[fitkoh]

Right again thx @Mashiro.  I figured it out, so my new strategy was to upload the backup exactly as it was with the previous version of phpBB - not an upgrade but a copy of the backup, and to install a new database, importing the old database. And to edit the config file with the new info. Everything looked fine.  Except I had created the Forum with php 5.4  and my VPS is on php 7.3.  The first error that came up was that mysql extension was not loaded.  I then found that it got deprecated with php 7.0.  

I really feel sorry for serious phpBB Forum Admin. I read through some of the support responses, and what Forum owners have to go through with the php upgrade even before they get to battle with the phpBB upgrade.

So what I basically need to do is downgrade my php, which I really don't want to do, as I have other Websites that were created with php 7.3.  And I'm happy, as I think it is the php version to be on.

I need to figure out another way to do this without needing to tinker with my php version.  In the meanwhile I removed the whole installation again.  Back to the drawing board.

The shared hosting seems to really limit the type of solutions you can try to fix this problem... I wonder how your provider would feel about doing the configs for you, or granting you a temporary shell acct so you can do them yourself.

I wonder, how stuck are you on phpbb?  myBB, for instance, has a merge system which allegedly transforms your phpbb3.0 into mybb1.8