XF 2.2 Uploading updated forum from local host

[LukeWolf]

I've followed these instructions: https://xenforo.com/community/threa...site-to-use-as-a-test-site.67118/page-3#posts

I backed up my forum.
Then I downloaded my forum on the local host.
Once the update was complete locally, I changed the .htaccess file and the config.php file back to suit the live version
Now I'm uploading the updated local version of my forum to the live version using SFTP to overwrite.
Have I done this right?

 

[Paul B]

To clarify, you downloaded your live site to localhost, upgraded it to 2.2 and now you want to overwrite your live site with the upgraded localhost installation?

Why?
You will lose any content posted on your live site since the backup was taken.

What are you trying to do exactly?

If you want to test the upgrade process, do it on localhost and if it all works okay, then you upgrade the live site.

 

[LukeWolf]

Yes that's right.
Actually, I ended up losing the entire thing. Now I have a HTTP Error 500.
I only replaced the folder's contents on the live site with the local host one (of course with htaaccess and the config file were changed back).
I have some backups saved so I am going to restore it using one of those but I'm not sure how. There's no advice on how to do that anywhere. There's a lot of guides on backing up your site, but nothing on restoring a backup safely.

Since I have never really done this before, and websites and forums are not my speciality, I had read everything everywhere, and got the impression that this was the way to do it. Clearly not.

 

[RisteDimitrievski]

First in order to see where is the problem,what caused that to give you HTTP response 500. You should check error logs and see what's in that file.

Then you will know what is wrong and how to fix.

 

[LukeWolf]

I copied over the live site with a local host installation instead of doing the upgrade process on the live site.
I believe the best way to really fix this is to delete my forum folder on the server and restore a backup onto it, but I don't know how to do that.
I mean I could install the original Xenforo version I had, copy over the files that I backed up over to it and then point it to the original database. Will that work?

 

[LukeWolf]

First in order to see where is the problem,what caused that to give you HTTP response 500. You should check error logs and see what's in that file.

Then you will know what is wrong and how to fix.

To answer your question, the logs show this:


When I checked the .config file. I still had some of the test code in there, so I have removed that and will re-upload the file to the server, and it still gives me the HTTP ERROR 500. The console does not return any errors now, though.

 

[Paul B]

You will need to check the server error log to see what's triggering the 500 error.

However, it sounds like you may just need to restore from a backup.

There's a lot of guides on backing up your site, but nothing on restoring a backup safely.

It literally just involves replacing the files on the server and importing the database.

I had read everything everywhere, and got the impression that this was the way to do it. Clearly not.

I'm not sure where you read that - it's definitely not the way to do it.

The guide you linked to in the first post is for creating a localhost test site so you can test upgrades, etc. - it doesn't mention anything about overwriting your live site.

 

[WxP]

Do an reinstall, Like rebuild master data

 

[LukeWolf]

Okay so please tell me if what I'm doing is correct.

I'm deleting my forum folder.
Re-uploading the forum folder that I saved before doing any of this.
The database is still there, so that should be OK. if I have to re-import it, I can.

 

[RisteDimitrievski]

To answer your question, the logs show this:
View attachment 238706

When I checked the .config file. I still had some of the test code in there, so I have removed that and will re-upload the file to the server, and it still gives me the HTTP ERROR 500. The console does not return any errors now, though.

Check which file was failed loading....

Also check server error logs and/or paste here if you are still confused

 

[Paul B]

If you didn't touch the database on the live site, then uploading the backed up copy of the server files should restore everything.

 

[RisteDimitrievski]

If you didn't touch the database on the live site, then uploading the backed up copy of the server files should restore everything.

In case you touch database and have a backup of the database, just restore it or create a new database and import there.

Then edit the config file and change to new database name / user informations.

 

[LukeWolf]

Brogan and RisteD - thanks so much for your help with all this, it's life saving and I'm learning so much!

Okay, so I already had a back up version of the folder before I did any local host stuff on the server already. After deleting the forum folder from my website, I just changed the name of the backup folder to suit and restored the .config file to point to the database and my forum is now back up and running. I have updated it and now updating all of my add-ons. I have a lot of server errors which all seem to be pointing to add-ons that are not compatible with the new version of the forum. I would suspect these will go away when I update the add-ons?

 

[RisteDimitrievski]

Disable all addons before upgrading to the latest version of XenForo. I strongly recommend doing this to avoid any issues, if you are not sure that they are compatible.

 

[LukeWolf]

Ahh. I didn't do that, but I did test the upgrade process with the forum and all the add-ons that needed updating on my localhost version and there were no issues, but I'll keep that in mind in the future.