting me with a giant list of things to do myself that the Invision system just told me to go to ACP/get help and use that built in system to change the database format, as that would have been much more clear and direct help and I would have likely been able to resolve this issue weeks ago.

Also, My forums worked fine for years with the older database format, so this is a new requirement which was silently put upon us, causing some percent of us the need to make this change with no warning or knowledge how to do so.. why couldn't the system detect this beforehand and give is the fast and clear instructions for how to make the change through the "get help" system?
 

[Jim M]

2 hours ago, Michael Parent said:

Thanks for the help @Jim M
To clarify for any other future person who runs into the same problem, it's Admin control Panel and then "Get Support".

Apologies for the confusion. Just for clarity, this is what I was referring to but either works as they lead to the same place:

2 hours ago, Michael Parent said:

Once there I was able to use the system there to convert the database to this suddenly required format, but I had to use Cpanel for the site to manually edit a file to finish the job.

Glad to hear you were able to resolve the issue.

2 hours ago, Michael Parent said:

Regarding whether or not removing direct support tickets is a downgrade, it most certainly is. The forums already existed, direct tickets were removed. This is a way for some of users' problems to be resolved before the actual Invision tech staff need to get around to it, by being helped (at no expense by Invision) by other users. In other words, this off-loads some presumably decent amount of technical support onto the very user base that pays for Invision to stay in business in the first place. Why doesn't Invision offer a built in discount system for forum members who actually resolve customer problems for Invision? Is their time doing Invision work for them not worth anything?

While I understand you're not happy with this change, it is actually done to ease the support process and make it easier to find answers yourself and get help faster. For years, we have been saying that forums are an amazing resource for support but have never used it, value answers sat behind tickets, never to be reused again, along with our community laid to waste. We decided about 2+ years ago now to transfer all the start of technical support from tickets to forums; essentially "eat our own dog food" type scenario. We sent out emails alerting all our clients of this change and posted in our community here. Many had the same mentality as yourself, it was a downgrade, support will be horrible, etc... I think a lot of those individuals, after actually using it now prefer our community/forum support over tickets as they can find/get help faster and compare what they're facing to previous issues.

As you have seen here, a very high percentage tickets are still handled by our staff (hi, I am a staff member 🙂 ) . However, we do have third party providers who provide third party services who tend to answer as well and that is benefit too because you get aware of their services and get assistance from them. Then we also have clients who just like being here and interacting/helping everyone. Just like on your community, people like to help others and discuss something that bond them together for no real monetary gain. That is what makes a healthy community, and, in this case, it is centered around our product.

2 hours ago, Michael Parent said:

Also, now that the technical support is forums only, the help seems to be more in the flavor of, "OK, you're no expert on PHP, databases, etc, but follow these confusing and sometimes not quite right instructions in this link, and get back to us after however many hours of confusion and frustration reading through walls of text and trying to do things you've never done before if you can't figure it out." instead of actually fixing the issue for the paying customer directly.

Sorry, believe there is a misunderstanding here or misremembering. Even in our previous support pattern of allowing tickets first, we did not provide support for hosting environments, such as PHP, database, etc... That has not changed as we moved to this community pattern.

If you have questions on software requirements of the server, etc... we can answer that, but we cannot tell you specifics about your hosting environment or how to configure/perform an action in them. That is for your hosting provider to perform or tell you. If you do not have a support contract with your provider, you may wish to hire a server administrator or switch to our Cloud platform where you won't have to worry about those items.

Also, in the classic support forum that we're in now, we do allow server-based questions to be answered by fellow clients so you could post that up here and gain insights.

Ultimately, while we do not directly support server environments, there's no reason to struggle on your own. You have options.

2 hours ago, Michael Parent said:

I wish instead of the error report blasting me with a giant list of things to do myself that the Invision system just told me to go to ACP/get help and use that built in system to change the database format, as that would have been much more clear and direct help and I would have likely been able to resolve this issue weeks ago.

Apologies, this is indeed something to improve on in the software. Those not using UTF8MB4 are few and far in between and may have missed the upgrade step where it was required to change. I will bring this up internally.

2 hours ago, Michael Parent said:

Also, My forums worked fine for years with the older database format, so this is a new requirement which was silently put upon us, causing some percent of us the need to make this change with no warning or knowledge how to do so.. why couldn't the system detect this beforehand and give is the fast and clear instructions for how to make the change through the "get help" system?

As mentioned above, this is indeed a gap in the software and of that, few and far in between are not using UTF8MB4. However, is indeed something we need to correct.