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Site Restoration

#14638 500 internal server errors on all pages other than index.php following restoration

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 marksou on Wednesday, 16 January 2013 13:17 CST

marksou

Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (Common Issues)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (Kickstart docs?)? Yes
Joomla! version: (2.5.8 Stable)
PHP version: (5.3.3-7+squeeze3)
MySQL version: (5.0.51a)
Host: (amenworld)
Akeeba Backup version which took the backup: (3.6.12)
Kickstart version used to extract the backup: (3.60)

Description of my issue:

I have successfully restored my site, and can access the index.php page, but all other pages are giving a 500 internal server error message. I've tried re-linking a couple of pages from the admin panel but this hasn't made any difference. Anything else I can try?

Mark

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Baed on your ticket information, I assume that the "Common issues" page refers to https://www.akeebabackup.com/documentation/troubleshooter/prbasicts.html.

If these instructions didn't help we have 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.

First, let's see if it is a .htaccess issue. 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.

If you still get a white page, delete the php.ini files your created and choose a different host. If your host doesn't allow you to debug any PHP-related issues there is no point paying them.

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

🇬🇷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!

marksou

Thanks Nicholas,

I've tried all your suggestions to no avail. I am now waiting to see if the host can provide access to the server logs. I will then post the output to you.

 

Mark

marksou

Hi Nicholas, we failed to get the server logs from the old host so migrated to bluehost. I used kickstarter successfully to install the backup, but am getting 500 errors on index.php. I re-read the troubleshooter guide, and everything seems as it should as far as I can tell. I have attached the server log for you to look at.

Cheers

Mark

marksou

Hi Nickolas,

I've now fixed this. I had forgotten about the memcache setting. Once set to file, the site is back perfectly.

Cheers

Mark

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