WP installation broken, need help fixing it

  • Resolved mirgcire

    (@mirgcire)


    11 years ago

    I tried to “restore” a backup from my website on to my local XAMPP system, just to be sure the backup process was working correctly. I used the free version of BackWPup for the back up and followed some tutorials from https://mbrsolution.com. The back up went fine, and restoring seemed to be good until I tried to access the site.

    If I enter “https://localhost” into the browser the front page of the site is displayed, but it is all scrunched up, as if the CSS file is missing. And if I enter “https://localhost/wp-admin”, I get a 404 error.

    I have been combing the forums for clues but I haven’t found anything helpful. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • vtxyzzy

    (@vtxyzzy)

    There are URLs and paths stored in the database in ‘serialized’ form where the string length is stored along with the string. You must use special tools to search and replace the old values with the new ones.

    If you replace an old URL with a new one of a differnt length, it will break the serialization, causing many different problems.

    You can use the steps shown in this article to copy the site: https://wordpress.mcdspot.com/2012/08/22/migrating-a-wordpress-site-step-by-step/

    Thread Starter mirgcire

    (@mirgcire)

    Hi vtxyzzy, thanks for the suggestions.

    I did not modify the serialized form of the database. I imported the database and modified it using phpmyadmin.

    If I can’t get BackWPup working, then I have no other choice than to try different tool as you link suggests.

    Thread Starter mirgcire

    (@mirgcire)

    Good news!

    The problem turned out to be the result of setting the siteurl incorrectly in the DB. I can be forgiven for this because I was simply following the instructions of a highly praised tutorial. And the WP documentation is inadequate with regards to this parameter:

    The "Home" setting is the address you want people to type in their browser to reach your WordPress blog.
The "Site URL" setting is the address where your WordPress core files reside.

    The only way I could get this to work was to set them both to ‘localhost’. You can see that it would be hard to guess that they are supposed to be set to exactly the same thing from the description above, but both, my XAMPP and BlueHost installation have them set to the same thing.

    The solution (setting siteurl correctly) is consistent with the symptoms, because this parameter is used for locating the WP files. The content, pulled from the DB, was all intact. but the none of the other files were found.

    Anyway, the good news is that I am back on track and my backup has been verified.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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