Tools and basics

This page explains everything the rest of the guide expects you to know. If you already use HeidiSQL and a code editor every day, skim it and move on.

Tools you need

Tool	What it's for	Where to get it
txAdmin	Starting your server and typing server commands	You already have it. It came with your FiveM server
HeidiSQL	Looking at your database and running database commands	It comes with the MariaDB installer for Windows. Otherwise from heidisql.com
Visual Studio Code (VS Code)	Editing config files	code.visualstudio.com
7-Zip	Unpacking FiveM server files	7-zip.org

Don't use Windows Notepad for config files. It's easy to break a file with it without noticing, and it can't search across a whole folder.

Words used in this guide

Word	What it means
Resource or script	A folder in your server's resources folder that adds something to the game, like qb-policejob or ox_inventory
Framework or core	The resource every other script builds on. qb-core on QBCore, qbx_core on Qbox
Bridge	The part of qbx_core that answers QBCore's functions, so QBCore scripts keep working on Qbox
Live server	The server your players play on today
Test server	The separate Qbox server you build for this migration. Also called a staging server
Database	Where your server stores characters, money, vehicles and so on. Yours runs on MariaDB
Table and column	A database is made of tables, like players or player_vehicles. Each table has columns, like citizenid or money
SQL, query or statement	A command you type to read or change the database
Live Console	The page in txAdmin where you see your server's output and type server commands
Collation	The rules a database table uses to compare and sort text. All tables need the same one, see Database
Citizen ID	The ID of a character, like ABC12345. It stays the same on Qbox
Identifier	The ID of a player's account, like fivem:1234567 or license:.... Used to give staff permissions
Escrowed script	A paid script whose code is encrypted. You can't edit it, only its config

Using txAdmin's Live Console

Some steps ask you to run a command "in the Live Console". That means:

1. Open txAdmin in your browser. On your own PC that's usually http://localhost:40120.
2. Click Live Console in the left menu.

Two servers, two txAdmins

Once you've built the test server next to your live server, you have two txAdmins: the live one at http://localhost:40120 and the test one at http://localhost:40125. Look at the address bar before you type a command or click Restart. Everything in this guide happens on the test server until go-live day.

3. Type the command in the box at the bottom, exactly as written in the guide, and press Enter.
4. The answer appears in the console above.

Server commands don't start with a /. Commands with a / are chat commands that you type in game.

Starting and stopping the server: use the start, stop and restart buttons in txAdmin. Some database steps must be done while the server is stopped. The guide says so when it matters.

Restarting one resource without restarting the whole server: type ensure and the resource name in the Live Console, for example ensure ox_inventory.

Reading errors. Errors in the console usually start with SCRIPT ERROR: and name the resource and file, for example:

SCRIPT ERROR: @qbx_core/shared/jobs.lua:57: '}' expected (to close '{' at line 3) near 'police'

This one says: in qbx_core/shared/jobs.lua, at line 57, a } is missing. Open that file, go to that line and look just above it. A missing comma or bracket is the most common mistake.

Using HeidiSQL

Connect to your database server

1. Open HeidiSQL. The Session manager opens.
2. Click New at the bottom left.
3. Fill in:
   • Network type: MariaDB or MySQL (TCP/IP)
   • Hostname / IP: 127.0.0.1 if the database runs on this PC
   • User and Password: the database login, usually root and the password you chose when installing MariaDB
   • Port: 3306
4. Click Open.

You can find the login your server uses in mysql_connection_string in your server.cfg. It usually looks like this:

set mysql_connection_string "mysql://root:YourPassword@localhost/qbcore_a1b2c3?charset=utf8mb4"

Here the user is root, the password is YourPassword and the database is qbcore_a1b2c3. If there is no password, the part looks like root@localhost.

It can also be written like this, with the same parts:

set mysql_connection_string "user=root;password=YourPassword;host=localhost;database=qbcore_a1b2c3"

Pick the right database

The list on the left shows every database on the server. Click the database you want to work on before you run anything. Every command in this guide runs on the database that is selected.

To make sure, run this. It shows the name of the selected database:

SELECT DATABASE();

Run SQL

1. Select the database on the left.
2. Click the Query tab.
3. Paste the SQL from the guide into the big text box. Replace anything that was in there.
4. Click the blue Execute SQL button (the ▶ triangle in the toolbar), or press F9.

Results appear in a grid under the text box. If something is wrong, HeidiSQL shows a popup starting with SQL Error. Copy the whole message if you ask for help.

Press F5 to refresh the list on the left after you add or change tables.

Run an .sql file

Some steps ask you to run a file that ends in .sql.

1. Select the database on the left.
2. Click File, then Run SQL file....
3. Pick the file and confirm.

Back up a database

1. Right-click the database on the left and choose Export database as SQL.
2. On the left of the window, make sure your database is ticked.
3. Set the options:
   • Database(s): untick both Drop and Create. This lets you load the backup into a database with a different name later.
   • Table(s): tick Create, untick Drop. Then a backup loaded into the wrong database by mistake fails instead of overwriting tables.
   • Data: choose Insert.
   • Output: choose Single .sql file.
   • Filename: pick where to save it. Use a name with the date, like qbcore-2026-10-30.sql.
4. Click Export and wait until it says it's done.

