Title: Exporting databases via phpMyAdmin for corrupted multisite install Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Exporting databases via phpMyAdmin for corrupted multisite install * [katemgilbert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/katemgilbert/) * (@katemgilbert) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/) * My multisite network has become corrupted, and I can no longer access the backend( or frontend) of any of the blogs aside from the main blog. We were using a subdirectory setup, and WordPress is installed in a subdirectory itself. * I want to try to recover as much as possible from the 65+ subsites in the multisite network. User tables and content tables, preferably. But I can’t use the native WP export tool for any sites aside from the main blog, simply because I can’t access the backends. * If I export the databases through phpMyAdmin, will I be able to import them into a fresh multisite install on a site-by-site basis? Do I just need to export the main blog’s database, or should I look for each site’s database in phpMyAdmin? And what format is best for the export – SQL? XML? CSV? * Any advice is appreciated! Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) * [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) * (@andrea_r) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/#post-1744265) * You’ll need the entire database to get all the blogs. It will give you a SQL dump or a zip. All the blogs are in a single database. * Are you sure it’s corrupted? If it’s the db tables that are corrupted, you’ll need to fix those, and a simple copy to a new server won’t fix that. * If the files are actually corrupted then you just upload new WP files, that’s it. * If the subfolder blogs just aren’t working – that’s an htaccess issue, not corrupt files. * If you could further explain the real problem, I can better help fix it. 🙂 I don’t want to see you go down the wrong path and do a bunch of work that won’t matter. I know you said you can’t access the backend, but that doesn’t describe the issue. You get redirected? It’s a white screen? A 404? What? * And have you tried just disabling plugins? * Thread Starter [katemgilbert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/katemgilbert/) * (@katemgilbert) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/#post-1744272) * [@andrea_r](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) – Thanks for your response. * 2 days ago everything was functioning fine. Woke up yesterday and all subsites were producing a 500 internal error. I see this error at the subsite URL, at the subsite /wp-admin, and when trying to navigate to the backend via the SuperAdmin sites listing when logged in to the main blog. * Contacted the hosting provider (TMD) right away. They said it had to be a script error. I found this thread [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/int-server-error-when-viewing-multiuser-subdirectory-blog?replies=6](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/int-server-error-when-viewing-multiuser-subdirectory-blog?replies=6) and so looked at the .htaccess to try to pinpoint the error, but everything looks okay to me. * .htaccess contents below: * `Options +FollowSymLinks -Indexes` * RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /inside RewriteCond %{ REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index. php [L] * #uploaded files RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/$ index.php [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}!.* wp-content/plugins.* RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/(.*) wp-content/blogs.php?file= $2 [L] * # add a trailing slash to /wp-admin RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^.*/wp-admin$ RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1/ [R=301,L] * RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d RewriteRule.-[ L] RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-.*) $2 [L] RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*. php)$ $2 [L] RewriteRule . index.php [L] * SecFilterEngine Off SecFilterScanPOST Off * Does anything look amiss to you? * I will try now disabling all plugins from the main blog. Should I also delete plugin files off the server, since I can’t disable plugins on the subsites without backend access? * [Tim Moore](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tmoorewp/) * (@tmoorewp) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/#post-1744291) * Is this a WordPress 3 Multi-Site install? If so, you should probably change the line: * `RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/(.*) wp-content/blogs.php?file=$2 [L]` * to * `RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/(.*) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]` * The file /wp-content/blogs.php is no longer used in 3.0. * Here’s what a default .htaccess file looks like: [http://wordpress.pastebin.com/WzdqgRNb](http://wordpress.pastebin.com/WzdqgRNb) * Try using that one and see if it helps. * For plugins, rename the plugins and mu-plugins directories to something else ( adding “-old” to the directory names works). This will unload them from the system without losing the files. * Thread Starter [katemgilbert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/katemgilbert/) * (@katemgilbert) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/#post-1744301) * Tim – Replacing my .htaccess with the default one you provided at Pastebin restored access to the various site backends. Yay! But viewing the sites is still producing a 500 internal server error. * I renamed the plugin directories too as you suggested but no relief there. * I am going to try running the Export tool on a couple subsites now that I can get to the tool in each site’s backend. Is there any concern with taking this content and importing it into a fresh install in terms of carrying over whatever problem caused this? * Was also going to try running the WP database repair script * `define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', TRUE);` * as suggested here: [http://wpmu.org/wordpress-maintenance-101-how-to-optimize-and-repair-database-tables/](http://wpmu.org/wordpress-maintenance-101-how-to-optimize-and-repair-database-tables/) * Any risk in trying that method? * Thanks so much to both of you for help with this. * [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) * (@andrea_r) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/#post-1744317) * A 500 error is a server based error though. It’s quite possible restoring the db on a new site on the same server will produce the same result. 😉 * When you disabled plugin, did you also disable anything in the mu-plugins folder, if you were using it? * Thread Starter [katemgilbert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/katemgilbert/) * (@katemgilbert) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/#post-1744323) * Yes, I disabled all plugins, and renamed both plugin folders. Now the backends show no plugins at all. * Exporting and importing through the WP tool is working well so far for restoring content on a fresh install. * Is there a method for exporting and importing users that will go as smoothly as the content export/import? * [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) * (@andrea_r) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/#post-1744354) * > Is there a method for exporting and importing users that will go as smoothly > as the content export/import? * Via phpmyadmin. 🙂 Grab the tables there. Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) The topic ‘Exporting databases via phpMyAdmin for corrupted multisite install’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [export](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/export/) * [Import](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/import/) * [multisite](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/multisite/) * [phpmyadmin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/phpmyadmin/) * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/) * 7 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/) * Last activity: [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/exporting-databases-via-phpmyadmin-for-corrupted-multisite-install/#post-1744354) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics