Please help! Attachments not showing after server move!

[MylesM]

I am in desperate need for help! I'm not getting an answer at vb.com and I need to get my site back up and running ASAP.

My website was migrated from a shared hosting account to a VPS (same hosting company). Everything went well, but my attachments, both old and new are not showing. Same problem with album pictures, however custom avatars/signatures work fine.

The file path has not changed and is still being stored outside public_html (/home/****/attachments) and I have ensured that the folder/files/sub directories are CHMOD 777.

Storing attachments in the database does not solve the issue.

Changing the file path, both inside and outside public_html does not solve the issue.

mod_deflate is enabled on my server, however GZIP is disabled via .htaccess & vbulletin settings. (GZIP gives my site a content decoding error and I don't want GZIP enabled anyway).

All modifications/plugins disabled - does not solve the issue.

Debug - Nothing.

show php info - Nothing.

I can go through the upload process fine, but when I download zip/rar files and try to extract them to my computer I get an error (The archive is either unknown format or damaged) and images do not show up at all.

I've been debugging for hours and I'm getting nowhere with this and I'm under pressure by advertisers/affiliates/users/staff to get the site back up and running.

Someone please help me...

[kh99]

Hmm...are newly uploaded files actually appearing in the right place, and do they look like they're the right size?

Edit: Also, when you download one of the files, is it the right size or s it small? If it's small you might try opening it with a text editor and see if it contains an error message instead of data.

[MylesM]

Hmm...are newly uploaded files actually appearing in the right place, and do they look like they're the right size?

Edit: Also, when you download one of the files, is it the right size or s it small? If it's small you might try opening it with a text editor and see if it contains an error message instead of data.

Thank you for the reply.

Yep, I can confirm that they are uploading in the correct place and are the correct size.

Images don't appear

zip/rar files download but can't be extracted. This is the error I get: The archive is either in unknown format or damaged

[kh99]

I see you have the forum closed. Is there any way I can get to the forum to see what's going on?

Also, you say zip files download but can't be opened - are the downloaded files the right size (sorry if you answered already, but from what you said I wasn't sure).

[Lynne]

What happens in Maintenance > Diagnostics > Upload - please post the results.

What do you have set for AdminCP > Settings > Options > Image Settings > Image Processing Library?

[MylesM]

I see you have the forum closed. Is there any way I can get to the forum to see what's going on?

Also, you say zip files download but can't be opened - are the downloaded files the right size (sorry if you answered already, but from what you said I wasn't sure).

Yep, I'll open the forums up so you can take a look. I'll put a test thread up also so you can see what I mean.

Edit: http://forum.trucksimcentral.com/showthread.php?p=829

Yes. On my computer the RAR file is 4.90KB. Uploaded on the forum it reads 4.9KB. Same with images etc. Apologies for not explaining that fully :P

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What happens in Maintenance > Diagnostics > Upload - please post the results.

What do you have set for AdminCP > Settings > Options > Image Settings > Image Processing Library?

Diagnostics are all fine:

file_uploads: On
open_basedir: None
safe_mode: Off
upload_tmp_dir: /home/trucksim/domains/forum.trucksimcentral.com/tmp
upload_max_filesize: 2.00 MB

No errors occurred while opening the uploaded file for reading.

Image Processing Library is set to GD

Thank you for replying!

[Lynne]

What version of PHP and MySQL are on the server? You are running 3.8.7, so you should make sure you are not running PHP5.4 or above.

[MylesM]

What version of PHP and MySQL are on the server? You are running 3.8.7, so you should make sure you are not running PHP5.4 or above.

Hi, currently running PHP Version 5.3.3-7

Edit: Mysql Version 5.1.63-0

[kh99]

Hmm, well it looks to me like the files start with 3 extra bytes, EF BB BF. When I edit the image attachment with a hex editor and delete those 3 bytes, the image works. The zip file still says it's corrupted, though. Googling EF BB BF, I find that those are bytes that are supposed to identify a file as UTF-8 encoded, but I don't know where they are coming from. Maybe someone else will know, but my next question would be, are those bytes there in the disk files? Could they have gotten corrupted in the transfer? I don't know if you have any way to check the files on the server, or to download one to your PC via another method (like ftp) and see if they look ok.

[MylesM]

Hmm, well it looks to me like the files start with 3 extra bytes, EF BB BF. When I edit the image attachment with a hex editor and delete those 3 bytes, the image works. The zip file still says it's corrupted, though. Googling EF BB BF, I find that those are bytes that are supposed to identify a file as UTF-8 encoded, but I don't know where they are coming from. Maybe someone else will know, but my next question would be, are those bytes there in the disk files? Could they have gotten corrupted in the transfer? I don't know if you have any way to check the files on the server, or to download one to your PC via another method (like ftp) and see if they look ok.

As album pictures are also not working, but I can download the image via FTP as I have them stored in the file system - they look fine to me.

I'm not sure how I would view attachment files as they end in .attach

[kh99]

As album pictures are also not working, but I can download the image via FTP as I have them stored in the file system - they look fine to me.


