Support

Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 2.5.14
PHP version: 5.3.27
MySQL version: (unknown)
Host: Dreamhost
Akeeba Backup version: 3.8.1

[zip file of log attached]

Description of my issue: Trying to configure site transfer wizard for the first time to transfer the site from Live Dreamhost server to Dev Rochen server. The backup fails with the message "Uploading configuration.php has failed." Please advise, thanks!

[logfile]

1. Is there a configuration.php file on the target site? Are the permissions set to read only?
2. Have you looked at the Troubleshooter article at https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/abstwdir.html? You are not getting the "directory not defined properly" message, but that is a very common reason for a failed transfer.
3. Did you get a successful connection when you set up the site transfer wizard?

Dale

Thanks for your response Dale. In answer to question 1, yes, when I performed the backup there was a configuration.php file on the target site. I deleted this file from the target site (as well as all other files and folders) and then carried out the backup again. This time it was successful.

Does this mean that I cannot use the Site Transfer Wizard to the target site if there is a configuration.php file on the target site?

Thanks,
Dave

Yes, if the configuration.php file is unwritable. :-) I'm pretty sure that file was unwritable by the ftp user that you had set up in the transfer wizard. That is what stopped it.

Generally speaking, you can overwrite an existing site with the same version of Joomla! In other words, a 2.5.14 site can overwrite another 2.5.14 site, but you can't overwrite a 2.5.14 site with a 3.1.5 version.

Dale

Oh I see. Thanks Dale.

I am trying to overwrite an existing Joomla 2.5.14 site with another 2.5.14 site.

What permissions would you advise using on the configuration.php file?

Would you recommend that I change the permissions on the configuration.php (to what?) file prior to running the site transfer wizard, and then changing it back (to what?) after running the wizard? Thanks again for your help!

Dave

The "normal" setting for files is 644, that allows anyone to read the file, but only the owner can write to it. For php files the execute flag doesn't matter. That setting should also allow you to do the site transfer, assuming that your ftp user and your web user are the same (that is not always true). When the users are not the same, you generally use ftp mode within Joomla! so that all of your files are owned by the ftp user.

I prefer to delete all the files on the site before restoring. I also manually drop the tables. That is just personal preference. In theory, all of the tables will be dropped and replaced and all of the files will be overwritten. That's one reason you don't overwrite different versions, the files won't all be overwritten and you will leave orphan files on your site. They generally don't do any harm, but they take up space on the site and in the backup. If you install a new component on your site, then overwrite it with a backup, those new files (and any tables added) will be orphaned. They will just sit there taking up space.

Dale