errors

1. Stop and think
   • Have you made any recent changes to your site such as installing or updating modules?
   • Does the version of the module you installed match your version of Drupal? For example, Views for Drupal 7 will not work on a Drupal 6 site.
2. Read the error messages. Depending on how you have set your error messages to display, Drupal-specific error messages may display on the page. When the core dblog module is enabled, you can find error reports at /admin/reports/dblog. When debugging, you should also check non-Drupal logs, such as Apache, PHP, etc. Your hosting provider can help you locate these logs.

   Errors may include:

   • .htaccess config problems - "Internal server error" - Error 500 directive not allowed here
   • Memory problems - Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted
   • JavaScript problems - modules/troublesome/utility.js 404 file not found.
3. Validate your page
   

Database and custom file backups are essential.

There are many posts in the forum topics about irrecoverable errors, WSOD, database gone fubar etc. There are times when your site goes awry or gets deleted or corrupted, and the only or best choice is to restore it from a backup.

Backup & Migrate

The Backup & Migrate module facilitates emergency recovery and site migration. You can configure it for automatic backups saved to the filesystem - with more frequent backups during development.

You can also create a manual backup before undertaking any complex configuration. That way, you have a "restore point" in case of disaster.

While there may be some issues of security when you save the database and content as a file (you could exclude certain tables, perhaps), the benefits of having a rollback in case of disaster are significant.

If you're having a problem with your Drupal site, you're almost certainly not alone. Your questions may already have been asked and answered many times. Save yourself some time and start with this guide before you post an issue in the queue.

• If you don't find your answer here, you can search the entire Drupal site.
• If you still can't find an answer you can ask for help in the Support Forums, or learn to use IRC and then ask your question in the #drupal-support IRC channel.