unable to activate multisite

Multisite should be installed in the root directory, but you’ve installed it in /wp. I suggest you get rid of any legacy stuff in the root directory and move WP there: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Moving_WordPress may help.

The reason I installed wp in the /wp is is that I wanted to keep the old moretonbay.biz.html site, which was not built in wp. I have a 301 redirect to the new wp site, (it does cause loading to be a bit slower).
If I move wp to the root directory what will happen to the old site?
montaya

How do you go about removing the ‘legacy stuff’? I am only a recently self taught builder of websites and have a feeling it is well above my pay grade. Any suggestions ? Is there an easy way of identifying the ‘legacy stuff’?
And will I lose the old Site?
Help needed, please
montaya

Install WP in the root.

Make your current index.html page a STATIC front page on your WP install.

Leave the rest alone (so long as they don’t conflict with WP file names).

Delete index.html.

Configure WP to your heart’s content. Change the front page when you’re ready.

Hi Ipstenu,
Looking at my cpanel root directory, it looks like I might have a double installation. What I think I might do is to take one of the other sites of mine, either https://www.russellislandbb.com.au or https://www.campertrailerseniors.net, and convert it to a multisite and add the other sites in it.
This is what the current root directory looks like with most of the plusses open:

File Manager

(/home/moretonb)
	 	.cpanel

	 	caches

	 	datastore

	 	nvdata
	 	.htpasswds
	 	.softaculous

	 	status

	 	tmp
	 	.sqmailattach
	 	.sqmaildata
	 	.trash

	 	login-register

	 	really-simple-captcha

	 	ycontributors
	 	access-logs
	 	Backups
	 	bin
	 	etc

	 	campertrailerseniors.net

	 	moretonbay.biz

	 	@pwcache

	 	info

	 	moretonb

	 	russellislandbb.com.au

	 	russellislandwetlands.com.au

	 	voteverry.info
	 	mail
	 	perl5
	 	php

	 	.channels

	 	.registry

	 	data

	 	docs

	 	ext

	 	tests
	 	public_ftp

	 	incoming
	 	public_html

	 	.smileys

	 	_private

	 	_vti_bin

	 	_vti_cnf

	 	_vti_log

	 	_vti_pvt

	 	_vti_txt

	 	aboutqueensland.info

	 	cgi-bin

	 	wp-admin

	 	wp-content

	 	wp-includes

	 	administrator

	 	backups

	 	cache

	 	components

	 	help

	 	images

	 	agora

	 	admin_files

	 	custom

	 	data_files

	 	html

	 	campertrailerseniors

	 	campertrailerseniors.net

	 	wp-admin

	 	wp-content

	 	wp-includes

	 	cgi-bin

	 	cgi-bin

	 	engineering

	 	comcentre

	 	cgi-bin

	 	files

	 	forums

	 	adm

	 	generator

	 	images

	 	img

	 	Iga3

	 	img

	 	java

	 	moretonbay

	 	cgi-bin

	 	files

	 	img

	 	russell

	 	cgi-bin

	 	russellhome

	 	russellisland

	 	cgi-bin

	 	img

	 	russellislandbb.com.au

	 	wp-admin

	 	wp-content

	 	wp-includes

	 	russellislandwetlands.com.au

	 	administrator

	 	cache

	 	cgi-bin

	 	components

	 	images

	 	includes

	 	language

	 	libraries

	 	logs

	 	media

	 	modules

	 	plugins

	 	templates

	 	tmp

	 	xmlrpc

	 	voteverry.info

	 	cgi-bin

	 	wp-admin

	 	wp-content

	 	wp-includes

	 	wp

	 	wp-admin

	 	wp-content

	 	wp-includes
	 	templates

	 	beez

	 	ja_purity

	 	js_jamba

	 	rhuk_milkyway

	 	system

	 	yoo_blueprint
	 	tmp

	 	analog

	 	awstats

	 	cpbandwidth

	 	pear

	 	webalizer

	 	webalizerftp
	 	www

	 	.smileys

	 	_private

	 	_vti_bin

	 	_vti_cnf

	 	_vti_log

	 	_vti_pvt

	 	_vti_txt

	 	aboutqueensland.info

	 	administrator

	 	agora

	 	campertrailerseniors

	 	campertrailerseniors.net

	 	cgi-bin

	 	comcentre

	 	files

	 	forums

	 	generator

	 	images

	 	img

	 	java

	 	moretonbay

	 	russell

	 	russellhome

	 	russellisland

	 	russellislandbb.com.au

	 	russellislandwetlands.com.au

	 	voteverry.info

	 	wp

	 	wp-admin

	 	wp-content

	 	wp-includes

This may not be of much use, but I thought I would try. I am in an unknown territory trying to get pointers to clear the fog.
montaya

That did not copy over well…

Go into /home/moretonb/public_html/

List ONLY the folders and files you see there please ?? And use code tags.

