converted database to utf-8 and now site is broken

Started by MikeG, June 08, 2014, 03:16:49 AM

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MikeG

forum site is
www dot russianvegasforum dot com

The site is broken, and when I go there I get this error message.
"Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later."

Site was using russian character set.

Here is what I did in order.

1: Did a backup of database via smf forum admin, not through my hosting.

2: Did a "Convert database and data to utf-8"

This was the first time I've done a backup, and I do not know how to restore. I did an import of the .sql file and it said it was successful but the site is still broken.

I also read from this forum about the packages/backup/*.gz files.  I found a recent backup, uncompressed it on my hard drive, and then copied the directories and files over to the correct hosting location, but I still get the same error message.

Please help.

Ninja ZX-10RR

Quote from: MikeG on June 08, 2014, 03:16:49 AM
"Connection Problems
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later."
Hi and welcome to SMF :D
Dude this message means that SMF was (exactly as it says) unable to connect to the Database so very much likely the problem is not on SMF side but rather on your host side. Ask your host and check if they are in maintenance or something like that.

Also check the instructions given in this topic --> http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=523265.0
Quote from: BeastMode topic=525177.msg3720020#msg3720020
It's so powerful that on this post and even in the two PMs you sent me,you still answered my question very quickly and you're apologizing for the delay. You're the #1 support I've probably ever encountered man, so much respect for that. Thank you, and get better soon.

I'll keep this in my siggy for a while just to remind me that someone appreciated what I did while others didn't.

♥ Jess ♥

STOP EDITING MY PROFILE

MikeG

Thanks for fast reply Flavio,. but no the problem started exactly when I hit the convert to utf-8 button.

I have several other sites hosted there and they all still work fine, and I can login to my godaddy hosting and do everything I normally do.

Any tips for a newbie who has never imported a database backup before?
Or how to "undo" the convert to utf-8 mods, whatever that has done?

SoLoGHoST

#3
Check your Settings.php file to be sure that your database connection username, db name, and passwords are correct.  If so, than that is not the problem.  After that, if you want to restore your database to it's previous state and you have a .sql file or .zip of your database, you can restore it via phpMyAdmin (if installed on your server, which normally is).  If you have SSH access (which you probably don't), you can restore it that way also.

MikeG

I imported through phpMyAdmin and it seems to work. I get this message.

"Import has been successfully finished, 183 queries executed"

When I set browser to repair_settings.php I get this message at the top outlined in red dotted lines...

"Some settings are not being shown because the database connection information is incorrect.
Check your database login details, table prefix and that the database actually contains your SMF tables. "

It seems like a login/password type problem?  But I think it's correct because I used the same login/password from phpMyAdmin to do the import.

MikeG

Also, from the repair_settings.php, table prefix is set to "smf_".  Seems reasonable.

Where is says to check that the database actually contains your SMF tables, I have no idea how to do that.

Ninja ZX-10RR

Can I suggest you to read this carefully? :) http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Repair_settings.php it explains pretty much how that thing works.
You're welcome for the reply anyhow :)
Quote from: BeastMode topic=525177.msg3720020#msg3720020
It's so powerful that on this post and even in the two PMs you sent me,you still answered my question very quickly and you're apologizing for the delay. You're the #1 support I've probably ever encountered man, so much respect for that. Thank you, and get better soon.

I'll keep this in my siggy for a while just to remind me that someone appreciated what I did while others didn't.

♥ Jess ♥

STOP EDITING MY PROFILE

MikeG

Update.  I called my web host and they found that a file was missing.  A version with a tilde existed so he renamed the file without the tilde and I was able to connect to the site, but when I clicked on anything I got errors mostly due to many missing files.

I guess one the the update operations that I tried failed right in the middle of it's process.
-Several files with both tilde version and non-tilde version.
-Several files existed with only tilde version.
-Several files did not exist at all.

I got needed files from...
http://www.sourcexref.com/xref/smf/nav.html?Sources/ModerationCenter.php.source.html [nofollow]

Now repair_settings.php show everything ok.  The site works fine now for users with a previous login.
However, the site is still useless because when new users click the "register" key, it gives this error message...

"Unable to load the 'main' template"







Ninja ZX-10RR

Quote from: MikeG on June 09, 2014, 01:21:12 AM
However, the site is still useless because when new users click the "register" key, it gives this error message...

"Unable to load the 'main' template"
Sounds pretty much messed up what happened but anyway we need more details to help you with this. Path? String? And what's on that string?
Quote from: BeastMode topic=525177.msg3720020#msg3720020
It's so powerful that on this post and even in the two PMs you sent me,you still answered my question very quickly and you're apologizing for the delay. You're the #1 support I've probably ever encountered man, so much respect for that. Thank you, and get better soon.

