Is there any step by step documentation/video tutorials to explain how to revert a set of slave sites to become Joomla independent sites.

I know there is a forum entry from years ago, but the instructions are extremely sketchy and do not mention anything to do with converting the views tables in the mysql so that they do not share tables with any other.

Thanks, in advance

Make an slave site become standalone is effectively possible.
You have to take in consideration 2 parts.
- First the PHP code
- Second the Database.

Concerning the PHP code, as you can find in the FAQ concerning the backup/restore
www.jms2win.com/en/faq/faq-joomla-multi-sites#cat-268
you can do a backup with a special parameter to convert each symbolic link by the physical content.
> tar -chzf [Deploy Dir].tgz [Deploy Dir]

Concerning the DB, when there is a sharing, this is a little more complex as the conversion of the view into the physical table must be done manually.
So you have to do the backup of both the physical DB to export the physical table and import them into the slave site with an update of the table prefix.

For the backup/restore of the DB, you can also use PHPMyAdmin export/import.

As the backup of the PHP Code contain JMS, you will have to uninstall it after the creation of the standalone version.
Becarefull that this will restore the "configuration.php" that was present at the moment of the installation of JMS. Therefore, this will restore the "master" configuration.php file and not the slave site one. So keep a copy of the "configuration.php" to be able restore it after the uninstall.
It is also recommended after the uninstall of JMS to unzip an original joomla package to ensure that all the original files are ok.

Again, the language and process is a little fuzzy on how to do all this.

Ill write what I think I understand to be the correct process (Master with various slaves all using their own prefix/database - many physical tables inside dbase and some "views")
To be even clearer, Id like to use simple protocol:

Master (JMS master) / master.sql
Slave / slave.sql (mixed physical and views table)

Independent (where we want to get to)

Step 1: Using the instructions above (PHP files), ssh a compressed copy of the Slave into a new folder, tar unzip it using the appropiate -letters and this will create all the website without any symbolic folders (ftp copies of images folders from master if necessary)

Step 2: MYSQL:
Take a mysql dump of BOTH master.sql and slave.sql.
Create a new sql "independent.sql" and import the slave.sql (a working copy)
Import the tables that are "views" in slave.sql from master.sql (changing the prefix to match prefix of independent.sql).

Do we need to delete the "VIEWS" first? ever? never? from the independent.sql?

Step 3:
Check configuration file in independent site matches the new mysql name, user and password and the folders for tmp, log etc.

Step 4. Delete index.php, index2.php
Upload a clean joomla install of the samve version overtop of the independent site or
Upload clean joomla index.php file from same version joomla to replace the deleted one that contained code from jms.

TEST new independent site.

Enter into independent site and remove JMS

Remove Slave from Master (components/Multisites) in backend as it is no longer being used.

Any comments on if this is the process I should, more or less follow would be great.
What I am trying to do is to not mess with the working slave so I prefer to build up an independent in a new folder and once I see it's working change the cpanel landing page from the slave to the independent and thus not lose anything if things go wrong.

Thanks for any feedback you can give on this.

Step 1 is done with the SSH command.
> tar -chzf [Deploy Dir].tgz [Deploy Dir]
If you read the linux "tar command", you will see that the option "-h" replace the symbolic link by a physical copy.

Step 2 - NO.
You have to do a backup of the slave excluding the VIEWS
and make a backup of the site (that is not necessarily the master) that contain the physical data of the views. When you are in JMS Tools and put the cursor in the table tabs over a link, it shows you the reference where is shared the data.
So you have to follows the links until you find the physical table that contain the data.
Once you have found where is located this physical data then this is those tables corresponding to the views that you will have to backup and restore with the appropriate prefix.
When you don't have any sharing, then only the slave site tables must backuped.

Step 3: Moreless OK.
You must keep a copy of the "configuration.php" file because when you will uninstall JMS in the standalone website, it will restore the master "configuration.php" file that was saved in JMS directory.
Therefore, once JMS is uninstalled, you have to restore your slave "configuration.php"

Step 4 is globally ok.
The key element is effectively to restore the original index.php file for the slave site.

Once you have finished all those steps, you can also unzip an original joomla package with exactly the same version number to ensure that all the patches are removed.

Great! That is very clear about what needs to be done. Thanks for your detailed response.