3.2.1 failed upgrade, site blank, can't re-install — what am I missing?

Same thing happened to me this morning. I upgraded from 3.2 to 3.2.1 and it deleted everything in my public_html folder. I’m trying not to freak out right now. Let me know how you restore it.

Try this steps if you have not tried them

Internal server errors (error 500) are often caused by plugin or theme function conflicts, so if you have access to your admin panel, try deactivating all plugins. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, try manually resetting your plugins, using ftp rename plugins folder to plugins_hold and create a blank plugins folder If that resolves the issue, delete blank plugins folder and rename original back to plugins reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

If that does not resolve the issue, try switching Twenty Ten theme (WordPress 3.0 and higher) to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via FTP or SFTP, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the Default theme Twenty Ten theme (WordPress 3.0 and higher) to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue.

If that does not resolve the issue, it’s possible that a .htaccess rule could be the source of the problem. To check for this, access your server via FTP or SFTP and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your FTP or SFTP client to view invisible files.

If you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

Thanks, Govpatel.

Unfortunately, I’ve tried all of that — except the .htaccess issues (I’ve been lucky and have never had to play with this — there’s no .htaccess file in the web root directory, but may be one somewhere relating to apache).

The entire WP 3.2.1 installation (plugins, themes etc) was deleted and replaced with a fresh download of WP 3.2 (no plugins, no 3rd party themes). The DB is the same, however, so I’m imagining it’s corrupted OR there’s a permissions issue with the files, but I’m getting no errors, just a blank page.

It is my own server box and I have direct access to the HD. Not sure how to access the server log, but will investigate. Worse comes to worse, I can restore the entire HD from backup, but I’d really like to know how to troubleshoot it.

Hey guys,
Make sure your hosting support php5 before upgrade your wordpress to 3.2
Because WP 3.2 uses php5.
Just take a look at this page.
WordPress requirements

Viruthagiri
[sig moderated as per the Forum Rules]

Thanks again. Yep. As I said in the original post: MYSQL 5.0, php 5.2.9

— Is PHP 5.2.9 enough for 3.2?

Yes 5.2.9 is enough. In that case do like this. Usually .htaccess file cause HTTP Error 500 (Internal Server Error). So just go to your root directory take backup of your .htaccess file and then delete the .htacess content using editor. Try reloading the page again.

Viruthagiri
[sig moderated as per the Forum Rules. Please stop promoting your site.]

Thanks for the various advice.

I’m using a Mac box, OS 10.5 as my server — this could also be an issue. In the WWW directory, I can’t find any .htaccess file — hidden or otherwise so I’m giving up and restoring the HD from backup.

I will keep monitoring this thread tho’ if anyone else comes up with a solution.

Thanks again.

Not sure if your installation will support this, but in your wp-admin folder create a file called php.ini and inside that add the following:

php_flag
register_globals off
register_globals = 0
memory_limit = 64M

If that fails try changing the default php.ini file and changing the values as above.

Hi Zemble,

I restored my website to the last version and just didn’t do the upgrade this time.

Jeanette

Thanks for your solution Kloon, seemed to work for us.

Much Appreciated

Regards

Yes, I too restored my site from backup. I plan to try again on a separate WP installation that’s less critical, and will try the php.ini idea if necessary.

I’ve been using WP since version 1, & this is the first time we’ve had a serious issue — or at least one that took more than a quick search thru the forums to solve. I’m still unclear whether it was something with the 3.2.1 version or if it is my own server configuration that’s the problem — which is worrying.

Adding php.ini per suggestion by Kloon did nothing for me. I was upgrading from WP 3.1.4, and I ended up blowing away my entire WP train wreck folder and unzipping a full backup I had made of my WP 3.1 installation. Upgrading from 3.1 to 3.2.1 worked fine then.

This is the blind leading the blind, because we’ve heard nothing from the WordPress team. This is the second WP 3.2.1 upgrade which has totally crashed and burned. The first disaster was an UG from 3.1.3 and this one was from 3.1.4. With all my installs that were already at 3.2, I’ve upgraded with no problems to 3.2.1.

In my case, was running WP-Beautifier and Simple EMail Adress Encoder plugins, that made the site appears blank.

People: Please check https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/troubleshooting-wordpress-32-master-list

Closing this topic now as it is no longer serving any useful purpose.