By jayabee3 on

Earlier today I successfully ran: 'update.php'

Now I'm a little bit stuck.

I'm pretty sure the problems I've been having are because I deleted browsing history after renaming the .htaccess file - in order to try and run update.php successfully and not let my browser show a false error page from cache. This is what my webhost suggested I do on a previous occassion.

Unfortunately deleting browsing history also deleted all saved passwords etc , so my browser now doesn't remember that I was logged in as the administrator. I was therefore denied access to update.php page. I then needed to change $update_free_access = FALSE to make it equal TRUE , as advised by Drupal.

It then took me to www.jbmjk.com/update.php and let let me run through the update utility.

After that it just takes me to my homepage: www.jbmjk.com which is live and shows that the site is in maintenance mode.

However as I say despite having changed: '$update_free_access = FALSE' to equal TRUE , after running update.php my browser took me back to the homepage , not logged in.

I then tried the obvious, which is to access: www.jbmjk.com/user/login to login as administrator. My webhost support said before in a previous support ticket of mine that even when the site is in maintenance mode this user/login page should not be broken. However the link is broken.

I then changed the value of '$update_free_access' back to 'FALSE' as I was previously instructed by Drupal to do once I had ran 'update.php'. I then tried again to access: www.jbmjk.com/user/login but the link was still broken :-(

Does anyone know a way that I can gain access back to my site please? I'm hoping there's something/some setting in the php or scripting somewhere that I can change or something to help me log back in.

I'd rather that , than have to restore from my backup. I'm not even sure whether restoring from my backup would work at this point. I hope you can help.

Thankyou
J

⋅ Categories: Drupal 7.x

Comments

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

May be a silly question but did you put the .htaccess file back (it's needed to run Drupal and you should not need to change or remove it to run update.php).

jayabee3’s picture

jayabee3 commented

Hi
Thanks. My hosts asked me to rename it .htaccess_ so that is is ignored by the server and then 'update.php' will run without any errors. I don't know why, but it works!

I hadn't removed the underscore from the filename. Now I have. When I go to either my homepage or user/login now I don't even see my site anymore I just see Internal Server Error 500 page.

I suppose that means I should go back to the hosts for help. I may have to restore from a backup me thinks. They don't offer scripting support is the last thing that they said to me.

jayabee3’s picture

jayabee3 commented

So yes I've just been back to my hosts and said the server is now giving Internal Server Error 500.
They've said: "We are unable to find out what is the script configuration issue that causes the Internal Server Error. "

Do you think my only option now is to restore my original installed site from my backup?

jayabee3’s picture

jayabee3 commented

Hello Nevets

I've restored my database from a backup with the help of my hosts and amended my settings.php file to point to the new database name.

I still get an Internal Server Error 500 page.

My hosts have said: "We are unable to find out what is the script configuration issue that causes the Internal Server Error. " and that they do not offer scripting support. Since my database backup they say: "The details (in the settings.php file ) are correct but the old issue that we already discussed still exists according to what I see. This is why I will strongly recommend you to refer to a Drupal specialist who will check and solve this problem for you."

Can anyone advise me what to do next please?

Many Thanks
jay

P.S. I would be very disapointed if I've essentially lost my website altogether. I've spent years of hard work on my site trying to get it to a level I'm happy with. I make provisions such as backup - so if I can't get it back it would seem to me like Drupal is a powerful website building tool - but also creates websites that can be easily lost.

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

Two things I would try

Use phpMyAdmin (or other database tool) to clear (empty) the cache tables and the sessions table.

Double check you have an .htaccess file

jayabee3’s picture

jayabee3 commented

Hello
I have cleared all my cache tables and my sessions tables.
I definitely do have an '.htaccess' file on the server.

the options directives are commented out with # at the request of the hosts. The options direcives are not allowed by their servers.

I just tried to navigate to www.jbmjk.com again after the edit of the db ie.e clearing the cache and sessions tables but it's still just Internal Server Error 500.

What can I do? If I get my site hosted by another webhost and then uplaod my db backup and website files do you think that will work?

john_b’s picture

john_b commented

I expect nevets will sort this out for you, but I thought I would jump in. If you had command line access and drush on the server and command line access you would have this sorted in a few minutes. You have to ask yourself whether your time is valuable enough to move away from a low-grade hosting service to a Drupal specialist (decent ones start at around $10 per month). Hosting Drupal is demanding.

Knowing you have .htaccess is not enough, you need to know it is a Drupal .htaccess, not just any .htaccess. So check that.

As for the hosting company not being able to trace the problem, have they actually looked at the logs? Very often you can view your own Apache server error logs from your control panel. If you can there is probably a clue to the problem there.

Digit Professionals specialising in Drupal, WordPress & CiviCRM support for publishers in non-profit and related sectors

jayabee3’s picture

jayabee3 commented

What do you mean make sure it is a Drupal .htaccess file? How would I go about that?

Yes there is an error log link in my Control panel , but the error logs were switched to off , so there are no error logs to date for me to download and investigate.

Yeah I reckon I’d go for a $10USD PCM hosting plan with a Drupal specific host (UK company if possible) , just because it then gets rid of any international bank charges. I was just asking advice whether my site would work with what I’ve currently got as it’s stopped working with my current host. But I suppose that’s something to ask the new hosting company about before signing up.

Thankyou

john_b’s picture

john_b commented

I have a feeling civicrm.com and drupion.com offer hosting in UK. Being American companies they do no charge VAT :-) I know of no real Drupal specialist which is a UK company though I talked to one guy who was thinking of starting one. Some general hosting companies put up a page on their site which says 'we specialise in Drupal' just to attract business but it is not the same. I do a bit of hosting but charge more than that and still make a loss...keeping Drupal sites running fast is not easy.

If you download and unzip a copy of Drupal you can open .htaccess in a text editor and see how it looks. If the copy on your hosting account is pretty much the same it is OK. What can happen is that a hosting company drop in a default .htaccess which is nothing like the one which comes with Drupal, and which will not work with Drupal. If when you install Drupal this default .htaccess does not get overwritten by the .htaccess which comes with Drupal, that can cause problems.

Digit Professionals specialising in Drupal, WordPress & CiviCRM support for publishers in non-profit and related sectors

jayabee3’s picture

jayabee3 commented

ok good advice. Thankyou

yngens’s picture

yngens commented

Hi John,

Thanks for mentioning our company. Yes, Drupion is a Drupal-centric hosting provider and we have operations in Europe, but not exactly in UK. We have servers in data-centers in Germany and France. Nevertheless, number of UK companies host with us as physical location of the servers mean not much with nowadays fast networks. The important part is how the server is configured and optimized for Drupal and that's what we specialize on.

Please contact us if interested. Best!