Restore doesn't work

  • peterlihou

    (@peterlihou)


    10 years, 7 months ago

    The worst thing about a back up system is that you only really test it when you have a major problem, then you really need to know it will work. The file I restored with yesterdays date turned out to be about a month old, I went back to find another and they’ve all been deleted!

    It’s not much use offering a service without support when you really need it, especially if the system is flawed.

    Being told the typical response is several days and then seeing unanswered forum posts going back months leaves me with no confidence about the more advanced products on offer.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Plugin Author Online Backup

    (@driskell)

    10 years, 7 months ago

    Hi peterlihou,

    Where did you restore the file from? We’ve never experienced issues before where the recovered file for a specific date is older than it should be and I would like the opportunity to investigate.

    Please also understand that it is simply not possible to provide responses within hours of a support request. The support is free and for the most part voluntary. I am also not aware of any topics that have not been responded to, ‘in months’. Additionally, you should be aware the company’s more advanced products re paid for and are supported and maintained by teams of highly experienced experts who not only provide fast responses but visit site when needed. There is a clear distinction between free and paid.

    Regards,

    Jason

    Plugin Author Online Backup

    (@driskell)

    10 years, 7 months ago

    Hi peterlihou,

    I can find a topic you posted here:
    http://wordpress.org/support/topic/online-backup-errors?replies=1

    My plugin was not tagged so it looks to be raised in the general forum and not our support forum at http://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wponlinebackup which is on our plugin page at WordPress and linked to from the Help & Support in the plugin.
    I do not search for support topics I’m afraid.

    Looking at that topic those warnings can be ignored. They are generally a message to plugin developers that their plugin is not backup friendly. We rarely see any issues with them though and worst case it causes some duplicated data in their plugin after a restore. Most plugins can deal with that though and those that don’t support can be sought after from their developer.

    I do not see a topic about the file restoring an old version, however, and I would still like the oppurtunity to investigate.

    Thanks,

    Jason

    Thread Starter peterlihou

    (@peterlihou)

    10 years, 7 months ago

    Hi Jason

    I visited the portal yesterday and was shown a list of recent backups from which to choose, I selected the backup from 11:00am on Tuesday morning. Every day people vote and add books to The Book Awards and when restored, the site was showing only those entries from weeks ago. When I saw it, I went back to the portal to select a different file but they had all gone other than the most recent. If you have backups of your backup files, I will be happy to walk through the process with you today. I gave up at 2:00 in the morning but now have to spend today resolving the problem because the site is busy every day.

    I understand the distinction between paid and free but something as crucial as a backup system must have some level of support. I would pay a reasonable amount for a professional service but not one that isn’t there when you need it. I tried the forum and found several topics had questions (including my own) with no answers going back months. My site is a ‘not for profit’ run voluntarily but I still feel duty bound to offer an excellent service.

    It seems to me that far to many people, vendors and customers alike, are happy to judge a backup system on the ease of installation or automation, the most important feature is the ability and ease of use when you need to restore. There is no information on this supplied with the application and the only help is in a FAQ section of your website. For the first time, when already stressed, you see instructions that are complicated to a non-technical person, you are told there’s no support and suggestions that help be sought from a hosting provider, even though the hosting provider doesn’t offer that support for the database.

    A great free system will lead to sales of paid systems but a poor free system will damage your reputation and inhibit all sales.

    I was surprised and relieved to see your note this morning (perhaps prematurely because I don’t know if anything will come of it) as I didn’t expect any response at all. If you are still able to assist me, I will gladly take down my negative review and revise my opinion.

    Regards
    Pete

    Pete Lihou
    [sig moderated as per the Forum Rules]

    Plugin Author Online Backup

    (@driskell)

    10 years, 7 months ago

    Hi Pete,

    I tried the forum and found several topics had questions (including my own) with no answers going back months

    I cannot see these topics. If you look at http://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wponlinebackup there are none without response for more than a week.

    I understand the distinction between paid and free but something as crucial as a backup system must have some level of support. I would pay a reasonable amount for a professional service but not one that isn’t there when you need it.

    I appreciate this, but as a free service it simply would not work. And this is not a reason to NOT provide the plugin since it works for thousands of users and has been used to restore many hundreds of times. One just can not download a program from the internet and assume that help is available immediately and on a 24/7 basis.

    For the first time, when already stressed, you see instructions that are complicated to a non-technical person, you are told there’s no support and suggestions that help be sought from a hosting provider

    There is support if you need assistance. However, you should still always consult your hosting provider if unsure as they can help you with their database tools and some will do some of the restore parts for you.

    I do agree the restore information is not as good as it could be for non-technical people. This is because there are so many host variables to consider and it can be completely different from one host to another. Which is another reason to contact the host. We will have a good guide completed eventually but I cannot say when.

    A great free system will lead to sales of paid systems but a poor free system will damage your reputation and inhibit all sales.

    For someone to spend huge amounts of their time and effort volunteering to help others and then be condemned by someone they tried to help because “it wasn’t good enough for me” I honestly find absolutely abhorrent. Even if this is targeted at the sponsoring company that helped fund the initial development and not the personnel.

    Regarding your issue. The Tuesday snapshot did not contain a database backup, so that could be why we are missing that data. The quota was at 100MiB and I believe it removed the older database backups (including Tuesday) to make room for new backups, but did not stop the Tuesday snapshot was showing. I’ll look at getting this fixed. But to put into perspective – this means if everything was fine you would only be seeing the latest backup snapshot, and not Tuesday.

    Due to resilience we have in the system I’ve put back all your database backups for the last 30 days though.

    Please login wordpress.backup-technology.com again and click the Blog on the Backups page. Then click Database and OBFW_Database.sql. You can download the latest database file here and restore it and see if the data is back.

    Regards,

    Jason

    esmi

    (@esmi)

    10 years, 7 months ago

    @peterlihou: This is not a support forum. If you have further problems, please post in the plugin’s dedicated forum as suggested.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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