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Site Restoration

#15260 Admin Tools can't be accessed after site restoration

Posted in ‘Site restoration’
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

PHP version
n/a
CMS Type
Other
CMS Version
n/a
Backup Tool Version
n/a
Kickstart version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Friday, 01 March 2013 08:31 CST

anandmahey

Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 2.5
PHP version: 5.4.7
MySQL version: 5.5.27
Host: Xampp
Akeeba Backup version which took the backup: Latest Stable (just updated 1st march 2013)
Kickstart version used to extract the backup: Latest Stable

Description of my issue:

Hi Nicholas,

I managed to run Akeeba Backup pro to back up my site with the Alternate (Failsafe) enabled. I took a back up of my live site and tried to install on Xampp (I always make it a point to update, so its the latest version), Using Kickstart, and also using eXtract Wizard (I get the same problem with both).

Using Kickstart, i get no error messages, and proceed to install to the final stage. The frontend of my site appears fine. However, upon logging into the backend and trying to access Admin Tools from Components, I just get a blank page with no error messages.

When I first began to access Kickstart.php via the browers however, I was not able (Notably the Fantastic Admin Tools kicking in and preventing access! (I love Admin Tools :)) As such i copied and cut .htaccess and .htaccess.admintool to another location, and was able to proceed with Kickstart, and install etc. I then copied the htaccess files back, but could not access admin tools.

I then tried again, this time not copying the htaccess files back at all. Still no cigar.

I have a feeling it might something to do with Ajax? I have an Ajax Dockcart for VM, which if accessed from Components, leads to Module Manager. Rest of the components SEEM to work fine, but not sure. I have to test all of them.

I'm actually testing backups as recommened in the Akeeba Backup Literature. Followed the recommended FTP download instructions as well (Binary) but still have this problem. Tried to download via browser, no cigar. Please help.

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nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

We'll need to do some troubleshooting. A white page or a page with a 500 Internal Server Error is, in fact, either a .htaccess issue to a PHP fatal error in disguise. Do the following on the restored site.

First, let's see if it is a .htaccess issue (I couldn't understand it very well reading your ticket). Try renaming the .htaccess file in your site's root to htaccess.bak If there is a .htaccess file in the site's administrator directory, try renaming it as well. If that solves the problem, the issue was with a directive in your .htaccess file. We'd like to recommend you to try removing directives from your .htaccess until you find the one which causes the problem.

If that doesn't help, the error you are receiving is in fact a PHP error in disguise. First, check your server's error logs (not the access logs) immediately after visiting the page which throws the error. There should be an exact description of the PHP fatal error which occurred. Sometimes you can find the error messages in files called error_log or error.log inside the site's root and/or administrator directories. If unsure about the error log location, please consult your host. Most likely the error logs are available in your site's cPanel, Plesk control panel or similar hosting account management facility.

If your host does not give you access to the error logs and you have access to the Joomla! administrator area, please log in to your site's back-end, go to Global Configuration, click on the Server tab and set the Error Reporting to Maximum (Joomla! 1.5) or Development (Joomla! 2.x and later). Try visiting the problem page again.

If you still get a blank page, edit your configuration.php file and put the following code right after the final closing curly brace ( this is what a curly brace looks like --> } ) but before the closing PHP tag (it looks like ?> that is a question mark and a greater-than sign):

ini_set( 'display_errors', true );
error_reporting( E_ALL ); 

Try visiting the problem page again.

If you still get a white page, please remote the two lines from your configuration.php file. Edit the .htaccess file in your site's root. If you don't have a file named .htaccess create a new one. Beware that htaccess.txt is a DIFFERENT FILE and will NOT work! Add the following to the end of the file:

php_flag display_errors On
php_value error_reporting 32767

and retry loading the problem page.

If you still get a white page, remove the two lines from your .htaccess file. Now, create a file called php.ini with the following content:

display_errors=on
error_reporting=E_ALL

and upload it into your site's root and your site's administrator directory. Retry loading the problem page.

IMPORTANT: Sometimes the error won't show. Edit your configuration.php and find the line starting with public $error_reporting and set it to:

public $error_reporting = 'development';

This instructs Joomla! to enable maximum error, warnings and notices verbosity.

Please note that if you can not understand what the PHP error message means, just copy and paste it here verbatim so that we can take a look and point you to the right direction.

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!

anandmahey

Hi Nicholas,

Thank you for your response. I get the following PHP error with regard to Admin Tools:


Fatal error: Call to a member function get() on a non-object in E:\xampp\htdocs\mahey2\administrator\components\com_admintools\models\masterpw.php on line 35

Thank you

Β 

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Please follow these instructions https://www.akeebabackup.com/home/news/55-general/1502-troubleshooting-instructions-for-feb-2013-releases.html to gain access to your site and install Admin Tools 2.5.2 which addresses this issue.

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!

anandmahey
Hi Nicholas, i had actually updated admin tools to 2.5.2 and also updated akeeba backup before performing the test backup n restoration.

Could it be that there was some sort of conflict because on localhost admin toold wasnt updated, but the restoration had an updated version?

anandmahey

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anandmahey

I would like to send you the Backup log, but it might not be safe to post it up here i think?

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Is it possible to uninstall and reinstall Admin Tools? I am sure something got mixed up during restoration. The reinstallation will lose your settings but it will fix those 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!

anandmahey

Hi Nicholas,

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yes thats possible. But is there a way i could download all the IPs in the Site Blacklist? I just wanna be ready with the required steps in case i need to restore my site and re-install Admin Tools.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Just copy all tables with "_admintools_" in their name using phpMyAdmin, uninstall, reinstall and the restore those tables with phpMyAdmin.

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!

anandmahey

Hi Nicholas,

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As usual, Thank you for the wonderful support.

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And yes, as suspected, the outdated version of Admin Tools installed on localhost was the problem (One version prior to 2.5.2). I have another machine with the same configuration. Updated Admin Tools on thats one, and restored, and no problem accessing Admin Tools from Joomla.

Thank you :)

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

You're welcome!

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!

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