Support

Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

#8655 Backup failed with invalid AJAX data

Posted in ‘Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 4 & 5’
This is a public ticket

Everybody will be able to see its contents. Do not include usernames, passwords or any other sensitive information.

Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Akeeba Backup version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Friday, 05 November 2010 05:21 CDT

user8935
I have been using Akeeba Backup for about a year with no problems. After the last update to version Pro 3.1, I have not been able to run a backup. I get the "invalid AJAX data" error. I have tried to search this forum for a solution but have not found anything that matches.
I am using Joomla v1.5.20 and PHP 5.2.14

Here is the error that I receive:


And here is my error log:
##Debug Log##

dlb
I had one of these yesterday. Nicholas said something was interfering with the AJAX calls. Go to the Configuration screen and check the box next to Use IFRAMEs instead of AJAX in the top section of the screen, then retry your backup.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

user8935
Thanks for the reply. I changed the setting to use IFRAMEs instead of AJAX but when I try to do a full backup I get the same "invalid AJAX data" error.

##log file##

dlb
Well, it looked like the same error as yesterday. :( I'll ask Nicholas to take a look at this.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
It has come to my attention that some antivirus and firewall application cause this kind of inexplicable AJAX Error. More specifically, AVG Free causes this issue (confirmed). ESET NOD32 doesn't (confirmed). For everything else, your mileage may vary. I strongly suggest the following procedure:
- Disable any firewall, antivirus, antispam and ad/script blocker applications on your PC
- Use a clean installation of Firefox Portable, to rule out interference with browser add-ons
- If this doesn't succeed, try using a different PC with a different Internet connection

I have tested Akeeba Backup on Windows 7 Home Premium (32 and 64 bits) with ESET Smart Security 4 using all major browsers (FireFox 3.6.10, Chrome 6, IE8 and 9.b1, Opera 10.5, Safari, Iron 6) without any problem. I've also tested it under Ubuntu Linux using Google Chrome and FireFox, also without any issues.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

user8935
Yep, that seems to be my problem. I do run AVG free. I tried to disable AVG but still had the same problem. I have VMWARE installed on this machine with a couple of Linux installs. Loaded up SUSE and tried the backup and it ran just fine. Looks like I will have to remove AVG or use the Linux install for this backup procedure.

Thanks very much for your attention to my problem. You guys are great and the software is super.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
AVG is doing something very funky. Before each AJAX request and before each Javscript function call is made, it sends the contents to its antivirus engine. This creates a very big lag which makes Akeeba Backup's Javascript that the AJAX call has failed. To this point, the only way to work around that is to disable the Link Checker feature of AVG. It also takes a reboot of the PC (at least in the Windows XP Home virtual machine where I tried it).

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

user7458
Same deal for me - running Avast and Microsoft security essentials.
I have tried on latest chrome and firefox and have tried with Avast and MSE real time protection shields off. No difference.

Thx,
Simon

user7458
Same deal for me - running Avast and Microsoft security essentials.

I have tried on latest chrome and firefox and have tried with Avast and MSE real time protection shields off. No difference.



Thx,

Simon


failed the same with virgin portable firefox and on separate pc (same internet connection)

user7458
[quote=sj7272]Same deal for me - running Avast and Microsoft security essentials.

I have tried on latest chrome and firefox and have tried with Avast and MSE real time protection shields off. No difference.



Thx,

Simon


failed the same with virgin portable firefox and on separate pc (same internet connection)[/quote]

OK, now I'm really confused. I was using the Amazon post processing. So tried without and it worked.
I turned it back on, turned off SSL and raised split archive size from 2.5 to 5mb and it works.
So this looks like an SSL timeout issue, but to generate this AJAX error???

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Yes, this is possible. If your server doesn't support SSL communications it may get stuck forever trying to establish an SSL connection. This causes either the server to abort the execution of the PHP backup script or simply timeout. In both cases an empty response is sent back from the server to the backup interface which causes it to spit out this generic error message. The thing is that your previous log never got past the first step, long before the S3 engine was initialized. My guess is that there was another temporary problem back then which caused the backup to fail and then there was the SSL timeout problem which kicked in.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

kuk
I had this problem too but for me it works when I 'uncheck' the 'Use iFrame instead of AJAX'.

Do I understand you rightly that this is caused by a server time out issue?

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
The "Use iFrame instead of AJAX" setting may work on some servers and fail on some others. It's all a matter of trial and error.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Support Information

Working hours: We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm Cyprus timezone (EET / EEST). Support is provided by the same developers writing the software, all of which live in Europe. You can still file tickets outside of our working hours, but we cannot respond to them until we're back at the office.

Support policy: We would like to kindly inform you that when using our support you have already agreed to the Support Policy which is part of our Terms of Service. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us help you!