On this page I am keeping my own assessments of whether you need to update phpBB from a previous version. This page will be updated with each new release of phpBB starting with version 3.2.0. Some updates are nice to have, some are good ideas and some are essential.
I also indicate the database tables that should be backed up before doing the update. I show the default phpbb_ as the table prefix. Your table prefix may be different, and can be found by inspecting your config.php file.
You don’t need to bother backing up other tables as they are not changed. If doing multiple updates, say 3.2.5 from 3.2.2, make sure you backup all the tables shown for each of these releases: ACP > Maintenance > Backup. For 3.2.2 to 3.2.5, you would look at the rows for 3.2.3, 3.2.4 and 3.2.5 and backup those tables.
In the event something goes wrong, recover these tables and revert your files and you are back in business. The database can often be successfully restored in ACP > Maintenance > Restore.
Disable your forum before making any updates.
If you would like me to update your forum, I suggest using my service inquiry form. See my pricing summary page for rates I charge.
This page will be updated when new releases occur.
phpBB 3.3 (Proteus)
| phpBB Version (Release date) | Tables updated | Do I need to update? |
|---|---|---|
| 3.3.13 (August 29, 2024) | phpbb_config, phpbb_extensions, phpbb_forums, phpbb_migrations, phpbb_users | Recommended. |
| 3.3.12 (May 31, 2024) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations, phpbb_forums, phpbb_users | Recommended. A number of persistent bugs were addressed. |
| 3.3.11 (October 22, 2023) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations phpbb_profile_fields | Yes, if you use OAuth for authentication. Fixed bug that incorrectly reported where users were online. Fixed bug on Safari with layout on posting page. Better PHP 8.2 compatibility. |
| 3.3.10 (February 5, 2023) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | If you noticed PHP 8.2, reCaptcha or Emoji issues, an update is recommended. This release fixes a number of issues related to the Emoji Content Delivery Network being down. Better PHP 8.2 support. Better reCaptcha support which fixes issue where google.com reCaptcha servers are blocked in certain countries. Fixes certain integration issues with Spamhaus, if you have that security setting enabled. |
| 3.3.9 (November 28, 2022) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations, phpbb_profile_fields_data | Probably not essential. No security issues noted. |
| 3.3.8 (June 26, 2022) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations, phpbb_profile_fields, phpbb_profile_fields_data | Recommended if you are using the native phpBB search index. This release fixes a bug with the native phpBB search index that reported only 1 search result was found when more were available. Also fixed a bug that did not show HTML-encoded emojis in email subject line. |
| 3.3.7 (March 17, 2022) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | If you first upgraded to phpBB 3.3.6 prior to the release of phpBB 3.3.7, an update won't fix the problem introduced. However, not all boards will have the issue which required this version. One way to get a sense if you are affected is to logout and view your board as a guest. If you get a "This board has no forums" message and that wasn't true before, you are affected. But even if you don't get this message, you still may have had some group or user permissions dropped. If you are looking to update phpBB from 3.3.6, you should read this post to learn what you can do to fix your issues. |
| 3.3.6 (March 15, 2022) | phpbb_acl_groups, phpbb_acl_users, phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Yes, principally to improve the likelihood that emails sent will not get rejected if they have long subject titles. Also, if you use the native phpBB search index, it will work faster. SVG and Webp images can now be used in ranks, smilies and topic icons. A bug in the moderator tools affecting topic selection has been fixed. |
| 3.3.5 (October 3, 2021) | phpbb_bbcodes, phpbb_bots, phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Probably not if you are using PHP 7. There are a number of bug fixes if you are using PHP 8.0 or 8.1. A number of Postgres bugs were closed too. A number of known new bots were added. |
| 3.3.4 (May 1, 2021) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Only if you use PHP 8 or if your database name has nonstandard characters in it. |
| 3.3.3 (January 29, 2021) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | No security issues of note. However, offers support for PHP 8 and MySQL 8. |
| 3.3.2 (November 6, 2020) | phpbb_config phpbb_lang phpbb_migrations phpbb_profile_fields phpbb_profile_fields_lang phpbb_profile_lang | Yes. One security issue was addressed: invalid conversion of HTML entities when stripping BBCode. |
| 3.3.1 (August 7, 2020) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations, phpbb_profile_fields, phpbb_profile_fields_data, phpbb_profile_fields_lang, phpbb_profile_lang | Yes. A minor security vulnerability was addressed. |
| 3.3.0 (January 6, 2020) | phpbb_config, phpbb_forums, phpbb_migrations | You don't update to phpBB 3.3, you upgrade from 3.2 or some earlier minor version of phpBB. Don't upgrade until you are sure that any extension you can't live without works with phpBB 3.3, or has a version for phpBB 3.3. Generally phpBB 3.2 styles will work on phpBB 3.3, but there is often a phpBB 3.3 version available, so check and use it if available. From phpBB 3.2.9 to 3.3.0, only three tables are changed as shown. So it may not be necessary to backup all your tables, although it can't hurt to do so. |
phpBB 3.2 (Rhea)
| phpBB Version (Release date) | Tables updated | Do I need to update? |
|---|---|---|
| 3.2.11 (November 6, 2020) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Probably if you cannot migrate to phpBB 3.3. One security issue found in phpBB 3.3 was also present in 3.2 and is fixed in this release. |
| 3.2.10 (August 7, 2020) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Probably if you haven't upgraded to phpBB 3.3 and won't or can't for a while. It fixes one security issue, introduces further hardening, and resolves various issues reported in previous versions. |
| 3.2.9 (January 6, 2020) | phpbb_acl_options, phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | 3.3.0 is the new minor version of phpBB. You may want to update to this version if your styles and critical extensions will work with version 3.3. Otherwise, no security issues were addressed. Update to 3.2.9 will fix some minor bugs and allow use of more Emoji characters. If you upgrade to 3.3, verify that your extensions (at least those you can't live without) work for 3.3, back up all tables, and follow the official upgrade procedures published by the phpBB group, including backing up ALL your tables. Styles for 3.2 should work with 3.3 but you might want to check to make sure. |
| 3.2.8 (September 20, 2019) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Yes. Three security issues were fixed. |
| 3.2.7 (May 5, 2019) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Update desirable. No new security issues were addressed, but bug affecting tokens used when logging in was addressed. |
| 3.2.6 (April 29, 2019) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Not essential. No security issues were addressed. |
| 3.2.5 (December 22, 2018) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Not essential. No security issues were addressed. |
| 3.2.4 (November 16, 2018) | phpbb_config, phpbb_forums, phpbb_migrations | Update desirable. One security issue was addressed but it’s relatively low risk as it can only be exploited if the attacker has hijacked an account with founder status. Some PHP 7.2 issues were also addressed if you use this version of PHP. |
| 3.2.3 (September 13, 2018) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations | Update if you need to support multiple attachments. A bug with this logic was fixed. |
| 3.2.2 (January 7, 2018) | phpbb_acl_options, phpbb_bbcodes, phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations, phpbb_styles, phpbb_users | Update desirable. One minor, relatively low risk security vulnerability was fixed. |
| 3.2.1 (July 16, 2017) | phpbb_config, phpbb_migrations, phpbb_user_notifications | Update required. Three security vulnerabilities were addressed. Fixes a major server-side request forgery exploit. |
| 3.2.0 (January 7, 2017) | Lots. Back up the entire database before upgrading. | Base of the minor version. |
