ebiznet said

1. I am unable to post new topics. I can preview the post after writing it, but when I click on submit, I get a 2-liner message:

Unable to save
Unable to save new topic record

This is worrying because this means that SP attempted to save the topic/post in the normal way but that the database refused to save it. The problem here is that we get no error condition back – just a failure code. So this needs investigating outside of SP and maybe WP buit more on that below.

2. No SF Admin

In the Forum admin section, there is a message: “Warning – There are no SPF admins defined! All WP admins now have SP backend access“

I was an admin before but now it seems this has been reset. I could see my account name listed at the bottom of the forum pages as Administrator, but now there are no names listed any more. I tried to define my account as an admin under the Manage Admins section, but I cannot find myself or any member under the Eligible Members section – the list is empty. Its as if all my 1,300 members are non-existent. Filtering doesn’t do anything either.

3. Recent posts are not showing up on homepage.

I have a WP widget that pulls recent posts from the forum at www.ehangar.com/forum and displays it on my homepage at www.ehangar.com. After the upgrades to WP3.8 and SP5.4, these posts are no longer showing up.

4. Members have all disappeared!

I have over 1,300 members registered on my forum, but under the Users>Member Information menu, it is empty now. Searching returns no results. However, under my WP Users section, I can still see all my members listed. Its as if WP and SP are no longer integrated as before.

5. Under the “Newest Members” listing at the bottom of the forum pages, I see a list of old members. I had a few new members signed up before the upgrades, but their names are no longer listed in this section.

These are a few things I have noticed that are amiss since the upgrades. Can you suggest any remedies to help restore my forum back to normal?

Perhaps it is better to talk overall instead of discussing each section. To me – it sounds like there is something wrong with your database. I would be inclined to restore back to the backup that we all hope you made before updating everything and starting the process again.

Alternatively it might be worth looking through the log files – perhaps the php error logs – to see if you are getting any errors reported that make sense of what is happening. It might also be worth checking your database and seeing if it needs repairing. Your host support should be able to help you with this if you are unsure of what to do.

I am willing to take a look at your site and – given admin credentials – even try and look at your data and settings but I can’t investigate the database directly.

Actually – as an additional thought – can you explain exactly what you did to upgrade? Did anything go wrong (not just SP I mean)? And as far as SP is concerned, did the upgrade script run OK and finish properly?

Thank you for your reply and comments.

It hadn’t occurred to me to check the database but when I did, I can see that there are many errors in it, including the SP tables, which I include below:

[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfforums] warning: 1 client is using or hasn't closed the table properly
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfforums] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfgroups] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sflinks] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sflog] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sflogmeta] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] warning: Table is marked as crashed
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] warning: 6 clients are using or haven't closed the table properly
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] warning: Size of datafile is: 11956224       Should be: 11953504
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] error: Record at pos: 11953456 is not remove-marked
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] error: record delete-link-chain corrupted
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] error: Corrupt
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmemberships] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmeta] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfnotices] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfoptions] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpermissions] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpmmessages] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpmrecipients] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpmthreads] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpolls] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpollsanswers] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpollsvoters] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpostratings] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfposts] warning: 1 client is using or hasn't closed the table properly
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfposts] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfroles] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfspecialranks] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sftopics] warning: 8 clients are using or haven't closed the table properly
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sftopics] warning: Size of datafile is: 659444       Should be: 659396
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sftopics] error: Found 5187 keys of 5186
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sftopics] error: Corrupt
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sftrack] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfuseractivity] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfusergroups] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfwaiting] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_signups] warning: 1 client

I will go ahead to try repairing the DB and hopefully this will resolve the issue. And no, I did not do a back up   so I'm keeping my fingers crossed the repair will do the trick.

It worked!

My forum appears to be working fine again and I can save the posts. My homepage widget for recent forum posts is also working again.

The repair log lists most tables to be OK but some have comments on them which I don’t understand:

[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfadversaries] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfauthcats] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfauths] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfbuddies] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfdefpermissions] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfdigest] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sferrorlog] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfforums] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfgroups] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sflinks] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sflog] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sflogmeta] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] info: Found block with too small length at 5641540; Skipped
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] info: Found block that points outside data file at 6119016
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] info: Found block that points outside data file at 6119088
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] info: Found link that points at 7364056325650787636 (outside data file) at 6120588
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] warning: Number of rows changed from 1492 to 1490
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmembers] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmemberships] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfmeta] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfnotices] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfoptions] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpermissions] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpmmessages] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpmrecipients] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpmthreads] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpolls] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpollsanswers] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpollsvoters] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfpostratings] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfposts] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfroles] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfspecialranks] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sftopics] info: Wrong bytesec: 110-103- 32 at 659396; Skipped
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sftopics] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sftrack] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfuseractivity] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfusergroups] status: OK
[ehangar_wrdp1.wp_sfwaiting] status: OK

I hope though that these comments show the repair work done or not needed to be done, and that the forum is working fine now.
Perhaps the SP experts and Administrators here can comment and confirm for me, for my peace of mind?

Yellow Swordfish said
Actually – as an additional thought – can you explain exactly what you did to upgrade? Did anything go wrong (not just SP I mean)? And as far as SP is concerned, did the upgrade script run OK and finish properly?

Now that you mention it, yes, when I upgraded WP to 3.8, at first it did not go through as my server hard disk was 100% full due to a large error log file. After my webhosting tech support emptied it, I was able to upgrade without any issues. I am not sure if I attempted to upgrage SP to 5.4 at the same time.

This could be a factor in the database getting corrupted, I guess.

Perform an Optimise on all the tables as well. You do need to clear up those block issues. reckon your problems started with the disk space issue. Your host really should have cleaned up the DB at the same time. And it is worth optimising and checking tables regularly. Once a week say.

Sounds like a good idea. How do I perform an Optimise process within cPanel? I do not see an option for this in the database section of cPanel.

Oops, no need to explain. I googled for the answer and have successfully optmised all the tables in my database. When i checked it again, all tables report “OK”!

Thank you very much again for your help and suggestions! You’re a life-saver!

I am just glad we got it sorted nice and easily in the end.