XF 2.2 Website hosed after PHP upgrade to 7x

[WavMixer2]

One week ago my forum was running great. The host upgraded the PHP from 5.6 to 7x and the site was giving a 500 internal server error. I called the hosing company and the tech on the phone said he had fixed the site for me. When I asked him what went wrong, he told me they had upgraded the server to PHP 7, but he had set my site back to 5.6. I was disturbed that that made this change without notifying me before. The tech then told me that me that I needed to update my software to be compatible with 7x by the end of this year. After I was off the phone I had noticed problems on the site when you would post, the page would not refresh and the members would push the button multiple times not knowing they were creating a duplicate post every push.

I backed up all of the web files and SQL file. Then I used the link in the xenForo admin section to upgrade the software and got stuck in an endless loop telling me the site was being upgraded and to come back later. Bluehost had a auto-backup program called CodeGuard that I paid extra for and thought I had my bases covered. I tried restoring the site from a point in time prior to them messing with the PHP version yet it still remained in an endless "go away, I'm upgrading" mode. OK, you wanna play rough, I play rough. I requested that they restore the site from a snapshot taken 1 week before they made any changes. Although I could see the files via FTP, the web site was blank white. I checked that the files were set to 644 and folders to 755. Still nothing! With no help from this host, I have decided to move my site to another host.

Files are being transferred as I type, but when attempting to import the database in phpMyAdmin I get an error "Incorrect format parameter" . In the header of the SQL file it has:
-- Server version: 5.7.23-23
-- PHP Version: 7.3.28

This would seem to tell me that when I did the SQL dump, the PHP version was 7.3.28. So now I'm trying to pick up the broken pieces. I had the new host set the php version to 5.6 because that is what the site was running on before the host broke it.

I know that this is a lot of stuff to take in, but any help here would be greatly appreciated. If I can get this site running on a new host, there is a pretty good chance that the members of this forum won't hunt me down and feed me to the gators.


**EDIT
I just looked at an older SQL backup
-- Generation Time: Aug 23, 2019 at 10:35 PM
-- Server version: 5.7.23-23
-- PHP Version: 7.2.7

So it looks like the site was running on PHP 7 back then, correct?

 

[hostingunlock]

I wonder have you tried to restore the backup through ssh console

 

[beerForo]

Is this XF 1.5?

 

[WavMixer2]

To the best of my recollection, this was 2x but I'm not sure which revision.

 

[Chris D]

If you’re able to submit a ticket with all your FTP/database or hosting control panel login details we can probably take a look for you.

You are/were running XF 2.1.10 as far as I can tell.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get the site back up and running as it was. We can’t help you with backup and restore but as long as you already have the files and database on there hopefully we can see what needs to happen to get it running.

 

[FTL]

That looks like a total nightmare and Bluehost has a bad rep according to what I’ve read on here. Good to see you’ve jumped ship.

I’m using AWS to retain total control over my setup and have it configured to my specs. There’s a learning curve involved and no handholding, but it was worth it.

 

[WavMixer2]

If you’re able to submit a ticket with all your FTP/database or hosting control panel login details we can probably take a look for you.

You are/were running XF 2.1.10 as far as I can tell.

Hopefully we’ll be able to get the site back up and running as it was. We can’t help you with backup and restore but as long as you already have the files and database on there hopefully we can see what needs to happen to get it running.

I would love it if you can help us!!! How do I submit a ticket? I still have the site on bluehost. I did upload temp index.html page explaining to our members what happened, but the index.php file is there with all of the other files on their server but the php page is not visable, even with the index.html page removed.
The site is https://TheToneRooms.com Please let me know where to send the FTP info.


THANK YOU!!!

 

[Chris D]

You can open a ticket from the Account area.

 

[WavMixer2]

Thank you Chris, ticket has been submitted.

 

[WavMixer2]

Much props to @Chris D for rescuing our site!!!!! Also honorable mention to @AndyB who also took interest and lent assistance. You guys rock!!!

 

[FTL]

Much props to @Chris D for rescuing our site!!!!! Also honorable mention to @AndyB who also took interest and lent assistance. You guys rock!!!

It's customer service like this which will swing me strongly in favour of a product or service. I've had to log a couple of tickets since I bought XF a few months ago and have experienced similar great levels of customer service. Help in the forum is generally pretty good, too.

 

[oldford]

Excellent! Glad you got it recovered. I know how stressful your day must have been. Nice job Chris and Andy!