I did an update a month ago, and probably because my forum is 700G the background tasks are running slowly and piling up. I don't know how to write or run chron tasks. What happens if I click the "Run manually" button that says "These processes are performed in the background in batches and may take a long time to complete.
They will complete faster if you set up a cron to run tasks.
Alternatively, you can manually run them now and wait until they all complete.'

Will the board go offline? Will the database blow up? I need reassurance before I click that button. I'm on version 4.7.20 The search function is not working, and I suspect it's because indexing needs to happen.

Thank you.

If you click run manually, it will run them and you can sit while they complete. You should however set up cron, as mentioned

1S111/1 Incorrect string value: '\xF0\x9F\x94\xABMa...' for column 'signature' at row 1

Well, I guess clicking the button doesn't matter because I get a red banner that says I don't have permission to do that (I'm logged in as root admin) and the above error code.

Please could you check in the support area of your admin cp and check to see if its showing UTF8 needs to be completed?

Your database is currently configured to use single-byte UTF-8 Encoding. Some non-common symbols (such as historical scripts, music symbols and Emoji) require 4-Byte UTF-8 Encoding. If you want users to be able to post these symbols, your database needs to be converted.

I guess I need to run the converter?

Indeed. The tables not being utf8mb4 is causing that "incorrect string value" issue above.

Make sure to do a database backup before running it, though. Always best to be safe.

Edited March 4Mar 4 by teraßyte

I put the board offline, then converted the database using the tool. I had to edit the config file via ftp and all was well. Then I hit the button to run the tasks and they seem to be zipping along. We are down to around 400 tasks now, and nothing looks complicated. Thank you for the prompt help so I could get this sorted.

(95K leatherworkers thank you, too.)

Glad to hear you managed to get that sorted