Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Tuesday, 08 September 2015 03:51 CDT

user81532

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 tried to restore a backup and got the AJAX 500 error, but I couldn't troubleshoot it because after attempting the restore my site is totally dead. I can't get into the admin side of joomla, and none of the front end pages come up.

Where do I start?

I can't attache a log file because I can't access anything.

Tuesday, 08 September 2015 04:05 CDT

nicholas

Delete the installation directory and you should be able to log back into your site.

If you are still unable to log into your site, is it possible that you're trying to restore an earlier version of Joomla! on top of your site (e.g. Joomla! 3.3 on top of 3.4)? That would not work due to the way Joomla! loads its files and the differences between Joomla! versions. In this case please do post back, we'll give you different instructions to restore your 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, 08 September 2015 11:21 CDT

user81532

Thanks, Nicholas, I do believe that the latest backup was taken just before an update of the Joomla! version. Please do inform me of how to restore the site under these circumstances.

Tuesday, 08 September 2015 14:07 CDT

nicholas

VERY IMPORTANT! Before doing anything else please DO CONFIRM that removing the installation directory has no effect on your ability to log in to your site. If you can access your site after removing the installation directory DO NOT carry out the procedure below.

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If you are 100% sure that after removing the installation directory you STILL cannot access your site, keep reading.

First, please make sure that you have multiple copies of your backups. Your backup archives are stored by default in the directory administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup. If you have changed that directory you already know where your backups are stored.

Before doing anything else, download these backups with FTP in Binary transfer mode and keep copies of them on your own computer, NAS, USB flash drive etc. We are about to remove your site. Your backups are the only thing preventing a catastrophe.

Then, remove all of your site files. These are the files and folders you typically see in your public_html, htdocs, httpdocs, www or similarly named directory when you connect to your site by FTP.

After removing those files upload the backup archive and kickstart.php, then access the kickstart.php URL to extract the backup archive and start the restoration.

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, 10 September 2015 02:01 CDT

user81532

Thanks for the help Nicholas. I did confirm that deleting the installation folder did not allow me to log back into the site. I began to follow your instructions, but unfortunately the backups directory was empty. Moreover, I found other directories (such as directories for entire sites) that had mysteriously become empty. I don't think this was caused by the akeeba backup failure, but I'm not sure. I've been working with my hosting company to try to reclaim the files that vanished, but so far no luck.

Thursday, 10 September 2015 02:54 CDT

nicholas

My educated guess is that you have either hit the inode limit of your account (something like a limit on the number of files; not quite that, but close enough if I have to explain it) OR your server's hard drive experienced a failure. That would explain why files are suddenly missing.

If you have copies of your backup elsewhere you can just upload the backup archive and kickstart.php and restore your site. If you currently do not have such backup archives it is very important that you start keeping off-site copies of your backups.

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, 10 September 2015 03:29 CDT

user81532

Thanks, Nicholas. I think you're right that it was a server problem, or perhaps an overabundance of cron files caused me to exceed the inode limit.

All the best and thanks again.

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