Upgrade caused loss of Categories

My categories existed in wp-terms, but WP didn’t recognize them… never showed categories when writing posts and it wouldn’t allow me to create new categories. Everything was uncategorized and that category URL failed when trying to view it (with a 404).

I ran the tool anyway and everything bounced back. It may not work for everyone, but hopefully somebody can find this info useful.

The first changes I made were already suggested here earlier and those didn’t work for me.

This is what I see when i try to convert cats to tags:

Convert Categories to Tags

You have no categories to convert!

@insyncnet : leave an email address and I’ll contact you with location to email a backup of your database (preferably from before the upgrade that caused your problem).

Michael, can you please help me too?!

allover – please leave your comments on your other thread and please place a link to your site to see the problem.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/153149?replies=3

I had this problem, which (for me) turned out to be a stuck temporary file, specific to MySQL. YMMV, but here’s the details:

https://cowboyprogramming.com/2008/01/27/blogroll-and-catagories-not-working-in-wordpress-232/

Hey cowboy,

Mine is a new install of 2.3.3. on a local server. Apache 2.2.6., PHP 5.2.5, and MySQL 5.0.4.5.

I have tried the debug code you suggested, have received something different from what you received. Here’s my error:

WordPress database error: [Can't create/write to file '#sql_126c_0.MYD' (Errcode: 17)]
SELECT t.*, tt.* FROM wp_terms AS t INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy AS tt ON tt.term_id = t.term_id INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships AS tr ON tr.term_taxonomy_id = tt.term_taxonomy_id WHERE tt.taxonomy IN ('post_tag') AND tr.object_id IN (1) ORDER BY t.name ASC

Obviously, something is causing this error, the trouble I have now is that I have no idea what to do now. I see this is referencing this: #sql_126c_0.MYD, but what is that? Is it a file, a location?

I would recommend others that are having these category issues to first run your debug code and post back with their errors. Maybe this will give all of you WP gurus some idea of what is causing these issues with so many different people and upgrades/fresh installs.

I look forward to any further advice any of you can add to help me along with this:)

cowboy has provided a solution that worked for me. Please follow the link above to read the fine details (and you’ll learn something about MySQL too).

Run his debug code (just insert it into your config.php file, save, then refresh your main page)

If your situation is similar to ours, you will see the error in the above post. That will clue you into what file you’re looking for.

I searched for this file ( #sql_126c_0.MYD ) and found it, then deleted it, and the categories seem to be working normally now.

(Your location will vary, I’m on a local install)
I found the file in this path C:\wamp\bin\mysql\mysql5.0.45\data

Thank you so much for your help!

MichaelH Hi! Updated to 2.3.3, caused loss of Categories
Help me do not know how to fix it.

My email: [email sent 02/26/2008 1:38gmt]

The excuse my English, not ablo. I do Brasil!

Michael, if you could help me out, I’d be your BFF.
Heres the deal.
Same thing as others, i lost my categories, and the ability to make new ones after upgrading.
I am hosted on media temple, so I cannot import my old database as it is a whopping 180 MB SQL file, and they have a 10 MB limit.
I think I did not have all my plug-ins deactivated originally, but deactivating them, then setting the db to 5183, then hitting UGRADE did not work.
Any help would be VERY appreciated.
Is there some sort of “blank categories file you can send that I can manually add my categories to, then upload?

Thanks!

Michael,
sorry, e-mail is [moderated–email sent 02/26/2008 1:41gmt], or IM me at macensteindotcom
Really trying to fix this!
thanks!

[moderator note: user reverted to 2.1.2 and is considering waiting for 2.5]

Lorax, you’re a lifesaver. I had those two UTF-8 lines in there from a previous version of WP.

I’ve documented my experience with this problem here.

@justinbaeder – those lines just didn’t appear magically in wp-config.php, you would have had to have done that yourself during some previous upgrade.

Please let me reiterate what is said in the Codex,

Warning for those performing upgrades: If DB_COLLATE and DB_CHARSET do not exist in your wp-config.php file, DO NOT add either definition to your wp-config.php file unless you read and understand Converting Database Character Sets. Adding DB_COLLATE and DB_CHARSET to the wp-config.php file, for an existing blog, can cause problems — as Ryan Boren says, “your queries will go boom!”

okay, I follow the debug step and get the error “WordPress database error: [Can’t create/write to file ‘/tmp/#sql_74b4_0.MYD’ (Errcode: 17)]”

I am on a shared hosting server. Where do I find that file? Or does my hosting company have to help me? I have looked around using their file manager and not found it.

thanks

Richard

– Lost Categories after upgrade –

Situation:
I upgraded from WordPress 2.1.1 to 2.3.3.

I noticed the second side column of my 3-column theme was missing. After reading this post, I checked my database and found Categories tables were missing.

Solution:
(Note: I use phpMyAdmin via Cpanel)
1. Locate database files that you backed up before the upgrade.
2. Create a new database, add original admin user to it, and upload backup files to it.
3. Edit wp-config.php to point to new database name.
4. The site should be working at this point.

But you want to get back the original database name.
4. Delete files from original database (do not overwrite).
5. Upload backup files to original database.
6. Edit wp-config.php to point to the original database name.