“Catastrophic failure” when opening settings

Hi @slater91.

Thank your for reaching out, I’m hopeful we will be able to provide some insight on your error message. It seems to be specifically related to the SSH2 connection when trying to access the backup or transfer settings. You should first verify that both your WordPress core, plugins (especially Total Upkeep), and themes are updated to their latest versions. Sometimes, compatibility issues arise due to outdated software.

Your site is running PHP 7.4.33, which is nearing the end of its active support. It might be worth upgrading to PHP 8.0 or 8.1 to ensure better compatibility with plugins like Total Upkeep. Your web host should be able to help with updating your PHP version if you’re unsure how.

Also, since the error involves the SSH2 connection, check with your hosting provider to ensure that your server’s SSH configuration is correct and that there are no firewall rules blocking SSH connections.

If the problem persist you might benefit from enabling WP_DEBUG to see if any other error messages accompany initial one.

Thanks @slater91 , let us know if we can assist you further with this!

Thanks for your reply. Everything is updated to the latest version on the WordPress side. Total Upkeep is the only plugin which gives me issues. I run the website on a VPS which I manage, so I have just updated PHP to version 8.2.22. There is no difference, unfortunately. My SSH configuration has worked perfectly ever since I configured the website; Total Upkeep is the only plugin which has ever given me issues, everything else works like a charm. I can’t exclude there is something wrong with it, but I don’t know what it could be.

Enabling WP_DEBUG I get this:

Fatal error: Uncaught phpseclib3\Exception\ConnectionClosedException: Connection closed (by server) prematurely 0.08864688873291s in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SSH2.php:3560 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SSH2.php(4075): phpseclib3\Net\SSH2->get_binary_packet() #1 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SSH2.php(2974): phpseclib3\Net\SSH2->get_channel_packet() #2 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SFTP.php(550): phpseclib3\Net\SSH2->open_channel() #3 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SFTP.php(624): phpseclib3\Net\SFTP->partial_init_sftp_connection() #4 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SFTP.php(536): phpseclib3\Net\SFTP->init_sftp_connection() #5 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SFTP.php(1083): phpseclib3\Net\SFTP->precheck() #6 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SFTP.php(1032): phpseclib3\Net\SFTP->readlist() #7 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/admin/remote/class-boldgrid-backup-admin-ftp.php(715): phpseclib3\Net\SFTP->rawlist() #8 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/admin/remote/class-boldgrid-backup-admin-ftp-hooks.php(78): Boldgrid_Backup_Admin_Ftp->get_contents() #9 /var/www/html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(324): Boldgrid_Backup_Admin_Ftp_Hooks->filter_get_all() #10 /var/www/html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(348): WP_Hook->apply_filters() #11 /var/www/html/wp-includes/plugin.php(517): WP_Hook->do_action() #12 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/admin/class-boldgrid-backup-admin-archives-all.php(210): do_action() #13 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/admin/class-boldgrid-backup-admin-archives.php(196): Boldgrid_Backup_Admin_Archives_All->init() #14 /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/admin/class-boldgrid-backup-admin-core.php(2720): Boldgrid_Backup_Admin_Archives->get_table() #15 /var/www/html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(324): Boldgrid_Backup_Admin_Core->page_archives() #16 /var/www/html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(348): WP_Hook->apply_filters() #17 /var/www/html/wp-includes/plugin.php(517): WP_Hook->do_action() #18 /var/www/html/wp-admin/admin.php(259): do_action() #19 {main} thrown in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Net/SSH2.php on line 3560

Does this help you understand what is wrong?

Thanks!

Hi @slater91,

Thanks for your reply, I’ve taken your error message and I’m running it by our developers to get there thoughts.

I did want to ask, if Total Upkeep was functioning properly at any point? So basically, is this your first time activating and configuring Total Upkeep or did the error messages begin after a change of some sort, like a plugin update, WordPress Core, WordPress theme change or update etc?

I installed it over a year ago. It used to work, but I didn’t check the settings for a few months so I’m not sure when it stopped working unfortunately; it seems like it started having issues after an update to either the plugin itself or WordPress.

Hey @slater91,

Thanks for the additional infomation. I did manage to speak with our developers and they said it appears Total Upkeep is connecting to the sftp server correctly and trying to work with it, but the connection is being closed too early. So, even though the error is ssh related, we don’t believe it has to do with the ssh on your server. SFTP is being handled via ssh2 and that’s why we’re seeing that.

Around end of May we updated?the phpseclib library from?2.0.39?to?3.0.37, so a major version change and that change was a part of some php 8.2 fixes so being that you haven’t checked settings in a while it’s possible this triggered some sort of misconfiguration.

The next step for us is to find out what SFTP server you’re using, and to review the logs on that server if you can send them over. I know this is a lot of information to reveal over such a public forum as this so if you don’t mind you can start a new topic in our BoldGrid forum so we can be sure to moderate any personal information that may be revealed in your logs.

Thanks @slater91 ! Hope to hear from you soon.