Support

Did you restore on top of an existing site? If you did, it's possible that you have mixed different versions of extensions which makes it unproductive trying to figure out what is going on. Instead, delete the files on the dev site and restore the backup afresh.

I need you to do a few things things to help with diagnosing.

Does the folder libraries/fof40 exist in BOTH the site you are backing up from AND the restored site?

Next up, I need you to edit the restored site's configuration.php file and set

public $debug = true;
public $error_reporting = 'maximum';

Try to access the site again. You should have a far more detailed message with a debug backtrace. I need all of the information on that page.

Finally, I need the backup log file of the backup archive you are trying to restore.

> In order to see the errors correctly I think I need to make a new back of original dev site with no exclusions and run it again and report errors back to you?

Yes, you need to make a backup without excluding anything.

From the log file, I see that the libraries/fof40 directory is backed up correctly. You also say that it exists. This leaves me with two reasonable educated guesses as to what may have happened:

1. You are trying to extract the backup archive (which is in ZIP format) without using Kickstart. This may not work because Akeeba Backup uses the normative (official) PKZIP format for multipart archives which is not supported by the InfoZip library used by the unzip programme in Linux distributions (what your host's control panel would be using), 7-Zip and most free unarchivers. Using Kickstart avoids that problem.
2. Your host is using some kind of caching, e.g. OPcache. If you are not using Kickstart 7.1.0 or later this won't be cleared and your host's PHP may not be “seeing” the .php files which have been extracted and are present on your site.

Alternatively, you may have a different issue which will make itself known if you restore a FULL site backup, with nothing omitted, and $debug set to true in the configuration.php file.

I downloaded your backup from the dev site you gave me access to.

When restoring did you change the Live Site URL in the Site Setup page? If not, that's the first problem. You should remove everything from that field and leave it empty. It is only needed in VERY specific cases where a server misconfiguration means that Apache does not receive the HTTP Host header, therefore it cannot relay the site's hostname to PHP for Joomla to read. In 99.99% of the sites this is best left empty.

If you are restoring on the same hosting account, did you check the Override tmp and log paths option in the Site Setup page? If not, that's the second problem.

The other thing to consider is that your .htaccess file has a lot of crap added to it by your cPanel. There's an option in the Site Setup page to replace the .htaccess file with the default. Did you check it? If not, that would be the third problem. Sure enough, if I don't do that I get all sorts of errors — invisible on the page, but I can see them in the web server's error log. They boil down to “you are trying to set this PHP setting in your .htaccess but you are not actually allowed to, I will therefore roll over and die”.

Having done these three things, I can see your beautiful site just fine on my local test server :) I am attaching the screenshot as a proof (note the URL: client.local.web is the locally resolved domain name I use for testing clients' backups).

> Since I was moving to my server I did change it that way the menu items and the link from Joomla CMS works and does not go to the original site.

You shouldn't have to. Joomla always uses the hostname of the site you are accessing. If your menu items were redirecting you to the old site something must have been wrong in your .htaccess file. I removed the backup and the restored site after replying to you so I can't tell you within any degree of certainty.

> So I dont know why and what crap Rockettheme would have added , and I dont how the host Cpanel could have added crap.

You know how cPanel allows you to change the PHP version of your site and its configuration? This is done by writing special code in the .htaccess file. This is not portable across servers which is why we have the Site Setup options to revert to the Joomla default .htaccess file :)

> I would really like to know what errors because I have a couple of issues on this site that are difficult to detect.

In my case, the ability to set PHP configuration options through the .htaccess file was disabled so these lines made the server throw an error — it was complaining I am using a feature which is not enabled.

Some of these settings were about the absolute filesystem location of PHP's temporary folder so I'd guess these are not portable between servers or even between site locations.

> Visitors dont appear to be able to sign out or the cache is retaining their session even after all cache clearing from host to browser, on both inmotion and siteground.

This sounds like a session issue which could indeed be caused by the wrong settings regarding PHP's session folder in the .htaccess file.

> Not sure if you are being sarcastic but it is way too busy in my opinion to be beautiful.

Trust me, its design is a-okay. You don't want to know the atrocities I've seen in 16 years of doing support for my backup software. Your site is clean and understandable. Yes, a bit busy, but not to the point that I get motion sickness or desperately look for a compass. Plus, I like planes :D (unfortunately never had the time to pursue getting a PPL).

> Thank you Nicholas for all of this excellent insight and support over the last 20 years or so. I always refer  people to you and make sure they are using Akeeba and sign up with you there is no better support in all of  the CMS realm  that I have found all the way back to my Amiga days.

Thank you! I try to help people as much as I can. Teach a man to fish and all that :)

> How do I edit a my reply if I find a change after submitting it, I dont want to be kicked out of the line if I enter a reply twice in a row and our time difference i am in Toronto means I have to wait almost a day if I do?

It's actually best if you just submit another reply. New replies show up in my latest tickets feed, edits do not. On top of that, edits are time-locked to 15' after you submit a post, to avoid having a ticket history which makes no sense.

> I need to find a default joomla 3 .htaccess file to ensure this is clean and test again.

Check your site's root. There should be a file named htaccess.txt. Copy it (don't rename it!) into .htaccess and you have successfully reverted back to the default Joomla .htaccess file!

> I saw your avatar pic once it looked like your in a plane so thought you were a pilot 

I was in a plane but I was in the back seat :) Phil Taylor of mySites.guru was flying the plane. Since we were in Greece and he had less than 10 hours flying in the Greek airspace the safety pilot had to be someone with that experience so we were assigned one by the company that rented out the plane. Very lovely lad, former airforce pilot. It was very interesting flying from the Megara airport for three reasons.

First, you have a flight ceiling of 1000ft because above that you're in the airspace of the ATH airport. The surrounding hills are at 1200ft though. It's a bit freakish to see the hilltops looming above either side of you as you leave the airport. It provides for great scenery though!

There's a small island just off the airport you can't fly over (navy antenna installation). This makes landing interesting. You start flying parallel to the runway, wait for the ATC to give you the all clear and do a super tight right turn to start your final approach. Beats the crap out of any rollercoaster I've been on!

The third reason is that it's a mixed use, civilian and military, airport. When we were landing there were two Chinook army helicopters practicing hovering just off the ground, 100 ft off the end of the runway. They create a sizeable wake with their twin rotors. Flying over that wake was a new thing for Phil but he nailed it.

Thank you and have an awesome week, Derek!