Import old forum

[Ricsca]

I would like to recover an old forum made with PNphpbb2 (postnuke) and one made with Snitz Forum 2000 and merge them on a single xenforo forum.
can someone give me a hand?

 

[Lee]

@MySiteGuy

 

[questlot]

That’s a serious project, but it’s doable with some effort and the right tools.

PNphpBB2 (PostNuke) and Snitz Forum 2000 are both quite old, and neither has direct converters to XenForo, so you’ll likely need a multi-step migration. Here's how I’d approach it:

1. Export the databases from both forums (Snitz usually uses MS Access or SQL Server, and PNphpBB2 is typically MySQL).
2. Convert them to a more modern format—for example, try converting each to a standalone phpBB or SMF forum using community-built scripts or intermediate converters.
3. Once you have them in a format like phpBB, you can use XenForo’s official importer to bring the data into XenForo.
4. After importing both forums, you can merge forums and users in XenForo using built-in tools or cleanup scripts.

It’s not a one-click process, and there will be issues like duplicate usernames, formatting problems, or broken links, but it’s possible.

If you're not familiar with writing SQL or scripting conversions, you might want to hire a developer experienced in forum migrations. I’ve done something similar with vBulletin → XenForo before, so I know it can be tricky.

Happy to answer specific questions if you get stuck. Are both forums still online or are you working from backups?

 

[Kirby]

I'd try to avoid converting to an intermediate system first and instead develop a direct importer.