Custom Header image information not saved to DB

have you made sure that all of the paths to directories and all mentions of the site in the database and the config.php file all reference the new site rather than the old location?

I’m looking through it all right now.
There were a few funny guid in wp_posts, but apart from that, so far I’ve not seen anything strange.

Some of the header images are even flagged as such in the Media listing, so somewhere WordPress seems to be aware of something.

Fun fact: things like “unused widgets” do get written into wp_options > theme_mods_mytheme. It’s only the header image informations that stubbornly only display live in the customizer, but then are not written into the options field.

let’s try the ol’ wordpress troubleshooting basics: deactivate all plugins and revert back to the default theme and try the upload/save.

clear the browser cache too, just to make sure that it downloads fresh copies of all the css and javascript files.

Tried that this afternoon, and right now again: all Plugins off, set Theme to twentyfifteen, use a new browser that never had this page open, so no caching.

Makes no difference whatsoever.

This is what get written into Customizer, time after time after time:

data-customize-image-value="" data-customize-header-image-data="{"attachment_id":3915,"url":"","thumbnail_url":"","alt_text":"","width":954,"height":1300,"timestamp":["1464109068"]}"

Customizer can select the images, crop ’em, display them, but not save them.
I never liked the Customizer, but now I’m beginning to hate it.

i feel your pain, i had some trouble with customiser not long ago and i’m trying to remember what it was and how i sorted it. i know it’s not much help to you but sit tight and i’ll wrack my brain for what i did… (it could take a while…)

That would be great – I’m extremely curious.

My guess is it’s something really silly. Silly, but well-hidden.

BTW: the only thing I can think of that is different for this install is that it currently runs on a preview URL, which I set in wp-config.php after installing WordPress. Maybe there’s a residue of the original domain targeted by the install somewhere. If so, I’ve been unable to find it in phpmyadmin.

what do you mean by a preview url?

I’m pretty sure the preview URL thing is what messes with Customizers image selection.

Does not work:

• install WordPress using Installatron to a clients domain: https://myclient.com
• Because DNS for https://myclient.com still points to their old server, create a Preview domain using hosters service: https://myclient.hosting.link
• change WordPress to use https://myclient.hosting.link as base URL by adding to wp-config.php: define( ‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘ https://myclient.hosting.link/’ );
  define( ‘WP_HOME’, ‘ https://myclient.hosting.link/’ );
• move all Plugins and theme files using FTP
• copy all database and media content using Migrate DB Pro
• Change $table_prefix = ‘clienttableprefix_’; in wp-config.php
• Login to WordPress as admin
• Everything in WordPress works, except for saving image selections in Customizer > Header

Does work:

• install WordPress using Installatron to an additional test domain: https://mydummydomain.com
• move all Plugins and theme files using FTP
• copy all database and media content using Migrate DB Pro
• Change $table_prefix = ‘clienttableprefix_’; in wp-config.php
• Login to WordPress as admin
• Everything in WordPress works, including saving image selections in Customizer > Header

Somewhere, WordPress Customizer probably has some remains of https://myclient.com and stumbles.

So far, I have not been able to trace what Ajax is sending back to WordPress when I click on save in Customizer > Header. I would not be surprised to see something going wrong there.

that sounds familiar. i could be wrong but because the customiser is creating a frame of the host site that you can live edit it has to the pull the contents of the site into itself and then it needs write permissions in order to create the changes. it might not be able to do all of that if it’s trying to do something on a subdomain rather than a root directory install…

Just tested: created a https://mydummy.hosting.link preview domain for https://mydummydomain.com, changed WordPress to use this as siteurl and home (adding to wp-config.php), logged in to WordPress.

Everything seems to work, except image selection in Customizer > Header.

Now searching in phpmyadmin for mydummydomain.com URLs.

The subdomain itself can’t be what’s messing Customizer up, I think.

One of the working installs of this client website I have on myclient.mydomain.com, and things work as expected there.

bit of a long-shot but are the permission on the uploads folder 755 recursive?

Yes, everything is set to 755.

Since this setting did not change between using WP on the domain (targeted in installatron) and the preview domain (changed in wp-config and then manually in phpmysql), I still think it must be some well-hidden place where mydummydomain.com ist still active.

hmm… have a look through this article and see if there are any places it mentions where you’ve not updated the url of the site. https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Changing_The_Site_URL