Copy a database

You copy a database by backing it up, then loading the backup into a new, empty database:

1. Back up the database as described above.
2. Check the backup file. Open it in VS Code, press Ctrl+F and search for CREATE DATABASE, then for DROP DATABASE. If either is found, the backup was made with the Database(s) options ticked, and loading it would write into your original database instead of the new one. Delete the file and make the backup again with Drop and Create unticked.
3. Right-click your connection, the top line in the list on the left, and choose Create new, then Database.
4. Give it a name, for example qbox_migration. Set Collation to utf8mb4_unicode_ci. Click OK.
5. Click the new database on the left to select it.
6. Click File, then Run SQL file..., and pick your backup.
7. Press F5. The new database now has the same tables as the old one.

If your database is at a hosting company

If your server is hosted by a game server provider, their control panel usually has phpMyAdmin. Use its Export tab to download your database as a .sql file. You can then load that file into MariaDB on your own PC, as in Copy a database.

Using VS Code

1. Open VS Code, click File, then Open Folder..., and open your server folder, the one with server.cfg in it.
2. Open files from the list on the left.
3. Save with Ctrl+S.

Useful keys:

Keys	What it does
Ctrl+F	Find text in the open file
Ctrl+H	Find and replace in the open file
Alt+R	While finding or replacing: turn on "regular expressions" (the .* button). Some steps need this
Ctrl+Shift+F	Search every file in the folder. Useful to check what your scripts use
Ctrl+G	Go to a line number

Editing Lua config files

Most Qbox config files are Lua tables. A few rules prevent most errors:

• Every entry ends with a comma, including the last one: label = 'Police',
• Every { needs a matching }. VS Code highlights the matching bracket when you click next to one.
• Text goes in quotes: 'police' or "police". Numbers and true or false don't.
• -- starts a comment. Everything after it on that line is ignored.

After editing, restart the server or the resource and check the Live Console for errors.

Check your database server

Qbox needs MariaDB 10.9 or newer. In HeidiSQL, run:

SELECT VERSION();

You see	What to do
A number like 11.8.3-MariaDB or 12.0.2-MariaDB, 10.9 or higher	You're good
10.4.x-MariaDB or another version below 10.9	Too old. This is common with XAMPP. Install a new MariaDB, see below
A number without MariaDB, like 8.0.36	That's MySQL, which Qbox doesn't support. Install MariaDB, see below

If your database is at a hosting company, open phpMyAdmin in their panel. Its start page shows the Server version. If it's MySQL or a MariaDB older than 10.9, ask your host to move you to a current MariaDB before go-live day. Your test server runs on your own PC, so you can start right away.

Install a new MariaDB

You can install a new MariaDB next to your old database server. Your live server keeps using the old one, and only the test server uses the new one.

1. Download the MariaDB Server installer for Windows (the .msi file) from mariadb.org/download. Pick the newest LTS version.
2. Run it. When it asks, set a password for the root user and write it down. Leave HeidiSQL ticked, so it gets installed too.
3. When it asks for a TCP port: if your old database server already uses 3306, the installer suggests 3307. Keep that and write it down.
4. Finish the installation.

If you used port 3307, add it wherever the guide connects to the database: in HeidiSQL's Port field, in txAdmin's database settings when you deploy the test server, and in mysql_connection_string, after the host:

set mysql_connection_string "mysql://root:YourPassword@localhost:3307/qbox_migration?charset=utf8mb4"

Your QBCore data gets into the new MariaDB automatically: in Database you load a backup of your live database into it.

Back up everything

Do this before anything else, and keep these backups until well after you've moved to Qbox. You don't need to stop your live server for it. A quiet time with few players is best.

1. Back up the database. Follow Back up a database.
2. Back up the server folder. This is the folder that contains server.cfg and resources. To find it, open your live txAdmin, go to Settings, then FXServer, and look at Server Data Folder. Copy that whole folder somewhere safe, for example to a USB drive or another disk. Zip it if you like.
3. Write down what you changed in qb-core. If you or a developer ever edited files inside qb-core, those changes don't carry over. Make a list of what was changed and why, so you can redo it on Qbox in a supported way.

Store the backups outside your server folder, so you can't overwrite them by accident.

Restore a backup

If your live database ever gets damaged, don't load the backup over it. Load it next to it instead:

1. In HeidiSQL, create a new database, for example qbcore_restore, and load the backup into it as in Copy a database.
2. In your live server's server.cfg, change the database name in mysql_connection_string to qbcore_restore.
3. Restart the live server.

To restore the server folder, stop the server and copy the backed-up folder back.

Updating qbx_core

If the guide tells you to update qbx_core, for example because a command doesn't exist:

1. Download qbx_core.zip from the newest release on qbx_core's releases page.
2. Stop the test server.
3. Copy the files you changed in qbx_core somewhere safe: the config folder, and shared/jobs.lua, gangs.lua, vehicles.lua and main.lua.
4. Delete the resources/[qbx]/qbx_core folder. Then unpack the zip into resources/[qbx]. The zip contains a qbx_core folder, so you have resources/[qbx]/qbx_core again.
5. Copy your changed files back in, and start the server.

Now continue with Resource equivalents.