asked and answered…
you need to make sure your CSV file has column/fields for
_bbp_forum_id and _bbp_last_active_time
at Step 3 you’ll find these in Custom Fields
the time stamp of date and time is critical to get the topic to connect with the forum and show up on the frontend properly
by replying to the Topic the ‘freshness’ will reset.
example:
_bbp_last_active_time
5/21/2019 17:18
some quick notes on this
I get different results with different imports
you might have better success importing into a Single forum –
using Custom Fields in Step 3, you don’t necessarily need a _bbp_last_active_time column you can paste the time stamp into the field and all imports will have the same stamp. this last active seems to be important on my install, so be sure to do a test with one or two Topics to see if its working
you can do this custom fields for things like Voice Count too – available fields will show up if you add a field and click inside the entry form field
after one import I had to go into each Topic and ‘update’ it to get it to associate with the Forum. other imports didn’t need this… might have something to do with how many rows are imported, but just guessing
…and…
one thing I found to help with bbPress imports…
WP Admin > Tools > Forums > Repair Forums
just wish I found it sooner, would have saved some time and agony