Import from bbPress

Move your existing bbPress community into Jetonomy - forums, topics, replies and user data - using the built-in importer.

New to migration? Read the Migration overview first - it explains how to read the import screen (stat previews, status badges, the progress tracker) and the backup rule that applies to every import.

What You Will Learn

• What data the bbPress importer brings over and what it leaves behind
• How to prepare your site before running the import
• How to start the import, monitor progress, and resume if it stops
• How to use the CLI dry-run option to validate before writing data
• What to verify after the import completes

What Gets Imported

bbPress Data	Imported As	Notes
Forums	Jetonomy Spaces	Forum description → space description. Emoji and symbols are left out of the space’s web address
bbPress categories and the BuddyPress “Group Forums” root	Jetonomy Categories	A forum that only groups other forums becomes a category holding them, not an empty space. One that still holds topics stays a space
Topics	Jetonomy Posts	Topic title + content preserved
Replies	Jetonomy Replies	Threaded replies keep their parent reply. A reply whose parent was not imported becomes a top-level reply instead of being dropped
User accounts	Linked to existing WP users	Matched by user ID
Sticky and super sticky topics	Sticky posts	Both land sticky in their own space. Jetonomy has no site-wide sticky, so a super sticky is not pinned across the whole community
Closed topics	Closed posts	Preserved - the thread stays readable and takes no new replies
Private and hidden forums	Private and hidden spaces	A private forum becomes a private space (new members need approval) and a hidden forum a hidden space (invite only). Everyone who posted in them is added as a member so they keep access
BuddyPress group forums	Spaces linked to their group	The space is linked to its group, so the group’s Forum tab shows it and joins and leaves stay in sync. The group’s confirmed, non-banned members are added: group admins as space admins, group moderators as space moderators. Members are added in steps, so a group with thousands of members does not time out. A group already linked to a space is left alone; a group you unlinked from its space on purpose is linked again if you re-import its forum. Needs BuddyPress with Groups active during the import
Inline images and attached files (1.8.0+)	WordPress media library + Jetonomy attachments	Downloaded from bbPress and re-registered as attachments; images stay inline, other files show as a download link

Not imported:

• bbPress topic tags
• bbPress user activity counts / reputation
• bbPress votes (no standard bbPress vote data is read)
• Pending, spam and trashed topics and replies
• Published replies under a topic that was not imported (for example, a reply to a pending topic)
• Forum moderator assignments (assign Space Moderator roles manually after import). BuddyPress group forums are the exception, see above
• bbPress subscriptions (replaced by Jetonomy follow/subscribe)
• bbPress private messages (import to Jetonomy Pro private messaging separately)
• Custom bbPress meta fields (use the jetonomy_importers filter to extend)
• Forum avatars (WordPress avatars carry over via Gravatar/WP user accounts)

Attachments (1.8.0+): If a file cannot be recovered - for example it is already missing from disk - the import still completes and tells you how many files it could not bring over (“N files could not be recovered and were left linked in the original post text”). That is a warning to check a handful of posts by hand, not a failed import. See the Migration overview for details.

Re-running an import is safe. The importer skips everything it has already brought over and adds only what is new, so you can import, keep bbPress live, and import again before you switch. If you migrated on 1.9.x, a re-run brings in the private, hidden and BuddyPress group forums the older importer skipped, without duplicating what is already there. See Running an Import Again.

What to do about the gaps: Topic tags are not imported; if tags matter to you, re-tag your highest-value topics by hand after the import (it is usually a small number that drive most of the traffic).

Pre-Import Checklist

Complete these steps before starting the import:

1. Back up your database. The importer does not modify bbPress tables, but a backup is essential.
2. Activate Jetonomy and complete the setup wizard. Your community base URL should be set.
3. bbPress can be active or deactivated. The importer reads bbPress’s data straight from the database, so it also works after you have deactivated bbPress. Import before deleting it.
4. Set your server timeout high. Large imports (100,000+ records) take time. Increase max_execution_time in php.ini or use WP-CLI (recommended for large sites).
5. Disable other heavy plugins during import if your server is resource-constrained.

