I downloaded my error logs and found this. Does this say anything?

98.203.22.228 – – [30/Jul/2012:20:43:37 -0500] “GET /wp-admin/plugins.php?error=true&plugin=simple-press%2Fsp-control.php&_error_nonce=dcb85b0895 HTTP/1.1” 200 44847 “http://violaman.com/wp-admin/plugins.php” “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1″0/445186
98.203.22.228 – – [30/Jul/2012:20:43:37 -0500] “GET /wp-includes/js/thickbox/thickbox.css?ver=3.4.1 HTTP/1.1” 304 – “http://violaman.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?error=true&plugin=simple-press%2Fsp-control.php&_error_nonce=dcb85b0895” “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1″0/1894
98.203.22.228 – – [30/Jul/2012:20:43:37 -0500] “GET /wp-admin/css/colors-fresh.css?ver=3.4.1 HTTP/1.1” 304 – “http://violaman.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?error=true&plugin=simple-press%2Fsp-control.php&_error_nonce=dcb85b0895” “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1″0/1991
98.203.22.228 – – [30/Jul/2012:20:43:37 -0500] “GET /wp-content/plugins/swfobj/swfobject.js?ver=2.2 HTTP/1.1” 304 – “http://violaman.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?error=true&plugin=simple-press%2Fsp-control.php&_error_nonce=dcb85b0895” “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1″0/2182
98.203.22.228 – – [30/Jul/2012:20:43:37 -0500] “GET /wp-admin/plugins.php?action=error_scrape&plugin=simple-press/sp-control.php&_wpnonce=dcb85b0895 HTTP/1.1” 200 – “http://violaman.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?error=true&plugin=simple-press%2Fsp-control.php&_error_nonce=dcb85b0895” “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1″0/490789
98.203.22.228 – – [30/Jul/2012:20:43:38 -0500] “GET /wp-admin/plugins.php?action=error_scrape&plugin=simple-press/sp-control.php&_wpnonce=dcb85b0895 HTTP/1.1” 200 – “http://violaman.com/wp-admin/plugins.php?error=true&plugin=simple-press%2Fsp-control.php&_error_nonce=dcb85b0895” “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0.1″0/332188

Are you sure that is your error log? looks more like an access log… or http headers… but not error log…

and the statuses returned are 200 (ok) and 304 (not modified)… so dont see anything strange in there…

So, could we sort of start over? and explain what is going on? have lost the bubble a bit on this one… you uploaded plugin but cannot install?

LOL, I have no idea where to get logs except off my control panel on the host site and I downloaded “Error Logs” off of the Log Management page. The log for one day is SUPER long so I just copied a  part that contained simple-press and says “error=true&plugin=simple-press” over and over.

I have tried everything, reinstalling Word Press, deleting the simple:press plugin quite a few times and re-uploading it.
When I try to activate it I get this message on the top of the Plugins page:

Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.

What about the WP theme? In the past this has been a favourite spot for hackers to hide malicious code files… And way you can replace that as well?

It’s a great idea but I had already thought of this and installed new themes and even tried different themes.

Thanks.

Sounds more and more like we may be down to a database issue. Without knowing the fatal error on activation it’s impossible to work out what it could be. I will do some searching to try and find if there is a way we can find out what that is. I might be able to force such an error….

That would be super kind of you. I know it is beyond your obligations

Thanks

Well things happen a little differently here. Don’t they always!

If I force an error to occur on activating a plugin (with a flawed line of code) I get the standard WP message about being unable to activate but I also got the error itself showing up. That is not necessarily significant as I probably have my error display settings different to yours as I should have being a developer.

The good news however, is that the actual error DID get written to the php error log. So – might I suggest you try activating – get the error and then – before doing ANYTHING else on the site – go look at the php error log to see the very latest entries. They are date/time stamped so you should be able to identify them easily.

Worth a try anyway.

Excuse my ignorance, but where would I change settings to show the error as you have? The only error logs I can find are the type that I posted above where Andy said they are useless. Maybe I didn’t copy enough of it though.

Which browser do you use and do you a plug-in or program to analyze and detect problems?

I really advise against changing your php error settings as you will probably start to see lots of warnings – harmless but a nuisance. But you would have to ask your host to do it anyway.

I was pretty sure there used to be an option in cpanel for looking at php error logs but it’s not there on mine so they must have cut that. Odd as it was very useful. A lot of hosts will put the php error log in the root folder of your site – where files like the wp-config,php is – and I usually look at mine with an ftp program. If it’s not there then you will need to ask your host where it is and if you have access to it.

Sorry – not as helpful as I hoped it would be…

no, the error logs are still there…

Is there anywhere I can get earlier versions of Simple:Press just prior to Version 5.1.2?

I would like to try on install an earlier version and upgrade from the backend since I am still getting an error when attempting to activate the plugin on Violaman. It’s been more than 2 weeks and I don’t know what to do anymore.

Here are a couple links for you…

5.1 – https://simple-press.com/download-manager.php?id=640

5.1.1 – https://simple-press.com/download-manager.php?id=647

As I figured,

But it was worth a try. After upgrading I was able to activate the plug-in but only got a blank screen until I moved the simple-press folder in another folder to deactivate via FTP.

Is there anything simple I can try changing with the Database?

Downgrade Warning

It appears you are attempting to downgrade your Simple:Press Version. The Build or Version number in the sp-control.php file is lower than the currently installed version in the database.

You must restore your database to this earlier version before you can continue. You cannot simply downgrade Simple:Press files as the database has been upgraded beyond the version you are attempting to downgrade to and may cause irreparable damage to the database.

The Downgrade Warning comes about because the code in the plugin recognises that the database has been upgraded beyond the version of the software. The worry is that potential database changes made by upgrades may be incompatible with the software version.

You can try and change the data in the database so it matches the software version but we can not in any way guarantee that it would work OK. I understand that with your current problems on that site this may be a moot point but I need to say it.

If you DO want to go ahead and change it – and I am going to be honest here and say I have not actually tried this believe it or not – then you need to first determine the version number and build number of the software.This can be got from the file names sp-control.php in the root folder of the plugin. Down around line 30-31 you will find defined SPVERSION and SPBUILD. Note the values.

Then in the database you need the ‘sfoptions’ table. Again there are two rows with option names of ‘sfversion’ and ‘sfbuild’ which would need to have the option values changed accordingly.

it is doubtful that I can be of much real help but if you would like me to have a quick look at your database just to see if I can spot anything obvious (and I really wouldn’t be able to perform a big, sitewide diagnosis) – then you can always PM me the necessary credentials to get mysql access (phpMyAdmin).