Moved forum to new host, admin pages now blank

[PhilWebb]

I moved my forum from GoDaddy to Hostinger, and everything seemed to go alright at first. I got a "Theme directory" error which I was able to resolve with the repair-settings tool. Unfortunaltely, I also and getting a black white page when I try to access any admin pages. I am logged in as an admin. I can access the members, moderation, and search pages page as expected.

I re-ran the repair tool, looked for errors, but can't find anything. I have tried dumping browser cache and tried Chrome and Brave browsers, still no joy.

I am running smf 2.1.4 and PHP 8.4.

Anyone have some wisdom for me?

[All Colours Sam]

Welcome to SMF.

Does it only happens when trying to access your admin pages?
Do you happen to have access to your server error log? if not, try asking your host for it and post it here (removing any sensitive data of course).

[PhilWebb]

Welcome to SMF.

Does it only happens when trying to access your admin pages?

Yes. I've tried accessing the admin section from different places in the forum, and they all output a blank page.

Do you happen to have access to your server error log? if not, try asking your host for it and post it here (removing any sensitive data of course).

I think I can do that. I believe there is more than one error log, though, isn't there? Can you give me an idea of the path to the log you are looking for?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

SMF 2.1.4 does not support php 8.4.  Try downgrading to 8.1 or 8.2.

[PhilWebb]

SMF 2.1.4 does not support php 8.4.  Try downgrading to 8.1 or 8.2.

I downgraded to 8.2 and still get the same behavior.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Are you getting a blank page or just text on white background?

[PhilWebb]

Are you getting a blank page or just text on white background?

Blank white page.

When I tried a "View source" option I did notice this though:

Code Select Expand

index.php:1
           
           
           Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500 ()

[All Colours Sam]

I think I can do that. I believe there is more than one error log, though, isn't there? Can you give me an idea of the path to the log you are looking for?

Specific path I cannot say for sure since each hosting provider has different configurations, what we are looking for would be labeled as either "PHP errors" or "Server errors". Do you use cPanel for managing your hosting?

[Sir Osis of Liver]

500 is a server error, you may have an error_log file in forum root, or you should be able to find server log in your host control panel, or you can ask host support.

Look in your /Sources directory, do you have an Admin.php?

[PhilWebb]

Look in your /Sources directory, do you have an Admin.php?

Yes, there is an "Admin.php"

500 is a server error, you may have an error_log file in forum root, or you should be able to find server log in your host control panel, or you can ask host support.

I have the following in the installation root directory:

Code Select Expand

[19-May-2025 15:07:08 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Class "SMF\Cache\APIs\mcljlcox" not found in /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/ManageServer.php:1801
Stack trace:
#0 /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/Subs-Admin.php(88): loadCacheAPIs()
#1 /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/Admin.php(551): getServerVersions()
#2 /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/Admin.php(499): AdminHome()
#3 /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/index.php(192): AdminMain()
#4 {main}
  thrown in /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/ManageServer.php on line 1801
[19-May-2025 15:07:14 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Class "SMF\Cache\APIs\mcljlcox" not found in /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/ManageServer.php:1801
Stack trace:
#0 /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/Subs-Admin.php(88): loadCacheAPIs()
#1 /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/Admin.php(551): getServerVersions()
#2 /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/Admin.php(499): AdminHome()
#3 /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/index.php(192): AdminMain()
#4 {main}
  thrown in /home/dhotgf8urxyq/public_html/[REDACTED]/Sources/ManageServer.php on line 1801


[PhilWebb]

Specific path I cannot say for sure since each hosting provider has different configurations, what we are looking for would be labeled as either "PHP errors" or "Server errors". Do you use cPanel for managing your hosting?

I attached a server log above.

As near as I can tell, my host uses their own sort of cPanel.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

That's a cache error, may or may not be causing the problem.  You'll have to give that to host support.

Only other thing I can suggest is upload a clean copy of Admin.php.  Removing that file replicates the problem you've described, everything works except admin.

[All Colours Sam]

Its not really a cache error, related sure but not about the action of caching itself.

The code is looking for some class "mcljlcox" that doesn't exists or better yet, there is a file called "mcljlcox", SMF trys to load it and look for a class inside that file, since its mot likely that file is the result of a cache entry, its not a PHP file and thus it doesn't have a class.

