Migrating Wordpress Forum using SQL

If you’re using bbPress as the forum component for your WordPress site, we do have more targeted support for that. Discourse’s import scripts include a dedicated bbpress.rb importer, which can pull over users, topics, posts, categories, and attachments.

To use it, you’ll need access to a MySQL database dump of your WordPress site. The importer assumes default bbPress table structures and post types, so if you’ve customized bbPress heavily or used additional plugins (e.g., BuddyPress), some tweaking may be required.

If you’re unsure whether your forum content is using bbPress, one quick way to check is to look for tables like wp_bb_posts or wp_posts entries with post types like topic and reply.

Note that this process does require some technical familiarity, particularly with Ruby, SQL, and running import scripts inside a Discourse environment. If you’re not a developer, you may want to work with one, or if you’re interested in using a hosted Discourse site, the earlier comment about reaching out to the team is a good summary of your options. We’re happy to assist if you go that route.

1 Like