Hi, this is a report more than a question, for action as others believe appropriate.
SiteGround have made the transition from CPanel to their own Site Tools system, an obvious improvement in many regards. One thing their translation software doesn't pick up is the change of folder address. This would be an issue on any host-server-side folder change, no matter the cause.
SMF 2.0.18 has a lovely little pop-up telling me the default themes directory is wrong, and I can fix it if I Click Here, where I log in as admin, then fix it. No such thing happens for the Attachments directory, so all the pics etc on old posts are gone and new ones won't upload. Easily fixed in the relevant admin menu, but helpful if the problem was fixed up when the themes alert is thrown.
The old address format is: /home/YourSG_AccountName/yourdomainname.com/public_html/DiscussionBoard
The new address format is: /home/customer/www/yourdomainname.com/public_html/DiscussionBoard
Gawd knows what they added the www for, but they did! Note the only text that is variable in the new one is the domain name.
In any situation where the host hasn't fudged up and forgot to properly inform users of changes, the alert about wrong directory should not be the first indication of problems. And either way, the proper way to check and fix all paths at once is repair_settings.php (https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Repair_settings.php)
OK, maybe for some, but the reality is SG advised the change was now done so to go check all the sites. On arriving at the smf forum was this banner re the themes directory, so I fixed that, in the way suggested. A pleb user is not going to know anything about any 'proper' ways to fix it, just do what was suggested.
It was a day later I realised that none of the attachments loading was not about some crap connection, as no error is thrown of any kind. Thumbnails don't show, and clicking on the attachment just goes off for a while and comes back with no error / whatever. Searching here doesn't find a useable answer (not saying it's not here somewhere, but I didn't find it), hence my post.
That directory paths are managed in multiple places, not in the server area where they should ALL be, is another aspect, as my suggested cure was just a patch anyway. Bringing the attachments server directory entry to the server entry page is the correct solution, as any advice about a missing default theme is going to get anything wrong on the page fixed up, not start some hypothetical witch hunt due to software planning faults.
Yes, I'm not saying it couldn't be improved - most certainly there's always room for improvement, but repair_settings.php is designed to be the all in one tool for situations where paths or urls change.
the thing is -- attachments are completely separate from themes. So, just because your themes directory may have changed does not mean that the attachments directory changed.
If you *KNOW* that the directory structure has entirely changed, then you should use repair_settings.php to check ALL of the directories.
As a note: Check your smilies directories as well since that will probably have to be adjusted.