Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Thursday, 21 August 2014 11:39 CDT

user85282

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach a ZIP file containing your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue. If the file is over 2Mb, please upload it on your server and post a link to it.

Description of my issue:

I made a backup of my Joomla 2.5 site with AkeebaBackup. I then ran the automatic 2.5 to 3.x upgrade tool in Joomla. The upgrade did not complete correctly. I got a:

Fatal error: Call to a member function isAdmin() on a non-object in ../remember/remember.php code 42.

I read somewhere else to rename that file but then I get another effort and so on.

The problem is, I can't get into my backend to restore my backup. I was wondering if there is a way to do so through my cPanel or a command line.

Thanks in advance.

Thursday, 21 August 2014 16:16 CDT

nicholas

Yes, you can. You need to copy the backup archive to your site's root, upload Kickstart and follow the restoration process exactly as described in our video tutorials and documentation.

However, you don't need to do that. Just remove the directory plugins/system/remember and retry installing the Joomla! update package. What you bumped on is a known issue in Joomla! upgrades affecting only very few sites as far as I can tell.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Thursday, 21 August 2014 23:14 CDT

user85282

Dear Nicholas,

Thanks for the answer. I tried the renaming the remember.php file technique and the disable the remember.php file technique but then I got another error message. I can remove the directory plugins/system/remember but I don't know how to start the update process again. Do you have a suggestion or so I restore my backup, remove the plugins/system/remember directory and then proceed with the upgrage?

Spike

Friday, 22 August 2014 00:52 CDT

nicholas

Since you tried upgrading Joomla! 2.5 to 3.3 you can't restore your backup just yet – the site would be left in a confused state and fail to load.

First download your backups to your computer. For good measure make three copies of each backup and store them in different media. You can never be too paranoid about having copies of your backups.

Then, remove all files from your live site.

Now upload your backup archive and kickstart.php to your site and do the restoration. This will get your site back.

Next time you try an upgrade from Joomla! 2.5 to 3.x do it like the pros, applying the upgrade locally and then transferring the upgraded site back to your server:

take a backup of your site
restore it to your computer. You can use XAMPP, WAMPServer, MAMP or something similar to provide the local server environment.
perform the update from 2.5 to 3.x on your local server
take a backup of the now upgraded local site
remove all files from your live site
upload the backup archive of the upgraded site and kickstart.php to the live site
run kickstart.php

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 22 August 2014 10:27 CDT

user85282

Dear Nicholas,

Thanks for the quick and comprehensive responses.

I successfully restored my web sit to a local installation with XAMPP on my local computer.

In the instructions above, you say "remove all files from your live site". Does that mean all of the files in the root of my public_html directory on my server? There are different configuration files and stuff in the root.

Just want to check.

I'm ready to proceed.

Spike

Friday, 22 August 2014 12:09 CDT

nicholas

Does that mean all of the files in the root of my public_html directory on my server? There are different configuration files and stuff in the root.

Very good point. Yes, I mean the files in your public_html. You don't need to remove all files, just the folders used by Joomla! code files namely administrator, cli, components, includes, libraries, plugins, modules, templates and layouts

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Friday, 22 August 2014 14:23 CDT

user85282

Dear Nicholas,

I downloaded KickStart. I unzipped it and there are a bunch of files in the zip in addition to kickstart.php. Which files to I also copy to the root of my site?

Spike

Sunday, 24 August 2014 20:54 CDT

dlb

Spike,

Generally the only file you need is kickstart.php. The remaining files in the archive are language files that allow kickstart to display languages other than English and a couple of files that are only used when you have no internet connection.

Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist

English: native

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

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

Monday, 25 August 2014 09:59 CDT

user85282

Dear Nicholas,

Thanks for your guidance to restore my web site. Things are back and running perfectly. I will take your advice and try to update my site on my production server that I created using your backup software. Thanks for all of your help.

Spike

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