Hmm, then it seems to me that would point to some kind of web server configuration issue, although I'm not sure. Hopefully someone else will know more.

[Lynne]

Check your config.php file and make sure you didn't save it as UTF-8 (with BOM). It needs to be edited with a plain text editor like notepad++ and it needs to be saved without the BOM!

[MylesM]

Check your config.php file and make sure you didn't save it as UTF-8 (with BOM). It needs to be edited with a plain text editor like notepad++ and it needs to be saved without the BOM!

Lynne, thank you for replying.

I always edit my files using FileZilla as my FTP client, which allows me to edit the files using notepad.

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Hmm, then it seems to me that would point to some kind of web server configuration issue, although I'm not sure. Hopefully someone else will know more.

Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it!

[kh99]

I'm pretty sure Lynne is right though. I looked and you actually have those 3 bytes (a BOM) at the start of your forum pages, but it doesn't affect the html. But it's almost certainly because they're at the beginning of your config.php file. If you don't have a programming editor then get notepad++, edit a new copy of config.php on your PC, then upload it via ftp.

[MylesM]

I'm pretty sure Lynne is right though. I looked and you actually have those 3 bytes (a BOM) at the start of your forum pages, but it doesn't affect the html. But it's almost certainly because they're at the beginning of your config.php file. If you don't have a programming editor then get notepad++, edit a new copy of config.php on your PC, then upload it via ftp.

I've edited an original copy of config.php on my PC and uploaded it via FTP. Unfortunately, no change.

[kh99]

Did you use something other than notepad? It could be that the problem is somewhere else, but I'm just making sure. It's actually one of those problems that comes up fairly regularly, but usually it's someone getting an error message that says "headers already sent".

Another thing I suppose you could do to verify that it's not a web server issue is to take one of the files, copy it under public_html somewhere, then download it directly and see if it comes through OK.

[Lynne]

You have a lot of odd characters on your site which would lead me to think the database wasn't transferred correctly. Did you import it using the command line? Did you make sure when you moved it to the new server, that the new server mysql was using the same collation and charset before you imported it?

[MylesM]

Did you use something other than notepad? It could be that the problem is somewhere else, but I'm just making sure. It's actually one of those problems that comes up fairly regularly, but usually it's someone getting an error message that says "headers already sent".

Another thing I suppose you could do to verify that it's not a web server issue is to take one of the files, copy it under public_html somewhere, then download it directly and see if it comes through OK.

I edited with notepad++ as suggested.

I can download files fine when I upload them to public_html

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You have a lot of odd characters on your site which would lead me to think the database wasn't transferred correctly. Did you import it using the command line? Did you make sure when you moved it to the new server, that the new server mysql was using the same collation and charset before you imported it?

This is what I am thinking. I requested that my host transfer my website files/database over to the server, which they did.

I am considering uploading a back up database from last night and I've also got back up files from a few days ago which I am also considering overwriting the current files.

Do you think this would make any difference?

[kh99]

I edited with notepad++ as suggested.

I can download files fine when I upload them to public_html

OK, then it seems like a problem with vbulletin. Lynne's the expert, but I'm not sure how database problems would affect the attachment downloads, so I'm leaning toward the vbulletin files. If you haven't modified the files then it couldn't hurt to upload a new set, as long as you can get the owner and permissions right.

[MylesM]

OK, then it seems like a problem with vbulletin. Lynne's the expert, but I'm not sure how database problems would affect the attachment downloads, so I'm leaning toward the vbulletin files. If you haven't modified the files then it couldn't hurt to upload a new set, as long as you can get the owner and permissions right.

Restored everything to the 26th, files/database the lot and the problem still hasn't changed.

That seems like the last resort and I've run out of ideas now...

[RichieBoy67]

I have not read this entire thread but what one thing I learned from some of the experts here is to start with the simple possibilities first. Did you check the path to your attachments directory?

Go to attachments/storage type and check the path and change to your new server if you have not checked this.

[Lynne]

You restored the site on this new server though, right? If your mysql is different on both servers, then restoring the backup isn't going to change things. There is something different between the two servers that is causing the issue.

Have you run Maintenance > Diagnostics > Suspect File Version?

Have you turned on Show Invisible Characters when editing the text file to verify a BOM wasn't added?

[MylesM]

You restored the site on this new server though, right? If your mysql is different on both servers, then restoring the backup isn't going to change things. There is something different between the two servers that is causing the issue.

Have you run Maintenance > Diagnostics > Suspect File Version?

Have you turned on Show Invisible Characters when editing the text file to verify a BOM wasn't added?

Hi Lynne.

Suspect File version brings up:

class_core.php File does not contain expected contents
functions.php File does not contain expected contents
init.php File does not contain expected contents

Replaced those files using original vBulletin files and my attachments are now working.

Thank you to both yourself and kh99 for helping me with this issue! I really appreciate it :)

[Lynne]

I'm glad you got it working. :)