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Site Restoration

#17831 Restore has AN ERROR OCCURED The archive file is corrupt, truncated or archive parts are missing

Posted in ‘Site restoration’
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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 Monday, 14 October 2013 01:56 CDT

user1068
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 (all?)? Yes
Joomla! version: (2.5.14)
PHP version: (5.3.22)
MySQL version: (5.1.68-cli)
Host: (Siteground)
Akeeba Backup version which took the backup: (3.8.2)
Kickstart version used to extract the backup: (3.7.1)

Description of my issue:I have been trying to restore my website but I keep getting the error message" AN ERROR OCCURED
The archive file is corrupt, truncated or archive parts are missing". None of the .jpa's had any truncated or archived parts.

I have read many posts in your forum, but I can't seem to find an answer.

Initially I had a 500 server error that I got the host to check for me. I was informed that it was joomla error and I should restore the website.

When I opened the website, using cpanel, I deleted the unwanted files in the public_html root, uploaded the latest akeeba backup i had, kickstart.php (3.7.1) and began the process I have done many times. I like akeeba and use it on all my websites I manage. However, I have never struck the following.

Initially, the backup gave the error mentioned above. So tried the next oldest backup. Same error. So I thought I would try my local test webserver using wamp. The same error result occured for these installs as well.

I also contacted the host to ensure the webserver was ok, before I asked for your support. I was informed it should be ok to proceed.

I also have an addon domain that had an akeeba backup and it did the same thing.

I downloaded the akeeba extract wizard to try and even older backup. I tried that backup as well to restore. Same error.

I am at a loss. I can't get any backups to work on either live or local webserver.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Oh, dear... It seems that your backup are, indeed, damaged. I believe that when you downloaded them you didn't use the Binary transfer mode and this corrupted the backup archives. As you've already tried all the possible alternative methods I would have proposed myself you came to the same conclusion I would come given these facts: the backup archives are damaged and cannot be extracted, at all. There is no workaround to that. If the data in the archive is damaged you can't do anything with that archive.

Unfortunately this is exactly why I'm saying that an untested backup is as good as no backup at all. Merely taking a backup doesn't mean that you can restore it. We urge you to do test restorations every time you do something significant on your site, such as upgrade Joomla! or one of its extensions, change your server configuration, install or remove software etc. The time to test the backups is long before disaster strikes. When disaster strikes it's too late. I'm deeply sorry, but you just found out the very hard way why it is of paramount importance to test your backups in advance. If that's any consolation, it has happened to me about 12 years ago. That's one of the reasons I ended up writing backup software and being so religious about testing backups.

I'm really, really sorry for you but it's one of those cases when I honestly can't help in any way :(

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!

user1068
Howdy Nicholas,

It was not the news I was hoping for. What is the proper method for downloading so I don't make the same mistake again?

Thanks for your time.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
We strongly recommend using FTP in Binary transfer mode. Alternatively, you can use an on-line storage service such as S3 or Dropbox.

There are two more steps to be extra sure that everything worked. After the download is complete please check the filesize in bytes (not Kilo- or Megabytes) on both the server and the local computer. They must match down to the last digit. Finally try doing a test restoration. We recommend doing these tests every time something significant changes on your site or server such as the PPH version, MySQL version, Joomla! version, Akeeba Backup upgrade or if your host notifies you that they upgraded or tweaked the configuration of your server.

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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