Inventory migration: QB, ESX, ox
Replacing your inventory is one of the most disruptive changes you can make, because half your scripts touch items. Moving to ox_inventory is popular for good reason, but it is a migration, not a drop-in. This lesson gives you the plan, the bridge concept, the data-shape difference that actually loses items, and the test that proves you did not.
Plan the migration
Map what touches the inventory
List the resources that call inventory functions: shops, jobs, crafting, drugs, anything that grants or takes items. These are what will break, and what you must update or bridge.
Understand the compatibility bridge
ox_inventory ships compatibility shims that re-expose the common framework inventory exports (the QB AddItem/RemoveItem/GetItemByName calls and the ESX addInventoryItem/removeInventoryItem/getInventoryItem calls) so many scripts work with minimal change. The docs are explicit that these are best-effort: anything that read the framework's raw inventory table or used a niche export still needs real edits. Plan for both.
Migrate the items definitions and the data
Convert your framework items (QB shared/items.lua or the ESX items table) into ox_inventory's data/items.lua format, then migrate the existing player inventory rows. For ESX, ox_inventory ships an official migration command: with the server running, type convertinventory esx into the FXServer console (the same window where you see server logs, or the txAdmin Live Console), then convertinventory esxproperty if you use property storage, and restart the server when it finishes. For QBCore, ox_inventory ships convertinventory qb, which migrates both player and vehicle inventories (and maps QBShared.Items into ox_inventory's item data); run it the same way and restart the resource when it finishes. Either way, do it on a copy of the database first, against your backup. The next section shows the exact shape difference so you understand what the converter (or your script) is doing.
Test on a copy before going live
On a test server with the backup restored: load a character, confirm their items are intact, then run each item-touching script (buy, sell, job reward) and confirm it works.
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