Moving users from an old site to merge with users in another site

I haven't had to do anything like this is many years, and the process seems to have been automated quite a bit since I last had to do it.

A client had about 170 users. They're shutting down that website and they want all their users to be added to their other website, which is basically the same.

Both have Community Builder, both have pretty much identical custom fields, and I thought I prepared the .csv file properly - removing all non-essential columns to make the process simple.

These are the columns I retained to import:idnamefirstnamelastnameusernameemailavataravatarapprovedlastupdatedateregisteripaddrgidsregisterDatelastvisitDatelastResetTimerequireResetparamscanvaspositionacceptedtermsconsentcb_websitecb_companycb_addresscb_citycb_statecb_phonecb_faxcb_companyinfocb_titlecb_zipcb_suitecb_categoriescb_listordercb_sponsorcb_nolistcb_antispam_ipaddresscb_antispam_captchacb_folderaccess
For some reason, the registerDate and lastvisitDate fields did not import properly - they're all blank. I used .csv to export and import the records.

I had the settings set to "Always create new entries ignoring ids of records to import", and "Ignore emails for new entries". It seems the new names were added and only a few with email addresses already existing in the site I imported into failed to import, which is fine.

I also successfully moved the avatars from the old site and added them to the new site images/comprofiler folder successfully.

Is there any way to re-import these dates properly to correct the records? And in the future, what can I do to ensure the best result? I have other clients who are merging data and consolidating their websites. Some of them will be asking me to do the same thing.

Thank you,
Ernie

Blank where exactly? If in _comprofiler they shouldn't exist there at all and you should delete those columns if lastvisitDate or registerDate exist there as they're Joomla columns that belong in _users. If blank in _users then something might be going wrong with those fields during import. Did lastupdatedate import properly? Wondering if it's just the Joomla _users datetime columns that didn't import properly.

I think that might be where things went wrong. I assumed importing the exported CB user data would automatically append the Joomla User table.

I've attached a snip from the Joomla User table, which shows -00... date, and a snip from the CB User list, which is blank.

 
 

I hope this makes it more clear.

What should I have done?

Thank you,
Ernie

 

That certainly seams invalid. How are the dates formatted in your CSV file? Did you modify the CSV file before import?

I removed some of the columns that I didn't think needed to be included. All the columns in my original post were included.

I saved the file as a CSV file - never converted to Excel or anything else.

Here's the columns as they look in plain text:

registerDate,lastvisitDate
8/17/2007 12:47,1/20/2010 19:42
8/17/2007 12:54,11/25/2008 15:49

These are the fields I imported:
id,name,firstname,lastname,username,email,avatar,avatarapproved,lastupdatedate,registeripaddr,gids,registerDate,lastvisitDate,lastResetTime,requireReset,params,canvasposition,acceptedtermsconsent,cb_website,cb_company,cb_address,cb_city,cb_state,cb_phone,cb_fax,cb_companyinfo,cb_title,cb_zip,cb_suite,cb_categories,cb_listorder,cb_sponsor,cb_nolist,cb_antispam_ipaddress,cb_antispam_captcha,cb_folderaccess

The custom fields should have been identical on the site I added them to because I pretty much copied one site to create the other (back around 2007). Most of these sites were originally built a VERY long time ago, and have been upgraded over the years. I'm running Joomla 5.3.0 and CB 2.10.0+build.2025.05.06.16.43.20.9842eb8e2.

Thank you,
Ernie

The dates are in the wrong format. They should be SQL formatted. So something formatted them. For example they should be the below.

registerDate,lastvisitDate
08-17-2007 12:47:00,01-20-2010 19:42:00
08-17-2007 12:54:00,11-25-2008 15:49:00

Below are the settings you should be using on opening of the CSV to maintain data integrity. If your software has an option to reformat dates or "detect dates" uncheck that setting on opening.

1. Character set: UTF-8
2. Separated by Comma
3. Format quoted fields as text
4. " as string delimiter