Looks like the cache directory and the SMF/Sources/Cache/APIs directory somehow ended up being the same folder (or you have some compromised folders that ended up with foreign files being injected, better ask your host about it, "mcljlcox" is not an standard SMF file nor its a product of SMF file based cache system), this will cause issues so we better separate them.

First thing would be enter your path/toYour/SMF/Sources/Cache/APIs folder and delete the "mcljlcox" and any other file that is not one of the following:

- Apcu.php
- FileBased.php
- MemcachedImplementation.php
- MemcacheImplementation.php
- Postgres.php
- Sqlite.php
- Zend.php


Ideally, the file structure would be the following:

- path/to/your/SMF/Sources/Cache/APIs    // for the API files mentioned earlier
- path/to/your/SMF/cache                  // for your cache files 


You can go to index.php?action=admin;area=serversettings;sa=cache to change the cache dir or use repair_settings

Always make a backup of your files before attempting anything.

[PhilWebb]

Only other thing I can suggest is upload a clean copy of Admin.php.  Removing that file replicates the problem you've described, everything works except admin.

I u/l'd a fresh copy of Admin.php and most everything works now. The main Admin page still shows as blank, but I can access all the relevant pages thru the menu buttons, "Features and Options," "Package manager" etc.  While this isn't optimal, it could work.

Should I just upload fresh copies of everything in "/Sources" ?
If I do, will it blow up the forum?

Thank you for the help so far!

[PhilWebb]

Its not really a cache error, related sure but not about the action of caching itself.

The code is looking for some class "mcljlcox" that doesn't exists or better yet, there is a file called "mcljlcox", SMF trys to load it and look for a class inside that file, since its mot likely that file is the result of a cache entry, its not a PHP file and thus it doesn't have a class.

Looks like the cache directory and the SMF/Sources/Cache/APIs directory somehow ended up being the same folder (or you have some compromised folders that ended up with foreign files being injected, better ask your host about it, "mcljlcox" is not an standard SMF file nor its a product of SMF file based cache system), this will cause issues so we better separate them.

First thing would be enter your path/toYour/SMF/Sources/Cache/APIs folder and delete the "mcljlcox" and any other file that is not one of the following:

- Apcu.php
- FileBased.php
- MemcachedImplementation.php
- MemcacheImplementation.php
- Postgres.php
- Sqlite.php
- Zend.php


Ideally, the file structure would be the following:

- path/to/your/SMF/Sources/Cache/APIs    // for the API files mentioned earlier
- path/to/your/SMF/cache                  // for your cache files 


You can go to index.php?action=admin;area=serversettings;sa=cache to change the cache dir or use repair_settings

Always make a backup of your files before attempting anything.

Could that "mcljkcox" be a result of a mod being installed? I have "A few" mods on the forum...   

[All Colours Sam]

I don't think so, seems weird for a mod to place a file called like that in a Cache folder. The only possibility would be a mod that actually adds another Cache system but if that was the case, the mod will have to follow proper procedure to do so.

You could post a list of mods installed if you want to make sure none of them are interfering.

[PhilWebb]

I don't think so, seems weird for a mod to place a file called like that in a Cache folder. The only possibility would be a mod that actually adds another Cache system but if that was the case, the mod will have to follow proper procedure to do so.

You could post a list of mods installed if you want to make sure none of them are interfering.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I u/l'd a fresh copy of Admin.php and most everything works now. The main Admin page still shows as

That's suggestive that a mod edit is causing the problem.  A couple of those mods were not updated past RC, so it's likely one of the mods doesn't support php 8.4.  You can try uninstalling the mods one at a time, see if the problem clears, or just downgrade to php 8.1.  I'd recommend uploading clean files, make sure everything works, then reinstall mods, but downgrade php first.

[PhilWebb]

I u/l'd a fresh copy of Admin.php and most everything works now. The main Admin page still shows as

That's suggestive that a mod edit is causing the problem.  A couple of those mods were not updated past RC, so it's likely one of the mods doesn't support php 8.4.  You can try uninstalling the mods one at a time, see if the problem clears, or just downgrade to php 8.1.  I'd recommend uploading clean files, make sure everything works, then reinstall mods, but downgrade php first.

OK, looks like I got some work to do.

Thank you again for the help and I will check back in when I complete this.