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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#19165 blank page in backend when click on Akeeba

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
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PHP version
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Akeeba Backup version
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Latest post by nicholas on Thursday, 13 February 2014 09:43 CST

aimlesslady
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach a ZIP file containing your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue. If the file is over 2Mb, please upload it on your server and post a link to it.

Description of my issue:
i backed up my active site and installed it on a backup folder on the same server with a different database to test that the backup isn't corrupted. Everything in the front end seems to be working properly, and everything EXCEPT Akeeba Admin tools and Akeeba backup seems to be working.When I click on either of these buttons under Components, it takes me to a blank page. Therefore, I can't provide a log for the site with a problem because I can't access the backend interface.
I followed the instructions to clear the cache, deleted the content of the sessions table as well as check the viewlevels table, even though there are no ACL levels created or used, to no avail.
I am attaching the backend log from the site I backed up from.
The active site is http://ophthalmicsurgeonsofgreaterbridgeport.com and the backup site where I am exhibiting problems is http://ophthalmicsurgeonsofgreaterbridgeport.com/osobackup
The active site is not a problem, the Akeeba programs are functioning properly, just the backup site.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
I believe that the problem is not with the backup and restoration but something different. A white page or a page with a 500 Internal Server Error is, in fact, either a .htaccess issue to a PHP fatal error in disguise.

First, let's see if it is a .htaccess issue. Try renaming the .htaccess file in your site's root to htaccess.bak (try both the main site's .htaccess AND the restored site's .htaccess please). If there is a .htaccess file in the site's administrator directory, try renaming it as well. If that solves the problem, the issue was with a directive in your .htaccess file. We'd like to recommend you to try removing directives from your .htaccess until you find the one which causes the problem.

If that doesn't help, the error you are receiving is in fact a PHP error in disguise. First, check your server's error logs (not the access logs) immediately after visiting the page which throws the error. There should be an exact description of the PHP fatal error which occurred. Sometimes you can find the error messages in files called error_log or error.log inside the site's root and/or administrator directories. If unsure about the error log location, please consult your host. Most likely the error logs are available in your site's cPanel, Plesk control panel or similar hosting account management facility.

If your host does not give you access to the error logs and you have access to the Joomla! administrator area, please log in to your site's back-end, go to Global Configuration, click on the Server tab and set the Error Reporting to Maximum (Joomla! 1.5) or Development (Joomla! 2.x and later). Try visiting the problem page again.

If you still get a blank page, edit your configuration.php file and put the following code right after the final closing curly brace ( this is what a curly brace looks like --> } ) but before the closing PHP tag (it looks like ?> that is a question mark and a greater-than sign):
ini_set( 'display_errors', true );
error_reporting( E_ALL ); 
Try visiting the problem page again.

If you still get a white page, please remote the two lines from your configuration.php file. Edit the .htaccess file in your site's root (not the main site, I'm talking about the restored site). If you don't have a file named .htaccess create a new one. Beware that htaccess.txt is a DIFFERENT FILE and will NOT work! Add the following to the end of the file:
php_flag display_errors On
php_value error_reporting 32767
and retry loading the problem page.

If you still get a white page, remove the two lines from your .htaccess file. Now, create a file called php.ini with the following content:
display_errors=on
error_reporting=E_ALL
and upload it into your site's root and your site's administrator directory. Retry loading the problem page.

IMPORTANT: Sometimes the error won't show. Edit your configuration.php and find the line starting with public $error_reporting and set it to:
public $error_reporting = 'development';

This instructs Joomla! to enable maximum error, warnings and notices verbosity. In 99.9% of cases it will result in the error messages being shown on the browser.

Please note that if you can not understand what the PHP error message means, just copy and paste it here verbatim so that we can take a look and point you to the right direction.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

aimlesslady
Thank you for your prompt response. I tried renaming the htaccess files. It gave me a 500 error telling me I needed a newer version of php, so I went to the cpanel and changed the php to 5.4. I creates a htaccess file with just that directive but it still gave me a blank page.
This is from the error_log.

[12-Feb-2014 08:07:26 America/Denver] PHP Strict Standards: Declaration of JCacheControllerView::get() should be compatible with JCacheController::get($id, $group = NULL) in /home3/ophthal1/public_html/osobackup/libraries/joomla/cache/controller/view.php on line 137

I hope this sheds some light on this.
Ironically, I have been updating many of my client sites and testing the backups and this has happened on only 2 of about 8 that I have done so far. Most of the sites have been hosted on Bluehost with no problem, but I did have the problem with one hosted on Hostgator as well. I have only tried resolving this on the site hosted with Bluehost so far.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Ellen

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
This doesn't shed any light at all, I'm afraid. Can you please set your site's error reporting to "Development" and set "Debug Site" to On? If logging in to your site throws a blank page please try replacing the index.php in your browser's address bar with index.php?option=com_config which will take you directly to the Global Configuration page where you can change these settings. Then retry accessing your site; it should spit out much more PHP messages which should tell us what is going on.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

aimlesslady
I checked YES to Debug Settings for both System and Language in Global Configurations.
I got this at the top of the page after I saved it:
Strict Standards: Declaration of JCacheControllerView::get() should be compatible with JCacheController::get($id, $group = NULL) in /home3/ophthal1/public_html/osobackup/libraries/joomla/cache/controller/view.php on line 137


and this on the bottom in red in the Joomla Debug Console:
**Parsing errors in language files**

    JROOT/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.plg_system_nnframework.ini : error(s) in line(s) 18
    JROOT/administrator/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_rsform.ini : error(s) in line(s) 564


When I navigate to the Akeeba backup page, I get a page wil just this on it:
Fatal error: Call to a member function get() on a non-object in /home3/ophthal1/public_html/osobackup/administrator/components/com_akeeba/dispatcher.php on line 127


And when I navigate to Admin Tools I get this (also on a blank page):
Fatal error: Call to a member function getCmd() on a non-object in /home3/ophthal1/public_html/osobackup/administrator/components/com_admintools/dispatcher.php on line 70


nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
That's very interesting... because that line with that content doesn't exist in the latest (and the last to latest) versions of our software. This means two things:
1. For some reason Akeeba Backup and Admin Tools are not updated. Please try installing both components (Akeeba Backup Pro 3.10.1 –just released– and Admin Tools Pro 2.6.0) TWICE in a row, without uninstalling them first. This will convince Joomla! to really write the updated files on your server. This is something you have to do on your main site. Then take a new backup and retry the restoration.
2. If I'm guessing correctly, you seem to be trying to restore a backup on top of an older site. If this is the case, wipe the entire osobackup folder and retry the restoration.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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