# Date/time warnings in phpBB3 conversion to Discourse
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/date-time-warnings-in-phpbb3-conversion-to-discourse/393391
**Category:** Migration
**Tags:** phpbb
**Created:** [January 13, 2026, 11:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/date-time-warnings-in-phpbb3-conversion-to-discourse/393391 "2026-01-13T23:10:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@shortmort37](https://meta.discourse.org/u/shortmort37)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2026, 11:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/date-time-warnings-in-phpbb3-conversion-to-discourse/393391/1 "2026-01-13T23:10:11Z")
Hi, Newbie here - but running a phpBB site since 2004. Time to move on.
I’ve had some success in converting my database in my Discourse test environment, but I’ve got several warnings like this:
`WARN – : Bad date/time value “0000:00:00 00:00:00”: mon out of range`
It’s been suggested that I replace occurrences like that in the phpbb\_backup.sql file with `1970-01-01` for these dates before import, but they don’t occur anywhere in the file. How do I find out exactly what the script is complaining about (and what topic or post), and how do I fix it?
adTHANKSvance,
Dan
P.S. did these records import despite the warning, or were they rejected?
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/date-time-warnings-in-phpbb3-conversion-to-discourse/393391/2 "2026-01-14T14:56:59Z")
They got imported, I’m fairly certain. I just ignore these.
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### Author:  [@shortmort37](https://meta.discourse.org/u/shortmort37)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2026, 4:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/date-time-warnings-in-phpbb3-conversion-to-discourse/393391/3 "2026-01-14T16:43:01Z")
Thanks, Jay. Still, I wonder why the script flagged them; and I wonder what that means for the post.
Here’s a snippet from the import log, with warnings: `18112 / 24451 ( 74.1%) [292 items/min]`Do you happen to know, for this example, if 18112 is the phpBB post\_id? If so, you are quite right - the post got converted, and appears to have the correct dates, for both the original poster and the one who replied.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2026, 5:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/date-time-warnings-in-phpbb3-conversion-to-discourse/393391/4 "2026-01-14T17:13:55Z")
> [@shortmort37](#):
>
> Do you happen to know, for this example, if 18112 is the phpBB post\_id?
it is not.
You can see the post ids in `post.custom_fields['import_id']`. But that’s just a counter of how many posts (or topics?) have been converted.
> [@shortmort37](#):
>
> I wonder why the script flagged them
I’m pretty sure that the post has zero or null in some date field. it’s a warning, not an error, so it did import something. If it had failed to import it, you’d get an error, I’m fairly certain.
If you really care, you can modify the script to print the phpBB ID when it gets such an error, then you can track down which phpBB posts are generating these errors and look at those records to see what’s happening.
> [@shortmort37](#):
>
> It’s been suggested that I replace occurrences like that in the phpbb\_backup.sql file with `1970-01-01` for these dates before import,
That date is zero in utime, so it wouldn’t change anything.
I’ve never thought it was worth my clients’ money to answer this question before. If it is something you’d like to spend money on, please email me.
Perhaps someone else has a better answer.
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### Author:  [@shortmort37](https://meta.discourse.org/u/shortmort37)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2026, 7:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/date-time-warnings-in-phpbb3-conversion-to-discourse/393391/5 "2026-01-14T19:13:02Z")
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> If you really care, you can modify the script to print the phpBB ID when it gets such an error, then you can track down which phpBB posts are generating these errors and look at those records to see what’s happening.
This is worth pursuing, methinks.
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> I’ve never thought it was worth my clients’ money to answer this question before. If it is something you’d like to spend money on, please email me.
Um…thank you for your offer. It’s just that I’ve got enough of these warnings in nearly 25K posts that I’d rather be certain, than fairly certain.
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> Perhaps someone else has a better answer.
Perhaps.