Reinstalled wordpress lost site

But I don’t have my pages and blogs.

– they should be in your dtabase.

– do you have backup of your DB taken before you “reinstalled”?

– You may also ask your hosting provider for backup of your site.

– Also review this thread: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/wordpress-39-master-list?replies=6

Hi Tara

I only backed up my folders in my subdomaim. I didn’t back up the database. Do you know if the reinstall overrides my old database?

If what you are saying is what I think you are saying, then you mean I can do the reinstall and then paste back in my database and connect it to the wp-config.php and it will read that data? Is that correct?

Thank you for your reply.

And yes, I am talking to my host now. They told me to do the reinstall initially but did not mention backing up the database, only the folders like wp-content.

Hello everyone,

I just used a new domain to install WordPress 3.9, thesis and then a skin, which is exactly what I have on my site that isn’t working. My site that doesn’t load is missing a lot of files that are installed with WordPress when I compare it to the new installation.

Do you suggest I just copy and paste the missing folders over? And then connect the wp-config.php to the database or is it harder than that?

It looks like any site I connected to hostgator then disconnect lose a lot of their files that are associated with wordpress.

Sorry for multiple postings, I just saw the edit button on the side.

Hi Juniorking,

Can you let us know if you are able to access phpmyadmin (at the hosting website), the dashboard used to manage your database?

First of all, it sounds like your database is ok, and that somehow the WordPress files have become corrupt, this is not so bad. If for instance your database had become corrupt or the wp-config file had become corrupt, WordPress would return an error saying Cannot connect to database, or your WordPress theme would load but no content would be there.

Let me talk a little bit about the most important steps of a backup and why. and if this sounds like it could help please dont hesitate to ask more questions ??

The two most important things that you need in order to restore your WordPress website is the ‘uploads’ folder (this is inside wp-content), the uploads folder holds all your media, images and other things that may be attached to your posts and pages. So saving this folder is important so its easy to find all the images that your website needs, including logos and icons in some cases.

The second, but equally if not more important thing that you need in order to restore a WordPress website is the database. The database holds the text that makes up all the posts and pages. The database also stores the settings for WordPress, plugins and themes. if nothing else, you must save a backup of your database. you can always download your theme and plugins again, but there is only 1 copy of your database. (use a backup plugin to avoid this problem)

with a backup of your database all you need to do is install a fresh copy of WordPress, any plugins you previously had and the theme you were using. then restore your database and all your previous settings, pages and posts, tags, categories, everything will be restored.

It is important to note that the files you see via FTP do not contain the text content of your website. for instance when you write an article the text for that article is stored in the database not in the WordPress files/folder. Settings that you apply to plugins and WordPress will also be in your database, not in the WordPress files. all the files and folders with the exception of the uploads folder mentioned above are expandable and in most cases can be replaced by downloading them from their original source, however to save any modifications to WordPress or themes it is always good practice to backup everything.

Good Luck, let us know if u need anymore help ??

Julian

Thanks Julian.

Yes I can access the myphpadmin database through Hostgator (my hosting). However, when I look at it, it only has my third party forum information. Would my pages and blogs with texts be located in the MySQL database perchance? Or are the files hidden?

I was trying to think if there was a chance all my stuff got overridden when I disconnected the hosting from the domain for awhile but I can’t see why that would happen. As well, by seeing the third party forum information in the myphpadmin database, I’m hoping that means I have everything else as well.

I’ve backed up the two databases I mentioned, and made a back up of my current FTP.

I do have two follow up questions.

1) Should I delete my wordpress install and just reinstall it?

2) After reinstalling, should I paste over the wp-content folder and the two databases and use wp-config to get the databases connected (just connect the DB name, username and password)?

the pages and blogs with text is most certainly located in the MySQL database, there are no hidden files.

When you are looking at your database, everything related to WordPress should have the prefix wp_ on it.

so that we are on the same page: when you first login to phpmyadmin you should see on the left hand side a column with a list of all your databases, your database can be named anything, when you click on the database that WordPress is in, it should populate the screen with tables, all of these tables will be prefixed with wp_ for example one of the most important tables is wp_users.

Your third party forum software probably has its own databse, but in the unlikely event of it sharing a database with WordPress, the forum software would have a different prefix (perhaps no prefix). But WordPress always has a prefix.

to answer your follow up questions:

1) Yes, so long as you are certain you have backed up all important images, uploads, and other media you want to save. (you said you did do this so thats good)

2) Yes paste over the wp-content folder with your backed up version of wp-content. The database needs to be imported via phpmyadmin, perhaps it would be a good idea to create a new database to test this on before overwriting anything in your current database (unless you are certain you have backups of everything).

Yes you are correct about the wp-config file but also remember to set the DB name, DB username, DB password AND DB host (usually localhost) and don’t forget to set the WordPress DB prefix which is just slightly further down in the wp-config file.

Updated: You are most welcome, happy to help, let us know how you go.

Julian, thank you!

Let me check and try all this, this evening when I am back in front of my computer.

If everything works well, I will post here so this thread can be closed.

Can I ask one question out of curiosity, which I’m not certain anyone will know the answer to. Why would some of my wp- files like wp-config.php and wp-comments, wp-post…all those files in my file manager disappear? I’m assuming they were there at some point when my site was up and running, although I never checked because my site worked fine. It is only know that I see that they aren’t there as I try to recover my site.

All the best Julian and Tara. You two are very helpful!

No problem, any time.

not sure about the disappearing files, that is curious.

Good Luck, let us know how it all goes ??

I forgot to mention, please make a backup of your .htaccess file as well.

in worst scenario WordPress can rewrite a new .htaccess, but you need to be able to use the dashboard.

That pesky .htaccess file can sometimes block me out of my site, when this happens i temporarily rename it to ‘old.htaccess’ or something to just test and see if my .htaccess file is causing problems. then getting WordPress to do a rewrite if something seems off. It would be awesome if your problem was this easy to solve, heres hoping.

Bad news. I lost the pages and blog posts. I think it was part of the uninstall I did or something on my own awhile back. I’ve gotten wordpress back up and running though and have to redo the entire skin for my thesis site.

I wanted to ask…so I did a new install and my wp-contents folder still has everything in it. But when I go to media library I don’t see any of my images. Is there a way to get that connected back? Is it a database issue of some time?

Since I only have 1 wp-content folder, I would think everything would be read from it to the media library.

Let me know if you guys can help. This will save a little time. So sad, too bad. But I will recover.