I'll keep this in my siggy for a while just to remind me that someone appreciated what I did while others didn't.

♥ Jess ♥

STOP EDITING MY PROFILE

MikeG

I don't know about the path or string.  Is there anyway for me to capture that?

When I click the "register" key from the home page of the forum I get this error message

"An Error has occurred!"
"Unable to load the 'main' template'

Attached is the image of what appears on the screen.

Ninja ZX-10RR

Check your Admin-->Error log about that, it should pop out something about this.
Quote from: BeastMode topic=525177.msg3720020#msg3720020
It's so powerful that on this post and even in the two PMs you sent me,you still answered my question very quickly and you're apologizing for the delay. You're the #1 support I've probably ever encountered man, so much respect for that. Thank you, and get better soon.

I'll keep this in my siggy for a while just to remind me that someone appreciated what I did while others didn't.

♥ Jess ♥

STOP EDITING MY PROFILE

MikeG

Ok, I got the info from the error log...

79f8b91ab7ce394ccd717e3dd32125ca
Type of error: Template

http://www.russianvegasforum.com/index.php?action=registerUnable [nofollow] to load the 'main' template.

Ninja ZX-10RR

Dude if you don't post the file path and the file name we can't help you in no way :( Post a screenshot of the error then, it's easier.
Quote from: BeastMode topic=525177.msg3720020#msg3720020
It's so powerful that on this post and even in the two PMs you sent me,you still answered my question very quickly and you're apologizing for the delay. You're the #1 support I've probably ever encountered man, so much respect for that. Thank you, and get better soon.

I'll keep this in my siggy for a while just to remind me that someone appreciated what I did while others didn't.

♥ Jess ♥

STOP EDITING MY PROFILE

MikeG


Ninja ZX-10RR

OMG

Quote from: BeastMode topic=525177.msg3720020#msg3720020
It's so powerful that on this post and even in the two PMs you sent me,you still answered my question very quickly and you're apologizing for the delay. You're the #1 support I've probably ever encountered man, so much respect for that. Thank you, and get better soon.

I'll keep this in my siggy for a while just to remind me that someone appreciated what I did while others didn't.

♥ Jess ♥

STOP EDITING MY PROFILE

Antechinus

Quote from: Flavio93Zena on June 09, 2014, 03:23:28 AM
OMG


  • More than 800 errors are not normal
  • I strongly believe you need to reinstall a lot of things because of those errors
  • You will have tons of other problems if you keep on ignoring hundreds of errors

You wont necessarily have "tons" of other problems. "Undefined" errors can build up very rapidly just from one minor thing (like a missing text string or whatever) simply because of the number of times that page gets loaded by users or guests or spiders. It's not necessarily a huge deal. Should be fixed if possible, but depending on what is causing it, may not be a real worry.

I'd ignore the undefineds for now and concentrate on fixing the big ones.

MikeG

I didn't ignore any error messages, it's just that I wasn't aware of them (newbie).

I would like to reinstall all files, and that was going to be my next question so thank you for the info on how to do that.

There are only are few mods installed for admin notepad, smilies, and SEO sitemap, and we can reinstall those.

For database backup I have done a database backup through my webhost, and also within SMF via...

Maintenance-Database-Backup Database
    -Save the table structure
    -Save that table data (the important stuff)

For file backup I have copied everything to my hard-drive via ftp.

So I am ready to go ahead and get the new files?

Antechinus

Yes, you should be fine to refresh the files. Just make sure you don't overwrite Settings.php. Use the files from an upgrade pack, not an install pack (I've seen people make that mistake before).

MikeG

Thanks! I was getting ready to do the full package instead of the upgrade, and I didn't know about not copying settings.php.


Ninja ZX-10RR

Yeah indeed Antechinus that's where I wanted to get but I was concerned more into understanding if there were so many conflicts could have been (and could actually be now..) a problem related to a mod.
And yes you shouldn't copy your settings because they are (as the name says) your own settings and you would lose them if you copy paste another settings.php
Quote from: BeastMode topic=525177.msg3720020#msg3720020
It's so powerful that on this post and even in the two PMs you sent me,you still answered my question very quickly and you're apologizing for the delay. You're the #1 support I've probably ever encountered man, so much respect for that. Thank you, and get better soon.

I'll keep this in my siggy for a while just to remind me that someone appreciated what I did while others didn't.

♥ Jess ♥

STOP EDITING MY PROFILE

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