FAQ Index
To help make finding the answers you need easier we have created this FAQ index which is ordered by the question's popularity. Those questions viewed most will be at the top of their sections list.
Administration Questions
Are administrators able to view their members' PMs?
As an administrator, can I hide my "newbie" status?
I accidentally deleted my admin account, what do I do?
How do I make my forum safer against hacker attacks?
How do I integrate SMF into my PHP coded website?
How do I edit the registration/welcome email?
Can I lock my forum from users, to do some maintenance?
How do I add images to the board's description?
How do I assign someone as a local moderator in SMF?
How do I create a board for only certain membergroups?
How do I show the most recent posts on the main page of my website?
What is the difference between disallow and deny in Permissions?
How do I add new avatars?
How do I change a person's membergroup?
How do I reset karma totals to zero?
How do I lock boards without using DENY?
How do I add/change/remove holidays?
Convertors and Tools Questions
How do I convert from ...?
I broke my forum! What tool should I try?
Credits
Am I allowed to remove/change the copyright?
What is the type of license used for SMF?
Who made SMF?
General Questions
Why am I getting a message saying the copyright is missing?
What is the difference between Upgrade and Update packages?
How do I add a new language?
How do I use FTP? / What is FTP?
What is a phpinfo() file?
Why aren't my members getting emails sent from the forum?
How do I chmod? / what is chmod?
What should I use, SMF 1.0 or 1.1?
One of my members forgot his/her password. How can I retrieve it?
How do I know if I can run SMF on my website?
Is SMF available in Italian/French/Spanish/... ?
Why am I getting a “Board doesn't exist” error when I try to post a new topic?
Am I allowed to redistribute a modified copy of the SMF software?
Is SMF released under the GNU/GPL license?
Am I allowed to redistribute the SMF software?
Am I allowed to redistribute mods?
What is a mod?
Why does Total Members show a different number than the memberlist?
How do I Extract Files in an Archive?
How do I fix my smileys?
MySQL has gone away / Lost connection to server during query
Installation Questions
What is installer/package manager FTP path?
How do I fix this "Installer unable to find language files" error I am getting?
Why am I getting all these errors in Windows?
Why MySQL 4.1.x passwords won't work?
Where can I get a copy of SMF?
How do I fix this "ALTER TABLE smf_smileys ORDER BY LENGTH" error I am getting?
Saving/Restoring, and Moving SMF From a Host to Another
How do I restore the database data?
How do I move my SMF board to a different host?
How do I save my SMF board?
How do I save the database data?
Questions About Getting Support
How do I ask support questions the smart way?
How can I get my problems solved faster?
What types of support are available?
Is help available in Italian/French/Spanish/... ?
Theme Questions
How do you add custom tabs to the Core (default) theme menu?
How do I add buttons to the babylon and classic style themes?
How do I set the forum width?
What does the notice saying that I'm running an illegal SMF install mean?
How do I delete the Simple Machines logo on the default SMF theme?
Why am I getting borders around images?
Why am I getting this "Call to undefined function: create_button()" error?