10 replies to this topic

[cre8pc]

I made a mistake and thought the lesson might benefit the Community

My blog is a Wordpress blog. It's still at v 2.2.1. Typically I upgrade using Fantastico, offered by my host. It's gone smoothly and for me, required no labor. It was automatic.

I had read warnings that this is a bad choice. That automatic upgrades can destroy a blog or mess things up. I ignored them.

Thank heavens I did a full backup first. The auto update killed my blog. It was inaccessible and I couldn't find the source of the problem. So I rolled everything back (no small thing.)

Everything is intact except the Categories. They're gone! Years of blog posts are now uncategorized. I put back a few, but it would take hours and hours to fix this manually.

I have two questions.

1. Is there a way to get the categories back?

2. How do I manually upgrade? Is there a step by step write up somewhere?

[AbleReach]

Kim, do you have a database backup? You should be able to restore what was there by dropping a backup of the database into your theme.

Here is a step by step guide, using phpMyAdmin

- Try making a test install of WP elsewhere, and dropping the database backup into that install.
- Turn off all plugins first, so that if there is a plugin problem you will be able to more easily isolate what's going on.
- After everything is tested and working, repeat the process for your working, public blog.

Edited by AbleReach, 26 April 2008 - 11:34 AM.

[AbleReach]

added -

Wordpress.org on manually upgrading WordPress

A video tour of WP 2.5, by Matt Mullenweg. He is the founding developer of WordPress - about Matt, from his site

A pretty decent video about how to manually upgrade, using an earlier WP, but still will work.

Edited by AbleReach, 26 April 2008 - 11:33 AM.

[bwelford]

Just some additional notes. There is a plugin for Wordpress Automatic Update (WAUP) that is absolutely great. Yesterday they announced version 2.5.1, which includes an important security fix relative to version 2.5. Using the WAUP, within minutes I had upgraded my three blogs to the new version.

They also mention that you can now download a Secret Key and provide code that should be added to your wp-config.php file. This gives added security against heavy-duty hackers.

[joedolson]

And since we're on the subject, I'm currently in the process of upgrading Cre8tive Flow...

...which went fine, by the way!

<edit>Link to blog added </edit>

Edited by projectphp, 26 April 2008 - 10:33 PM.

[cre8pc]

Joe managed to locate the problem I had while upgrading my blog. I don't fully understand it, however, so he can have the floor if he wishes to explain my missing categories fiasco and how he fixed it. BRAVO to Joe for saving my blog!!!

He also upgraded it to the latest version for me, because I'm too chicken to do it myself.

Now, I've discovered that since the WP upgrade, ALL my Sphinn votes for posts have been reset to zip/zero/nada. All that history is gone! (Except the new post from yesterday.)

I've reported it to Sphinn - http://sphinn.com/story/43518

but wanted to reach out and warn others if this is something new.

Not sure how to fix it either

[bwelford]

That's a partial relief for you, Kim. FYI I've upgraded my blogs and the Sphinn votes are still there, so it's not inherent in the upgrade process.

[eKstreme]

Now, I've discovered that since the WP upgrade, ALL my Sphinn votes for posts have been reset to zip/zero/nada.

That sounds really serious! Are you sure the posts' URLs are the same as before the upgrade? It could be a simple slash at the end or whatever. CHECK IT NOW!!! Please.

Pierre

[cre8pc]

They look ok...all still formatted like www.cre8pc.com/blog/archives/442

Joe needed to mess with the database to fix the category problem. He may have a better idea about what may have happened.

[joedolson]

I'd bet your Sphinn votes were canonicalized to the non-www version of the post. Perhaps we should switch that around. I wasn't sure what the original really was, since they were contradictory!

I didn't actually figure out what went wrong in the upgrade which caused the loss of your categories, for the record --- I only discovered what blew up your blog in it's entirety! I was able to restore your categories purely by brute force and a little bit of knowledge about how WP manages categories.

It was a canonicalization issue in which the WP (enforced in WP 2.3+ but NOT enforced in 2.2-) contradicted the existing settings, causing a redirect loop.

All right, I was right - I reversed the canonicalization, and now you've lost the most recent Sphinns, but you've got everything else back.

The problem was that your home page was being forced to WWW but everything ELSE was set to being non-WWW --- because of the changes in Wordpress, it's no longer an option to have both versions.

[cre8pc]

Thank you!

I hope this helps people in the same boat down the road