# User data corruption in phpBB3 to WP/Discourse migration **URL:** \ **Category:** Migration\ **Created:** [June 7, 2023, 2:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-data-corruption-in-phpbb3-to-wp-discourse-migration/267538 "2023-06-07T14:40:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 4
**Author:** ![leonardo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/leonardo/32/228634_2.png) [@leonardo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/leonardo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2023, 8:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-data-corruption-in-phpbb3-to-wp-discourse-migration/267538/4 "2023-06-07T20:25:31Z")
> [@kiefferr](#): > > If we scrub anon users from the user data file before importing, I assume all anonymous posts will be assigned to the ‘system’ user as they are anyway. Is there any reason I may not be aware of to keep the anonymous users from our phpBB instance in the import file? A problem with this is that post attribution to unique users will be lost, so it will be hard to follow a conversation where all posts seem to come from a single `system` user - you won’t be able to tell distinct participants apart from each other. > [@kiefferr](#): > > By forcing users to be matched by email instead of external ID during the fresh import, as described in post #5 linked above, we should be able preclude the possibility of any unwanted merging of old and new users. > > Does this all sound reasonable? Exactly; conceptually, you could either leave things as is and manually use the admin user profile UI to merge users that should be the same ones, OR you could simply send email as external ID instead as you suggest, which will new logins to be connected to an existing account with a matching email address. The latter is clearly the least resistance path 👍 --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-data-corruption-in-phpbb3-to-wp-discourse-migration/267538)._