wpForo Import

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Move your existing wpForo community into Jetonomy - forums, topics, replies, and user profiles - using the built-in wpForo 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 the wpForo importer brings over and how wpForo structures map to Jetonomy
How to prepare your site before running the import
How to start and monitor the import
How wpForo’s multi-board and forum structures map onto Jetonomy
What to verify after the import

What Gets Imported

wpForo Data	Imported As	Notes
Forums	Jetonomy Spaces	Forum name, slug, description preserved. Sub-forums become sub-spaces under their parent
Topics	Jetonomy Posts	Title and first post content preserved
Replies (posts)	Jetonomy Replies	Threaded replies keep their parent. A reply to the opening post, or to a reply that was not imported, becomes a top-level reply
User accounts	Linked to existing WP users	Matched by WP user ID
Liked posts	Vote score	wpForo likes mapped to upvotes
Pinned topics	Pinned posts	Preserved
Closed topics	Closed posts	Preserved
Inline images and attached files (1.8.0+)	WordPress media library + Jetonomy attachments	Downloaded from wpForo and re-registered as attachments; images stay inline, other files show as a download link

Not imported:

wpForo topic tags
wpForo user reputation / points
wpForo user roles and moderator assignments (assign Space Moderator roles manually after import)
wpForo private conversations (different data structure; import to Jetonomy Pro private messaging separately)
wpForo groups and group memberships (map manually to Jetonomy spaces)
wpForo custom user groups beyond standard roles
Embedded wpForo media that uses shortcodes instead of standard <img> tags (standard <img> tags and file attachments import normally as of 1.8.0)

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.

wpForo Data Structure Differences

wpForo and Jetonomy structure their data differently in a few key areas:

Multi-board support - wpForo lets you run multiple boards, each with its own set of forums and topics. The importer automatically detects all of your active boards and imports each one into its own Jetonomy category. Single-board installs work without any extra configuration.

Forums and categories - Within each board, wpForo nests forums inside forums. Jetonomy separates categories (top-level groups) from spaces (discussion areas), so the importer creates one Jetonomy category per board and one space per wpForo forum. Parent forums are created before their children, so sub-forums come across as sub-spaces under their parent.

For developers: wpForo stores each board’s data in its own set of tables (wp_wpforo1_*, wp_wpforo2_*, and so on) and tracks boards in wpforo_boards. The importer reads wpforo_boards to discover boards and auto-detects the table prefix, so a custom prefix needs no configuration.

Post structure - In wpForo, the first “post” of a topic is a reply in the same table. In Jetonomy, topics and replies are separate entities. The importer promotes the first wpForo post as the Jetonomy post body and imports subsequent posts as replies.

Reputation - wpForo reputation and points are not imported. After import, trust levels are re-evaluated by the cron job based on activity within Jetonomy and your configured thresholds.

Pre-Import Checklist

Back up your database. The importer reads but never modifies wpForo tables, but a backup protects against any edge cases.
Activate Jetonomy and complete the setup wizard.
wpForo can be active or deactivated - the importer reads wpForo’s tables straight from the database. Import before deleting it.
Check your wpForo table prefix. If wpForo uses a custom prefix, confirm it in wpforo_boards - the importer auto-detects it.
Disable wpForo page caching if active, to avoid stale data during the import process.

Tip: If you have over 50,000 topics, use WP-CLI to run the import. Browser-based imports on large databases can time out on shared hosting.

Running the Import

Go to Jetonomy → Import in your WordPress admin.
Select wpForo as the source.
Click Import from wpForo.

The importer works through each board in batches (forums, topics, replies, likes, then profiles) and the progress bar advances as it goes. Very large wpForo databases are still best imported via WP-CLI to avoid browser timeouts.

Preview Before You Import

Always take a full database backup before you run the wpForo import - that is your way to undo if you want to start over. There is no preview mode for wpForo: only the bbPress importer supports a true --dry-run that counts records without writing them. The wpForo importer always writes data, so a backup (not a dry run) is your safety net.

Heads up: The wp jetonomy import wpforo command refuses the --dry-run flag with an error and imports nothing. Only the bbPress importer can preview.

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

Resuming a Paused Import

If the import stops (browser closed, timeout, server restart), return to Jetonomy → Import. The card shows an Import Interrupted badge. Click Resume Import to continue from where it stopped, or Start Over to begin again. Either way, anything already imported is skipped, not duplicated.

Running via WP-CLI

Run this 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 wpforo (lowercase) - if you mistype it, the command lists the sources it recognizes.

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

WP-CLI is the recommended way to import larger wpForo databases - it is not subject to browser timeouts and prints an Imported / Skipped / Errors summary when finished.

Note: --dry-run is refused for wpForo (only bbPress supports it). Take a backup first.

Space Types After Import

All imported wpForo forums become standard Forum spaces in Jetonomy. wpForo post types (Normal, Question/Answer, Debate) are not mapped to Jetonomy space types - if you want a space to behave as Q&A, change its type in Jetonomy → Spaces after the import.

Access and Visibility After Import

The importer preserves each board’s read access instead of flattening everything to public. It reads the wpForo forum’s groups_can_view setting:

A forum that guests can read imports as a Public space with an Open join policy - anyone can find and read it.
A forum that was members-only (guests are not in the allow-list) imports as a Private space with a Requires Approval join policy - the content stays gated and new members are vetted, exactly as it was on wpForo. A members-only board is never opened up to the public by the import.
When wpForo records no access signal at all, the space defaults to Public - the importer only tightens access when there is a clear restriction to preserve.

For developers: map access per site with the jetonomy_import_space_visibility filter. It receives the resolved [ visibility, join_policy ] array, the importer slug (wpforo), and the source forum row, so you can force every imported board private, whitelist specific boards to public, or apply your own rule. Any value the filter returns is validated against the allowed visibility and join-policy options before it is saved.

Post-Import Checklist

After the import completes:

Visit your community home and confirm spaces match your old wpForo forums
Open several posts from different spaces and verify content is intact
Assign Space Moderator roles to your former forum moderators (moderator assignments are not imported)
Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save to flush rewrite rules (the wpForo importer does not flush them automatically, so this step is needed if new spaces return a 404)
Remove or update any wpForo shortcodes on pages and widgets
Consider deactivating wpForo after confirming the import - it is no longer needed

Note: If your wpForo installation used a third-party plugin for member ratings or post reactions, those values are not included in the standard import. Developers can extend the importer through the jetonomy_importers filter.

Re-running an Import

Once wpForo has been imported, its card on Jetonomy → Import changes to a Previously Imported badge showing the date and record count of the last import, and the Start button becomes Re-Import.

A re-run skips everything already imported and brings over only what is new, including new topics and replies in forums you imported earlier. Likes already carried across stay in place. The result tells you how many items were already imported and skipped. Content imported by an earlier Jetonomy version is recognised on the first re-run too. See Running an Import Again for the migration pattern and its limits.

What’s Next?

Migrating from Asgaros Forum instead? The process is similar with a few Asgaros-specific mappings.

Importing from Asgaros →

Already imported? Configure who can read your community and how members earn trust.

General Settings →