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Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#30188 Akeeba Backup 6.2.0 and PHP 7.1 Error 500

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

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Akeeba Backup version
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Latest post by on Sunday, 07 October 2018 17:17 CDT

ernienet
Please look at the bottom of this page (under Support Policy Summary) for our support policy summary, containing important information regarding our working hours and our support policy. Thank you!

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: HTTP 500 Error when initiating upgrade Joomla 3.8.11 to 3.8.12 at Akeeba Backup Step.

I have Backup on Update (BoU) enabled on my websites, so when I log into Joomla and see the Joomla Update button at the top, I click it and it takes me to the update page. From there, I click "Install the Update" and that's where I get the error.

If I downgrade my PHP version to PHP 7.0, the same process above works. I have duplicated this on two sites, and now I make sure I temporarily downgrade to PHP 7.0 before starting the upgrade process.

Did Akeeba Backup 6.2.0 introduce an incompatibility with PHP 7.1? I'm getting a warning on my Joomla main admin page warning me that I need to update my websites to PHP 7.1.

Thank you,
Ernie

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
No, we didn't make it incompatible with PHP 7.1. In fact we didn't touch the backup on update feature for a quite a long time.

I think that your issue is unrelated to the Backup on Update feature. After all it simply issues a redirection to Akeeba Backup which then takes a backup using the configured backup profile, exactly the same as taking a backup yourself from Akeeba Backup's interface. Based on your description the problem happens during the backup (if I understand correctly). I am guessing that PHP 7.0 and 7.1 have a different configuration on your host and something in PHP 7.1's configuration is not compatible with your current Akeeba Backup configuration.

I don't want to speculate wildly, even though I have a pretty good idea what could be the issue based on experience. I'd much rather you putting the backup log file from the failed backup attempt in a ZIP file and attach that ZIP file here. If the file is over 2MB big please upload it somewhere and paste a link here. This will let me see what exactly is going on and I'll be able to help you more accurately.

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!

ernienet
Hi Nicholas,

I contacted my hosting company and they found the following:

[05-Sep-2018 18:19:32 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 50331648 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /home/[mywebsite]/public_html/libraries/gantry5/vendor/leafo/scssphp/src/Parser.php on line 611

So it appears that the issue might have been somehow associated with RocketTheme, though the hosting company pointed out that there was a memory issue - my PHP 7.0 configuration apparently allocated 64MB of memory to the site and the PHP 7.1 configuration only allocated 32MB.

I'll test the process on the next site that needs a Joomla update - this error did not occur when I went to the extension and initiated the backup from there - it only happened when I clicked the Joomla update button on the Control Panel page of the Administrator.

Thank you,
Ernie

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
That would make sense. 32MB is very tight. Akeeba Backup needs about 16MB to work, more if you are transferring the file to a remote storage. Since it runs inside Joomla do remember that Joomla! itself and all loaded plugins also take up memory. When you reach a point where memory is exhausted you get a blank page. The point where that happens is not fixed since plugins' memory usage will fluctuate a little bit. You got slightly unlucky that this happened during the site update but it could have happened anytime.

I'd like to clarify that 32MB is only enough for very simple sites. I'd recommend changing your PHP configuration to at least 64MB.

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!

System Task
system
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