SMF Support > SMF 1.1.x Support
Restore from downloaded backup
N. N.:
--- Quote from: sck on April 23, 2012, 11:33:25 AM ---It would be nice if SMF would at least let us know that it does not work. I thought I was doing good making backups. If I had known this, I would have been making backups on the host CP. >:(
--- End quote ---
The SMF backup tool works in many cases. There are server restrictions and configurations, under which it may fail, and it will fail. As a general idea: it would be good to make sure every time that the file size is the one you'd expect (that is, continuously growing, compared to the last one). A suddenly small or empty file would be, obviously, a failure, a sign that PHP might have reached its limits and SMF script wasn't able to finish normally.
I think there still are, here, problems we absolutely need to address. I am aware there are cases of failures, in particular when the database grows and PHP may reach its configured limits, causing scripts (including SMF's script) to fail.
However, in the case of your backup, I don't see any clue that it may have reached such cases. How big is your file? If you open it in an editor, can you please tell how does it end? (the last lines)
To restore it, please make another database, and "import" the file through PHPMyAdmin, if your host offers it. It would allow you to know whether the file is at least well formed. Please, feel free to let us know how it goes.
As a general idea, however: SMF backup tool is NOT as good as specialized backup tools, and it may indeed fail, depending on many factors. It is provided for small forums, as a first-assistance tool, but as your forum grows, it would be recommended to look into using specialized tools.
SMF should provide this information fully through the admin interface. We're looking into other options, too, actually, including removing it from SMF and pointing out admins to specialized tools, instead, both made by us and third-party.
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