UpdraftPlus attempted to restore the completely wrong website

A completely unbelievable saga.

Firstly, two of the websites I manage, let’s call them Site A and Site B, both use UpDraftPlus for backups and both have lots of backups that are saved to my Dropbox (in the same folder!). Site A is currently running on PHP5.6 (and is due to be updated to PHP7.2), and Site B is on PHP7.2.

I wanted to do some editing on Site A, so firstly I backed up the database, did some editing, it did not go well, so I successfully restored A. I then edited again, and was happy.

I then noticed a problem with a data table plugin. Was not sure what the cause was, but I then I decided to do a full restore using the last full backup from about a week ago.

I started the backup and got a warning about a clash between the backup and PHP7.2. As I had just done a successful restore I assumed that was about some work that you might have already done in preparation of the impending upgrade to PHP7.2, so stupidly I went ahead with the backup and it immediately crashed.

I then tried to go to the home page of Site A and was immediately re-directed to Site B! All other pages on Site A, including the login page returned a 404 error.

Apart from me managing both sites, there is no connection between them – different servers, different everything (I thought).

With no ideas about a possible solution I contacted the manager of Site A’s server. He looked up the error log and sent me a long complicated string that was part directory from Site B’s server, with a Site A’s URL tacked on the end.

After much thought, unbelievably I realised that the commonality between the two sites was that their backups both went to the same Dropbox folder. UpdraftPlus had actually started to do a Site A restore using a Site B backup!

This would firstly explain the warning about PHP7.2 that I had foolishly disregarded, (Site A is running on PHP5.6 and Site B on PHP7.2) and would also account for the strange string that was a combination of the two sites.

After enormous trouble, my wonderful server manager eventually got this mess sorted out.

One final thing, there were full backups of both sites done on the same day in my Dropbox folder, with Site B’s backup (presumably the incorrect one that was used for the restore) being the most recent.

I have now rearranged my backups to go to separate storage’s!

• This topic was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by KAPman.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by KAPman.