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#10190 Upgraded, ininstalled, re-installed, now missing my old settings!

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Latest post by user41123 on Thursday, 05 January 2012 06:08 CST

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 01:58 CST

TurnTex
Nicholas,

Tonight while trying to get the alpha release working, I did the upgrade. After getting the 500 error (which you salved, thank you!) I tried manually installing 2 times. That didn't work so I uninstalled and reinstalled 2 times. Just a few minutes ago, I installed the latest release which solved the 500 error problem but now I am missing something!

I went to look at my IP blacklist and it is empty. I then went to look at my .htaccess maker and all of the settings are back at the default settings. I had a number of exceptions in there to allow some of my stuff to work and they are all gone.

I have not created a new .htaccess file so I am in good shape on that end but when the day comes that I need to, I am going to be back at square 1. Also, I had a lot of IPs blacklisted which are now gone. Is there any way to get this information back?

I am running Akeeba Backup pro and though I did not do a full site backup before all of this (I know, I know:)), Akeeba did do the system restore points but I have never used anything from that so don't know if that would be any help.

I assumed that the custom settings were stored in the database and would be preserved. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:10 CST

nicholas
Hi Curtis,

When you uninstall, the tables of the component get removed and you do lose your settings. As you correctly pointed out, having a System Restore Point is a solution! Just go to Akeeba Backup, Administer Backup Files, Restore Points and click on the restoration button of your restore point. This will roll back your Admin Tools to 2.1.14, with all your settings intact. Then, install the dev release on top of it and you should be up and running.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:15 CST

TurnTex
Oh hell! Since I just did the update to the latest release and also had a number of re-install attempts, the one I need says it is obsolete and does not give me a roll back option!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:17 CST

nicholas
If you have an older full-site backup you can restore it locally. Then dump the jos_admintools_* tables using phpMyAdmin and restore them to your live site. Then re-install the latest dev release of Admin Tools to upgrade the tables and you're set. Even if your last full site backup is old, it's better than starting from scratch, isn't it?

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:18 CST

TurnTex
I do, however, have a full site backup from a week ago or so. Is it possible to just restore the admin component and not the whole site? Sorry, this may belong in the Akeeba Backup forum but I never go over there and may feel like an outsider!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:20 CST

nicholas
No problem, I can still help you :D

You can't do a partial restoration, but you can do as I said. Download the backup archive to your local PC and restore it there, e.g. using XAMPP (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X), WAMPserver (Windows) or MAMP (Mac OS X). This will create a local clone of your live site. Using phpMyAdmin, dump the jos_admintools_* tables of the local site into a SQL file. You can then restore that file using your host's copy of phpMyAdmin on the live site. This transfers the settings. Then, just reinstall the latest Admin Tools dev release on the live site.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:22 CST

TurnTex
OK, now you are speaking Greek to me! I assume you mean to download the backup to my local machine, then extract it? It does sound a hell of a lot better than trying to re-create everything but I am not real confident doing it since I am just a dummy, self taught on this stuff and am a little afraid of messing with the database too much. I have done some stuff but not sure how to "just dump the tables and restore them"!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:24 CST

nicholas
As I said, I want you to download the archive and RESTORE it on a local server. Just read the following, in this exact order:
https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/quick-start-guide/restoring-backups.html#preparing-a-local-server
https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/quick-start-guide/what-you-need-before-beginning.html
https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/quick-start-guide/using-kickstart.html
https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/quick-start-guide/using-abi.html

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:30 CST

TurnTex
OK, I am downloading WampServer as we speak! You are the best, Nicholas!! It is a real pleasure working with your software and your OUTSTANDING support!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:31 CST

nicholas
You're welcome :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 22:04 CST

TurnTex
OK, I admit defeat! I can not seem to get the damn localhost working and then, even if I do, I don't know how the hell to use it! I have another hosting account for dev purposes. Can I restore my backup on that account and then get the database info out of it that way? I do know how t do that part!

Wednesday, 04 January 2012 03:18 CST

nicholas
Sure you can! I proposed the localhost for convenience. If it's a big hustle setting it up, just use the online dev account.

That said, if you tell me which Operating System you're using, I may be able to give you instructions for setting up a localhost. I've done that on different versions of Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion and Windows XP/Vista/7. The chances are I have an idea how to do that. Big tip: If you're using Skype, turn it off BEFORE starting up your localhost. The damn thing hooks up by default the port which is assigned to web servers, causing local server packages to not be able to launch. Had me banging my head for days.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Wednesday, 04 January 2012 08:44 CST

TurnTex
I am using Win7-64. I downloaded WampServer and installed it. I started it it would never go green. I searched their forum and found all kinds of things to try and none of them worked including testing the port, which was not in use, btw.

Wednesday, 04 January 2012 08:49 CST

nicholas
Same setup on my laptop. What I found out is that the 64-bit version of WAMP would never work, whereas the 32-bit version... worked like a charm! I, just like you, have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Maybe it's worth the shot: uninstall WAMPserver, download their 32-bit package and install it. Make sure you have quit all programs (especially Skype). If you have a firewall/security application, either turn it off or set it to interactive mode. I have NOD32 Internet Security 5 on that laptop. I had to put the firewall to interactive mode. Otherwise, it would silently block WAMPserver.

Don't you love the "simplicity" of Windows? ROFL! Strange issues like that made me switch to Mac OS X. It might be the most proprietary OS you can think of, but setting up a local web server is as simple as installing MAMP and running it. No fiddling with firewalls, no guesswork. And if you're a power user you can always drop to terminal and type away to your heart's content (command line FTW!). OK, my rant is over now :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Wednesday, 04 January 2012 22:58 CST

TurnTex
Wohoo! I got WampServer up and running, created a database, and restored my site, all thanks to you and your encouragement/advice, Nicholas! Still have some issues that I sent you a private ticket on but nothing related to your software.

You never cease to amaze me with your outstanding support, my friend!!!

BTW, I too am running NOD32 but just the antivirus portion. I knew it was good but now that I know you are using it, I am even more confident!

Thursday, 05 January 2012 03:02 CST

nicholas
Awesome! You now have an incredibly powerful tool at your fingertips. You can use Akeeba Backup to transfer a site between your live and your local servers. This is infinitely useful for debugging a site, fooling around with ideas and new extensions, testing new extension versions (especially the alpha and beta ones, he he!), even redesigning a site. Using a local testing server to do those things will double your efficiency, as you don't have to cope with the network delay, FTP software and the necessary waiting until a file is uploaded :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Thursday, 05 January 2012 06:08 CST

user41123
I do totally agree with Nicholas for using a local test enviroment before uploading new or updated extensions to your production site.
I also use WAMP on a Windows 7/64 bit machine and rollback almost every Akeeba backup with kickstart to my local testsite so I have the newest version local.
It's not exactly a local cache which you can synchronize with your online site(like in Dreamweaver) but it gives you a very good idea how extensions will behave on your production site.
Till today in my case it never occured that an updated or new extension worked fine local and crashes on the production site.

Greetings, Paul

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