I just had the minor meltdown of the century. Focus Organic has been returning some strange 404 errors every once in awhile for certain readers, and I've been trying to figure out the problem for some time now. I decided I'm sick of trying everything, so I backed up everything, including the database, and deleted it all. I set up a redirect on the site so everyone would see a "site undergoing maintenance" type page while I was working on it.
The first problem was that I screwed up the redirect and caused the whole site to return a 500 internal server error. That started my freak out. Once I figured out that problem, I calmed down for a minute. I imported the database I had saved a backup of, reinstalled all the WordPress files, and updated the database. I then went to check the site to make sure everything worked. Sure enough, everything had updated nicely... but the site was missing EVERYTHING since JUNE.
*Initiate meltdown sequence*
I deleted everything again, and, while hyperventilating a little (no, seriously, I got dizzy) and literally making myself sick to my stomach, reinstalled it all a second time. NO GOOD! Attempting to think rationally while nearly passing out, I thought that maybe phpMyAdmin didn't import the entire database, maybe it was too big? I searched for solutions and found a database importing program that is supposed to be able to import large sql files. Couldn't get the freaking thing installed!
*Freak out continues*
I start scrolling through the 10.5 MB database file to see why 3 months of work was missing when I noticed something... there were tables from plugins I had uninstalled awhile ago, the tables that I had dropped from the database. Those shouldn't be in the database file I JUST downloaded... Huh? I looked at my download history on my browser, and come to find out, I had imported an old backup, a backup I had made in (you guessed it) June. So I imported the new backup I made tonight. Site looks fine, all posts are back, or seemingly... but wait, what's that? Every post/page returns a 404?
*Don't cry! Breath...*
Oh yeah! I forgot to put the permalink mod rewrite code from WordPress back into my .htaccess! Woo hoo! Problem solved! Sanity saved! Murderous rampage averted!
And if none of that made sense to you, let's just say that I have had a very stressful last 2 1/2 hours. And let's hope all that pain and suffering solved the original problems, because if not...
The first problem was that I screwed up the redirect and caused the whole site to return a 500 internal server error. That started my freak out. Once I figured out that problem, I calmed down for a minute. I imported the database I had saved a backup of, reinstalled all the WordPress files, and updated the database. I then went to check the site to make sure everything worked. Sure enough, everything had updated nicely... but the site was missing EVERYTHING since JUNE.
*Initiate meltdown sequence*
I deleted everything again, and, while hyperventilating a little (no, seriously, I got dizzy) and literally making myself sick to my stomach, reinstalled it all a second time. NO GOOD! Attempting to think rationally while nearly passing out, I thought that maybe phpMyAdmin didn't import the entire database, maybe it was too big? I searched for solutions and found a database importing program that is supposed to be able to import large sql files. Couldn't get the freaking thing installed!
*Freak out continues*
I start scrolling through the 10.5 MB database file to see why 3 months of work was missing when I noticed something... there were tables from plugins I had uninstalled awhile ago, the tables that I had dropped from the database. Those shouldn't be in the database file I JUST downloaded... Huh? I looked at my download history on my browser, and come to find out, I had imported an old backup, a backup I had made in (you guessed it) June. So I imported the new backup I made tonight. Site looks fine, all posts are back, or seemingly... but wait, what's that? Every post/page returns a 404?
*Don't cry! Breath...*
Oh yeah! I forgot to put the permalink mod rewrite code from WordPress back into my .htaccess! Woo hoo! Problem solved! Sanity saved! Murderous rampage averted!
And if none of that made sense to you, let's just say that I have had a very stressful last 2 1/2 hours. And let's hope all that pain and suffering solved the original problems, because if not...
This post was written by Stefanie.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:16 am
I got dizzy just reading about all this! I'm glad to see that everything is back to normal
Quote This CommentSeptember 5th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Thank God you figured it out - what a nightmare! :-]
Quote This CommentSeptember 5th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Now I know why your site said down for maintenance late last night. I'm GLAD that you figured it all out. You need to breath deep and slow down to figure these things out. They're usually something dumb and panic makes it harder. I'm glad that you didn't explode. LOL!
Quote This CommentSeptember 5th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I hope I got everything figured out! Only time will tell, I guess.
And you're right, Joanne, the mistakes were dumb ones!
Quote This CommentSeptember 5th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Glad you got it all working again!
Quote This CommentSeptember 7th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Oh my, I've been in the exact same place before. Nothing like staying up all night fixing something that you broke and the realizing that you were just uploading the wrong files.
You can never stress the need to backup frequently enough, and hold onto the most recent few incase you've got a bad backup.
Glad all is fixed! Keep up the good work.
Quote This CommentSeptember 8th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Hehe...makes you wish computers were just a bit smarter and could yell out "no, you're uploading the wrong file!".
Having been in similar situations, once I get super tired I simply go to bed and leave the issue for the next morning. Oddly enough, once I lay down and start relaxing a solution usually pops into my head, which makes me jump out of bed and go back to work!
Glad to see you've gotten everything sorted out, and by the way I've never gotten a 404 from this site!
Quote This CommentSeptember 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Mike, when I download the backup, I should place it in a folder with the date on it, lol. Then I won't make that mistake again!
Adam, I considered going to bed, but I was sooooo worked up there was no way I would sleep. I don't think I would have stared relaxing any sooner in bed then I did sitting on the couch! But you're right, the answers always do come to you when you start calming down. I actually texted my mom to see if she was up because she always helps calm me down. I found out the next day that she was up, but her cell phone was off.
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