/home/moretonb/public_html/error_log

[deleted log]

some of the error log

not sure what you mean “use only code tags”

Look up above this nice pretty box where you input text. See how there are buttons for ‘b’ and ‘i’ and … oh, look! ‘code’? PLEASE for the love of monkeys and baby belugas, use the CODE button around your CODE. It formats it.

And we did not want to see your error log.

Go into /home/moretonb/public_html/

List ONLY the folders and files you see there please ?? And use code tags.

Can you do that?

Sarcasm is stimulating, but I must have a different screen to you as the cpanel file manager screen I have has nothing like what you are describing.
montaya

Then take a screenshot and post it up on Imageshack or whatewver ?? Paste the link to the image here. We’ll look. But until we can SEE what you’re talking about, it’s hard to tell you what to do, because what you’ve told us is … well … Look at what you posted. It’s hard to see why certain things are grouped the way they are.

(I don’t use Cpanel’s file manager, I use FTP and SSH)

Hi,
Two screenshots of file manager,

https://img684.imageshack.us/img684/6986/filemanagerscreenshot2.png
https://img715.imageshack.us/img715/5976/filemanagerscreenshot.png

montaya

Well that is a seriously bolloxed setup.

wp is probably a folder where you have another copy of WP installed. The folders wp-admin and wp-content and wp-includes are WordPress core files as well. I can’t tell if you have the other wp-*.php files, but I’ll assume you do.. Also you have add-on domains in there.

If you don’t understand how it’s all set up, you’re going to need to find someone who’s willing to log into your server and untangle it for you, and the odds are you’ll need to hire them.

We do not make any money out of these websites. Trying to get them on a level, where we can get an income stream so we can afford to hire help (catch 22). I am over 65 so my own income has limited spare funds. As the initial moretonbay.biz started with html and I am trying to fix the mess, as you call it, by trying to migrate the main wp site from the backend of the html to the root directory, where I planned to activate a multisite and run all my wp sites from the one wp installation (still have russellislandwetlands.com.au which I built in joomla before I found that wp was more user friendly). I realize that it is a mess and that’s what I try to rectify and am now in a bigger mess and cannot afford to pay someone. I made a backup with both wp complete backup and pressbackup before I started the move, and I installed a fresh wp installation on the root directory and have been trying to get these backups to restore but the backups are giving me considerable problems as well. (the wp complete backup is 278mb and the pressbackup is 400+mb).
I might have to shoot myself !!! or build the whole lot (150+ pages of moretonbay.biz) from sctratch.

Here is what I have tried with pressbackup as I was told to open the zipfiles and upload manually—the instruction were:
———–
You can use it without problems, You will have to restore your site manually.
Open the zip file, inside you will find the zips for uploads, themes and plugins. extract them.
Also you will find a database.sql,
Now extract each one of the sub zips, and then upload the content via FTP to wp-content folder of your fresh install.
Once finished, access phpmyadmin, open your db and import the database.sql.
Please note that you must have a fresh install of the same version as the wordpress that made the backup, because the DB can change from one version to another.
———————-
Which i did through filezilla.
This was the outcome:
I am trying to resurrect a fairly large website, of which I took a bakcup with PressBackup before it crashed.
I am uploading the files manually through FTP. I have uploaded plugins and themes, but had a little bit of trouble with uploads, but think I have got it right now.
But when I uploaded the database in phpmyadmin I got an error each time. The last error I got is:
Error
SQL query:
INSERT INTO wp_bp_xprofile_data ( id , field_id , user_id , value , last_updated )
VALUES (
‘1’, ‘1’, ‘1’, ‘moreb’, ‘2012-02-16 12:14:24’
);
MySQL said:
#1062 – Duplicate entry ‘1’ for key ‘PRIMARY’