Hi Catalyx,
To deal with the last bit first: there haven’t been any changes in the reporting yet – the only change so far is the informational message saying that things will change in future!
I can backup manually without a problem; it’s only the daily automatic backup that seems to have an issue.
This is very odd, as internally, the two mechanisms are actually the same. The “Backup Now” button schedules a backup using WordPress’s scheduler for 5 seconds in the future; whereas the ‘scheduled’ backups do the same thing, but just set it to repeat on a periodic basis.
How many daily backups have taken place since you updated? (Actually, nothing has changed in this area in between 1.7.35 and 1.7.40). Give it another go tonight, and let me know how it goes then…
Best wishes,
David
Hi David,
Thanks for the prompt reply.
I don’t know when backups began “failing” because old backups are removed. I initially installed the plugin and recievied the first backup report email Oct 11, 2013. I know the last automated report was Oct. 28 with the new version, hence I thought it was a version issue.
For more detail, here is what my UpdraftPlus admin panel shows for these dates:
Nov 18: “(Not finished)” displayed and the “backup_time parameter” error in the backup log, as noted above,
Nov 17: “(Not finished)” displayed and the “backup_time parameter” error in the backup log, as noted above,
Nov 16: the manual backup was successful per its log but the automated backup failed and the “backup_time parameter” error in the backup log,
Nov 15: two automatic backups–one was successful per its log but the other failed with the “backup_time parameter” error reported in its backup log,
Nov 14: failed with the “backup_time parameter” error reported in its backup log,
Nov 13: failed with the “backup_time parameter” error reported in its backup log,
Nov 12: failed with the “backup_time parameter” error reported in its backup log.
I hope this makes sense.
Per the reporting email address, let me know if deactivating and reactivating the plugin may resolve the issue. Perhaps that will resolve the automated backups issue as well?
I’ll see how it works tonight. Many thanks.
Hi Catalyx,
Another possibility is that some other component in your WordPress install runs a scheduled task at very near the time of UpdraftPlus’s, and conflicts with it. (The WordPress scheduler has a few non-optimal design decisions).
Do this: install the free plugin WP-Crontrol, and then go to Tools -> Crontrol (not Settings, but Tools); and list the scheduled tasks. If you’re not sure how to interpret it, then paste at screenshot with http://snag.gy and I can take a look.
David
Hi David,
I took a look at the cron and it doesn’t seem to have events occurring near the scheduled UPD backups. I’m not an expert reading it. The snag.gy image is here.
Thanks again.
You’re right – nothing funny there.
What other plugins are installed?
Also, can you post the entire log from a failed backup? Use pastebin.com as it may be too long for the forum here.
Also – I forgot to mention earlier; the non-receipt of an email report is due to the backup not completing; the report gets sent at the end of the run.
David
Let’s see, other plugins:
-Akismet
-Better WP Security
-Black Studio TinyMCE Widget
-Contact Form 7
-CookiesControl
-Disqus Comment System
-Go Daddy Quick Setup
-Google Analytics for WordPress
-Google XML Sitemaps
-Jetpack by WordPress.com
-SpeakPipe – Voicemail for Websites
-Ultimate TinyMCE
-UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore
-Welcome to WordPress
-WordPress Importer
-WordPress SEO
-WP Crontrol
-WPtouch Mobile Plugin
Yes, many need culling.
I just sent you a text file to your listed personal email (@dw-perspective.org.uk) of today’s “Not finished” UPD backup log from about four hours ago. I hope this was fine.
Thanks for the reminder re failed backups won’t produce email confirmations.
Thanks.
Hi,
Thanks – I received the info. A better email address to use is contact@updraftplus.com.
The error is very strange. When UpdraftPlus picks up the backup run to continue it (because the PHP setup doesn’t allow enough time to do it all at once – which is very normal), it looks in the database to find the information about the backup run, and finds nothing.
Is there anything unusual about your database setup that you’re aware of?
We’ve not had any other reports of this problem, but I’m very curious to get to the bottom of it. If you’re willing, then I could take a closer look if you can email me your WordPress and FTP login details (or shell instead of FTP, if you have that).
Best wishes,
David
Hi David,
I emailed the requested details. Per the email, I haven’t directly touched the database since developing the site months ago so the setup should be more or less in its original setup unless a plugin or upgrade made changes.
Thanks for looking into this.
Does this server have some kind of component that blocks what it thinks is suspicious activity? Whenever I try to use the plugin editor to alter UpdraftPlus, to log something more, it forbids me, and then locks me out from the dashboard for 2 minutes. Then it lets me back in. I am wondering if that is related to the backup problem too?
David
Though I hope it would, I don’t think it does unless it’s a service my host (GoDaddy) provides.
I received an email of a backup that I guess was manually executed. The next one should be at 2000 GMT or less than 5 minutes from now.
I’ll report whether that scheduled backup takes place.
Hi David,
I received the email confirming the scheduled backup successfully completed and was delivered to the corrected email address.
I’ll continue monitoring, of course. Please let me know if there is anything I should be aware of if the issue resurfaces.
Thanks again for your attention. Before we wrap-up this ticket, is there anything else you need that would aid diagnosing the issue for any future fixes?
PS: I intend to use UPD on a multisite so I intend to go pro–hopefully soon.
Hi Catalyx,
I did spend about 30 minutes having a look, and my only conclusion is that this is extremely bizarre. The data that it says (from yesterday’s message) does not exist is indeed in the database. And this is code that is run on every UD installation, every time a backup runs. It’s code that should work always or never. But this is apparently the only site where it is dodgy.
I wonder if it will work tomorrow. I am wondering if the difference between “working” and “not working” is that someone is logged in to the WordPress dashboard at the time. I can’t think how that can be, but it’s the only difference between ‘working’ and ‘not working’ that I can see at the moment.
If it fails tomorrow, then the next day turn off WP Better Security and see if that is doing something that interferes.
David
It may be one of the long list of plugins I have installed. I should note that most of the prior failed backups occurred when admin was not logged in.
I’ll see what happens tomorrow with WP Better Security plugin active and if backup fails then deactivate it and check again before reporting back.
Thanks, again for looking into this and the great plugin.
Hi David,
FYI, UPD worked Nov 21, as noted prior, it reported the same error and “Not finished” on Nov 22 and completed Nov 23. All were with WP Better Security activated, which I couldn’t deactivate in time for the backup.
The successful Nov 23 backup log shows a warning that may have something to do with it:
Your website is visited infrequently and UpdraftPlus is not getting the resources it hoped for; please read this page: http://updraftplus.com/faqs/why-am-i-getting-warnings-about-my-site-not-having-enough-visitors/
We’re currently using shared hosting and sometimes it’s slow serving pages. We’ll likely move to cloud hosting in next few weeks so will know then if this was the problem.
In the meantime, we’ll continue monitoring and manual updating when we have to.
Thanks.
Hi Catalyx,
Thanks for letting me know.
Best wishes,
David
