Can we archive a forum

Hi,

Our forum has been active for around 5 years. A lot of information has been posted which we would be heartbroken to lose.

Of course we are very happy with forumotion's excellent service but is there a way to make a complete off site backup of forum content as insurance against catastrophic loss (yes I know forumotion must do this, but we would like an insurance policy).

I searched the FAQs & this forum, it looks like the question has been asked before, but no clear answer has ever been given. However I did come across 'founders tools' at https://www.forumotion.com/utils, this may allow what I want, but although I founded the forum I  I cannot access the tools as I have no record/memory of the details I used when founding it.

Where do I go now? Help!

PS I managed to get into the owners utils, but it doesn't do a backup (even though the button says backup) all it will do is a restore and the backup dates are irregular, last one was 28th Dec. So that doesn't help at all!

Well I tracked down the answer, it isn't what I wanted.. I am disappointed not only that I can't do what I want but also the lack of response and the fact this important information is not in the FAQs, it should be.

Re: How do I Backup my forum, to prevent lost info

 by Ramdaman on Wed Sep 24, 2014 8:06 am
I'm 100 % sure nothing will happen to theFM database as it is very secure.

And to answer your question, no, you can't export your ForuMotion forum.

Re: How do I Backup my forum, to prevent lost info

 by APE on Wed Sep 24, 2014 9:38 pm
For you to get this info you would have to have server side rights and we at FM do not give that to anyone sorry.

so the Answer is sorry but this is not possible right now SORRY.

APE

Hello @henridecat,

I apologize for the late response, but the answers you found are accurate. Forumotion does not allow access of your forum's database, which makes exportation somewhat impossible. The backup system in the Founder's tools allows you to restore your forum to a previous date; backups of your forum are made server-side.

For information on the Database see this topic.

I will also add that right now we have had a problem with the backup system and the tech staff are working on it thats why you do not have any other older dates in the founders tools.

This has been reported more then 3 or 4 times now and the tech staff are working hard to get this fixed but we will not have a time or date of this fix or even if they can fix it.

we are really sorry for any problems this may have gave you.

APE

Hi Ape,

The backups are ongoing and although I noticed they had been a bit irregular (I've ticked daily backup on admin control panel & it ain't managing that at present) but at least they are happening on a fairly frequent basis. That wasn't my issue.

I really do not understand why you do not provide a function in the site 'founders tools' to dump a copy of a site. If I was an old cynic I would say it is a management policy to make it difficult for forums to move to another provider.

There is certainly no technical reason to prevent it and the excuse about not allowing it because it would require server side rights is pure & unadulterated hogwash, after all you provide controlled write access to the database to restore from a backup, what a forum dump requires is only controlled read access.

henridecat wrote:Hi Ape,

The backups are ongoing and although I noticed they had been a bit irregular (I've ticked daily backup on admin control panel & it ain't managing that at present) but at least they are happening on a fairly frequent basis. That wasn't my issue.

I really do not understand why you do not provide a function in the site 'founders tools' to dump a copy of a site. If I was an old cynic I would say it is a management policy to make it difficult for forums to move to another provider.

There is certainly no technical reason to prevent it and the excuse about not allowing it because it would require server side rights is pure & unadulterated hogwash, after all you provide controlled write access to the database to restore from a backup, what a forum dump requires is only controlled read access.

Hi Henridecat

Its always been the case FM doesn't allow access to the database for the purpose of taking a copy of your forums contents, that's always been the case and I believe is stated in the Forumotion TOS.

Hi @henridecat

We do not let anyone get access to the database The backup system is not the same system as the data needed to move your forum to some other host.

The backup data is saved on a small server away from the data center and the data center is where you need to get access to, I think your find we stop you from going in that system to make it more safer and helps us stop hacking.

it has always been this way and yes it does say that you do not get this right before you make your account.

Not long a go we added new system that lets you add your forum from some other host but this is not really done by you it's done by our staff that's why it can take time to get it done all we need is the files so we can make sure the files are safe first.

we are really sorry that there is no other help we can give you on this matter.

APE

OK, thanks I understand the score.