Global Template Throwing Error

[ibaker]

I backup my sites every week and today I thought I would test the latest backup on my socialaustralia.com.au site but it failed.

The site is working fine.

I backup the site and download it to my local PC which has xampp with php v8.0.2.8 installed

I import the db into mysql but when i go to the backup version of my site on my local PC under localhost I get the error:

[[Template core/admin/global/globalTemplate is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]

The globalTemplate is default and not modified in any way and this is shown trying to access the admin panel and my backup site css is all screwed up

Any advice how to fix this as I want to test my backups and not be left with a huge problem if anything happened to my live site

Edited May 10, 2023 by ibaker

[Marc]

Try running clear cache in the admin CP and see if that corrects the issue. 

[ibaker]

Thanks Marc, unfortunately I can't access the admin control panel because that msg is displayed. I tried adding the \define('RECOVERY_MODE', true); to the constants file but then for the admin panel I get the attached view

[Marc]

The likelihood is, something isnt able to be written somewhere, so check permissions on folders. You may also find errors logged in uploads/logs that will give you a better understanding. Clearing the datastore folder is another thing you could try

[ibaker]

19 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

The likelihood is, something isnt able to be written somewhere, so check permissions on folders. You may also find errors logged in uploads/logs that will give you a better understanding. Clearing the datastore folder is another thing you could try

It is installed on my local PC which is windows 10 so there shouldn't be any issues with permissions

uploads/logs has only a 0 size index.html file, nothing else

Removed everything in the datastore folder but no change

[Marc]

Unfortunately, its difficult to know what could be causing the issue without being able to see it. What you mention above, would actually also point to it being an issue with permissions, as the logs folder would generally contain the error

[Randy Calvert]

Have you confirmed your localhost environment meets all of the system requirements for running IPB?  If you can't run recovery mode or access the admin CP at all, it sounds like a bigger system configuration issue.

By the way...  my personal suggestion is to not use your own computer for testing backups.  I would suggest using the same server on a separate subdomain.  Something like test.yourdomain.com.  That way you know the system configuration is the same in your test environment as it is in your production environment.  

Edited May 10, 2023 by Randy Calvert

[ibaker]

Thanks for your reply...Yes, all system requirements are met and the message that it is ready for v4.7.

Each week I backup a copy of my entire site (2 x IPS sites) and databases and download the backups to a 4tb backup hard disk here at home. This way the backups are off site from my server provider in the US, I am in Australia, and have nothing to do with my server should anything happen to the server. This basically costs me nothing and I have done this for years with Xenforo and every now and then I would check a backup on my local PC under xampps and never a problem. This also allows me the luxury of doing and testing any changes that I may like to make free from any impacts online, a type of Test Environment and using an online sub domain as a form of Pre-Prod environment.

If I were to have a different online test environment it would cost me for another server...note just one of my sites is a 17gb backup

If I were to do as you have suggested, if anything happened to the server I would lose the backup plus not have a Test Environment due to IPS one live/one test install rules.

To give an example I would like to have a look at combining 2 of my sites together. This will take a substantial amount of playing around and changing many things to see if there are any benefits that I think I might get. This would be so much easier and quicker if I could just do it on my local PC.

Life was so much easier with Xenforo

Any suggestions on how I can overcome this problem with IPS

[Daniel F]

Any logged errors in the apache/Nginx log?

[ibaker]

Thanks Daniel, the logs show no errors...well, the error logs I can find on the server

@Daniel F the error log on my local PC for xampp is attached

error.log

[Marc]

There is nothing I can see in there specific to the software. The issue here, is unfortunately in order to be able to assist with an issue, we need to be able to debug it, which we cant do on a local environment. I understand the issue you are facing and why you wish to check things, but really testing restore should be tested on the environment you would need to restore it to.