Tip: For large communities (10,000+ topics), run the import via WP-CLI to avoid browser timeouts entirely. See the WP-CLI section below.

Running the Import

1. Go to Jetonomy → Import in your WordPress admin.
2. Select bbPress as the source.
3. Click Import from bbPress.

The importer processes records in batches of 500. A progress bar shows the completion percentage and the current step (Forums, Topics, Replies, Profiles, Finalize).

Keep the browser tab open while the import is running. Your browser drives each batch, so closing the tab, refreshing or navigating away stops the import. It can be resumed (see below).

Dry-Run Mode

Dry-run mode is available via WP-CLI only (--dry-run). It runs the import logic without writing any data and reports the imported / skipped / error totals it would have produced:

wp jetonomy import bbpress --dry-run

The summary line looks like [DRY RUN] Import complete. Imported: 1240, Skipped: 12, Errors: 0. No database writes are made, so you can run it as many times as you need.

Estimated Import Times

Community Size	Topics + Replies	Estimated Time
Small	Under 10,000	2 - 5 minutes
Medium	10,000 - 100,000	10 - 40 minutes
Large	100,000 - 500,000	1 - 4 hours
Very large	500,000+	Use WP-CLI

These are estimates for a typical shared hosting server. Dedicated servers will be significantly faster.

Resuming a Paused Import

If the import stops (browser closed, timeout, server restart), return to Jetonomy → Import. The card shows an Import Interrupted badge with the phase it stopped at. Click Resume Import to continue from the last completed batch, or Start Over to begin again from scratch.

You can safely resume multiple times. Records that were already imported are skipped.

Running via WP-CLI

For large communities, WP-CLI is more reliable than the browser-based importer. Run it from your server’s command line (SSH); on most managed hosts you point it at the WordPress install with --path. The valid source value is bbpress (lowercase) - if you mistype it, the command lists the sources it recognizes.

wp --path="/path/to/wordpress" jetonomy import bbpress

The only flag is --dry-run:

# Dry run - validate and count without writing any data
wp jetonomy import bbpress --dry-run

WP-CLI runs without a browser timeout limit and prints an Imported / Skipped / Errors summary when the import finishes.

Post-Import Checklist

After the import completes, verify the following:

• Navigate to your community home - spaces should match your old bbPress forums
• Open several posts and confirm content and replies are intact
• Check that user profiles show post counts
• Assign Space Moderator roles to your former forum moderators (moderator assignments are not imported)
• Test creating a new post as a regular user
• If new spaces return a 404, go to Jetonomy → Dashboard → Quick Actions and click Flush Rules (normally done automatically on import completion)
• If you used bbPress shortcodes on pages, remove or replace them - they will output raw shortcode text now that bbPress is still active

Note: After a successful import, you can deactivate bbPress. Your community data is now in Jetonomy’s tables and bbPress is no longer needed.

Re-running an Import

Once bbPress has been imported, its card on Jetonomy → Import changes to a Previously Imported badge that shows the date of the last import and how many records it brought over. The Start button becomes Re-Import.

A re-run skips everything already imported and brings over only what is new: new forums, new topics, and new replies, including replies to topics you imported earlier. The result tells you how many items were already imported and skipped.

If you imported on 1.9.x, the first re-run also recognises what that import brought over and fills in what it missed (private, hidden and BuddyPress group forums, and closed topics). It also restores reply threading on the replies that import brought over flat, and the Import screen says how many replies it re-threaded. It only fills in a missing parent, so a reply you have moved since keeps its place. Stickies from the old import are not changed, because you may have pinned or unpinned topics since; re-pin any you want by hand. See Running an Import Again for the full details and limits.

What’s Next?

Migrating from wpForo? The process is similar with a few wpForo-specific field mappings.

Importing from wpForo →