Import from bbPress

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

Import tool interface with source selection and progress tracking

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
Topics Jetonomy Posts Topic title + content preserved
Replies Jetonomy Replies Imported as flat replies on the post (bbPress reply threading is flattened)
User accounts Linked to existing WP users Matched by user ID
Sticky topics Pinned posts Preserved

Not imported:

  • bbPress topic tags
  • bbPress user activity counts / reputation
  • bbPress votes (no standard bbPress vote data is read)
  • Forum moderator assignments (assign Space Moderator roles manually after import)
  • 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)

What to do about the gaps: Jetonomy replies are flat by design - every reply attaches to the topic, not to another reply - so the conversation stays intact even though bbPress's nested threading is not carried over. 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. Keep bbPress active during the import. The importer reads directly from bbPress tables.
  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 Start Import.

The importer processes records in batches of 500. A progress bar shows completion percentage, current batch, and estimated time remaining.

Do not close the browser tab while the import is running. If the page refreshes or you navigate away, the import will pause - but 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, visit Jetonomy → Settings → Permalinks and click Save to flush rewrite 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, and Jetonomy warns you before you proceed because re-importing creates duplicate content - it does not detect and skip what you already imported. Only re-import if the first import had a real problem; otherwise leave it alone.

What's Next?

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

Importing from wpForo →