Core, uploads and plugins refusing to backup

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi David,

We’re seeing some strange behaviour when backing up and I have no idea how to begin identifying the problem. We have chosen to backup all files (core, plugins etc), however Core, Uploads and Plugins haven’t backed up for the past 6 or 7 attempts. I’ve included a lot of information below, if you need anything else let me know.

Many thanks,

John

Our configuration looks like the following:

The available backups look like the following:

What’s strange is the log file only has one line:

0055.734 (0) Did not create plugins zip (0) – not needed

The emailed backup report is below:

Latest status:
The backup apparently succeeded (with warnings) and is now complete
Backup began:
2014-01-22 12:23
Contains:
Files and database
Errors / warnings:
0 errors, 1 warnings
Warnings

A zip error occurred – check your log for more details.

Note that warning messages are advisory – the backup process does not stop for them. Instead, they provide information that you might find useful, or that may indicate the source of a problem if the backup did not succeed.

Time taken:
0 hours, 1 minutes, 57 seconds
Uploaded to:
Amazon S3

Themes (files: 1)

backup_2014-01-22-1223_effect_hope_ed8be2aff84c-themes.zip
Size: 0 Mb, SHA1 checksum: da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709

Others (files: 1)

backup_2014-01-22-1223_effect_hope_ed8be2aff84c-others.zip
Size: 0 Mb, SHA1 checksum: da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709

Database (files: 1)

backup_2014-01-22-1223_effect_hope_ed8be2aff84c-db.gz
Size: 0 Mb, SHA1 checksum: da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709

The log file has been attached to this email.
Debugging information

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[JenniferParticipant]

That last post was by me, David. Sorry, I thought I was logged in when I posted it.

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi John,

I need to see the log file to say anything useful – please can you send it to [email protected] ?

Best wishes,
David

[JenniferParticipant]

That’s the strange thing, the past 7 or 8 log files only contain one line:

0104.299 (0) Did not create plugins zip (0) – not needed

All of the backups that have missing parts have the same log file, which contains just one line.

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi John,

How are you looking at the log file? Is it from the one attached to the report email, or do you get something different if you directly FTP in to wp-content/updraft and get it from there?

David

[JenniferParticipant]

I clicked the ‘Log’ button next to the restore point in the WP admin area. Same result viewing through ssh (vi).

[udadminKeymaster]

That is indeed very odd. It seems to suggest some kind of filesystem malfunction. Perhaps disk full, or account quota full?

David

[JenniferParticipant]

Thanks David. I’ll check with our host.

[JenniferParticipant]

So …. we have 115GB storage free on our hosting :(

I tried another manual backup and hit ‘show log’ while the backup was processing and I got a partial log. I will email it to [email protected]

When the backup completes and I click ‘show log’ it only has the one line I mentioned previously.

[udadminKeymaster]

Perhaps disk corruption? If all the log files were identical, right down to the timing of 0104.299 seconds, then I’d say that the blocks on the filesystem are messed up, as it’s not feasible that several backup runs could all hit the same issue at the same time to the nearest millisecond.

Anyway, on the new log:
0004.329 (0) A zip error occurred – check your log for more details.
… Unknown: ZipArchive does not return error messages

To get more informative error messages from a different zip engine, add this to your wp-config.php and then start a new backup:

define(‘UPDRAFTPLUS_PREFERPCLZIP’, true);

David

[JenniferParticipant]

Thanks David, I’ve tried adding the line to wp-config.php but no luck. I’m only getting one-liners again:

0310.247 (1) Did not create plugins zip (0) – not needed
0008.440 (0) Did not create plugins zip (0) – not needed

What are the implications of uninstalling and re-installing the plugin? Would the plugin detect our S3 backups when we re-install?

Thanks,

John

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi John,

If you suspect that plugin files are corrupt, then unisntalling/re-installing won’t affect the database, so that’s safe. (There’s a “Wipe Settings” button that will affect the database, but it’s not compulsory to press that).

It’s a very weird issue. When UD opens the log file it requests to open it with “append” access. So, a 1-line log file should not be possible unless there’s a problem with the filesystem. i.e. UD doesn’t go back and forth up and down the log file, changing stuff. It just opens it at the end, and writes new data.

Do you have shell access to the server? If so, then you could try a backup from the command line; see: https://updraftplus.com/faqs/can-i-run-backups-from-the-shell/ … the advantage of this is that you can then copy/paste the log output from your terminal/screen, and not lose it. Then at least we’d be able to see a whole log file to see what the zip message is.

David

[udadminKeymaster]

P.S. Out of interest – who is the hosting company?

[JenniferParticipant]

I do have shell access and tried running the PHP file. I was met with the following error:

“Your server is running PHP version 4.3.2 but WordPress 3.8 requires at least 5.2.4.”

I think that PHP-CLI must be using a lower version than CGI?

The hosting company is http://www.internethosting.ca

[udadminKeymaster]

Yes – your log file said PHP 5.3.28.

4.3.2 is an antique – May 2003! (https://www.php.net/ChangeLog-4.php#4.3.2). You should definitely ask them to get that sorted so that you have something usable from the CLI.

Best wishes,
David

[Author]

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