Download to Local Machine not working

Hi Monica-

Thanks for reaching out, I’m sorry to hear about the error you’re getting when you attempt to download your backups.

When you see that error message, you should also see a status code just below that message, for example ERR_ACCESS_DENIED. Can you share the status code you see?

Generally speaking, there are two main things that cause this error to occur.

1. Something’s blocking your access to admin-ajax.php. Sometimes, this is caused by a false positive in a security plugin, or your host’s security software, such as ModSecurity or another Web Application Firewall (WAF).
2. Your backup file is large, and it’s taking longer to download or is larger than your server’s Apache or NGINX configuration allows for.

Since you mentioned that it was working before, my main suspicion is that your backup files have become too large to download directly. We have a couple of things you can try to troubleshoot that.

1. Navigate to Total Upkeep > Settings > Backup Process and enable the option for a Filelist Analysis. Then, create a new backup and examine the log in Total Upkeep > Tools > Logs. The log will show you if there are any very large files in your site that you might be able to exclude.
2. If there aren’t any obvious files in the filelist analysis, try excluding your wp-content/uploads/ directory. Create a new backup, select the option for a Custom Backup and add ,/wp-content/uploads to the Exclude section. Don’t forget the comma separator at the beginning.

If you’re able to download a smaller backup, then we can safely say that the size is too large. Keep in mind that if you need immediate access to your backups, you can use your host’s file manager or FTP to download your backups.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Jesse Owens. Reason: Add suggestion for file manager/FTP

Hi @monica5 –

One more update on this issue. We recently released an update to the plugin in mid-February that resolved this error for some users by breaking the download into smaller request sizes. Double-check that you’re on the latest version of Total Upkeep (1.14.11).

Beyond the steps I mentioned above, has anything else changed on your site? For example, new plugins, migrating to a new host, or any other big changes?

Dear Jesse, thank you.

It’s ERR_INVALID_RESPONSE. I never had issues with 250MB backup size, but now with 270MB I do. I’m using WordFence Premium and am on Total Upkeep 1.14.11. Total Upkeep – Tools – Logs doesn’t then show anything large really. The smaller download to local machine with ,/wp-content/uploads excluded worked.

But how can I use Total Upkeep for quick backups and restores if plugin updates or anything goes wrong? I can’t do that in chunks, can I? Besides, even if the backup is too big for Total Upkeep, is it still available for restore, i.e. has it been created successfully so that I could restore to it even without downloading it locally? I can’t try doing that because it messes up my WordFence tables and security tweaks.

Thanks for letting me know… Good day

Yes, and my site isn’t that big really. It’s without video, just text and charts – spartan. With daily publishing though, I would get over 1 GB by the end of the year. Can Total Upkeep increase the total size it can handle really? Thank you.

Hi @monica5 –

I wouldn’t normally expect a site that’s only 270MB to experience this problem, but it is interesting that excluding the uploads let you download it successfully.

I should have explained the new “Chunks” feature of Total Upkeep better- it doesn’t actually split your backup file into smaller pieces, it just reduces the individual request sizes during the download. The backup itself is still able to do a restoration of the full site.

You mentioned that you’re using WordFence. Was that a recent addition to your site, or have you made any changes to the WordFence configuration?

One thing I’d like to try as an experiment is to temporarily disable WordFence, and then try downloading one of your full-size backups (you can reactivate the plugin right afterward).

If you get the same error, we’ll know that it’s not being blocked by WordFence, but if it works that will give us the information we need to troubleshoot the two plugins together.

As for your last concern, Total Upkeep doesn’t have any size limit, but gets limited by your server resources. However, with a relatively small site like yours, I think we can rule that out as the cause.

Dear Jesse,

thank you. I am with WordFence since the very beginning, and had been able to do Total Upkeep backups and restores with both its free and premium versions. It’s not a new addition to my arsenal, so it makes no sense disabling it and trying out backup downloads. Talking conflicts, one Total Upkeep restore messed up WordFence, which I had to then set up from scratch, and possibly even its tables were affected. Took 2 days with regular pace of activities to solve fully.

So, what can be done then so that my small site backups work as they should? If Total Upkeep is it still available for restore, i.e. has it been created successfully, would I be able to restore to it even without downloading it locally? I can’t try doing that because of the above conflicts caused to WordFence.

Thank you.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by monica5.

Hi @monica5!

It sounds like there are few compounding issues working with backups on your website and addressing each one individually is going to be the best way forward to get backups working properly on your website again.

For the problem downloading a local backup, it definitely sounds like there is some server configuration that is preventing backup downloads from working properly once a certain size is reached. Could you contact your hosting provider and ask them to see if they can find any information in the server logs that might explain where the interference is coming from? I wrote a quick message that should explain the situation and hopefully points them in the right direction to finding the data we need to get this fixed.

We are troubleshooting an issue one of our users is having with downloading backups created with our plugin, Total Upkeep, and we would really appreciate your help in getting this resolved!
Attempting a download of a backup file returns an ERR_INVALID_RESPONSE for a 270MB backup. However, a smaller backup was created that excluded the /wp-content/uploads directory and the download attempt for that one worked as expected. It seems that once a backup file reaches a certain size the download request is hitting some kind of limit which then invalidates the attempt.
Would it be possible for your team to review the logs for these downloads and let us know which server configuration, if any, might be preventing larger backup files from downloading as expected?

What kinds of problems happened with WordFence following that restoration attempt and what did you have to do in order to restore the functionality? Normally a restore.log file is generated any time Total Upkeep attempts a backup restoration and it can also be found in Total Upkeep > Tools > Logs. Could you send us the contents of that file so we can review it to see if anything sticks out that might explain why restorations started failing recently? That file contains some sensitive data about your server environment and we would appreciate it if you could send that information to [email protected] to help ensure that nothing important is compromised. Could you also reference this thread directly in your message?

We look forward to hearing back from you soon!

Hi Joseph,

thank you. Should I learn from my hosting provider more, I’ll tell you over email (log file just sent)
WordFence looked as if no setup was done, and even for the defaults, toggling on and off was the only thing setting the tables correct, and protections to 100%. I can’t help with more details really, as I know that restore is out of question for this reason anyway (list of blocked Ips lPs, and who knows what else).
Thank you!

Thank you for sending us that logging information from your hosting provider Monica!

Our development team used that data create a new version of Total Upkeep that adds some additional logging within the plugin for the download feature.

You can download the new version using the Advanced View for Total Upkeep in the WordPress repository under the Advanced Options dropdown. In the dropdown, download the branch.issue-454.202103251048 Zip file and replace the existing version of Total Upkeep on your website with that one.

Once the new version is installed try downloading your backup file again. It will likely still fail to download, but a download.log file should be created under Total Upkeep > Tools > Logs. Could you then send the contents of that file to [email protected] so our development team can review the information and figure out where the failure is occurring?

Thanks for all your help Monica and we hope to gets this problem figured out soon!

Dear Joseph,

thank you. Enhanced ver activated, replacing the current one, backup download failed, I am sending all logs created over by email. Thank you,

Monica

Thank you for sending us that information Monica!

Our latest beta version branch.issue-454.202103301008 that adjusts the output buffering behavior should go live sometime next week and permanently fix the problem with downloading local copies of Total Upkeep backup files.

Thank you again for helping us figure out this problem and please let us know if you ever have any other questions for us in the future!