When a Backup is Not Enough
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This past week, I decided to try upgrading a couple of my WordPress Blogs from version 2.3.3 to WP 2.5.1. Sounds easy enough, huh?
I upgraded two of the least visited and updated (dare I say less important?) Blogs that I have, one to 2.5 and the other to 2.5.1 which should be a gimmie. Just do the upgrade and done. Right?
Wrong!
It’s not that the updates themselves were a bad thing or too difficult to do. It’s not even about the poll in the Sidebar about the Love/Hate for the newer versions of WordPress. It is more about the Incompatability of some of the Scripts to Do the Update.
I use BlueHost as my Hosting Service and am quite happy with them. They are always there if I have a situation, the Techs know their stuff, and everyone is easy to work with. They even wrote their own Script for installing and/or upgrading WordPress. It seems they thought the Fantistico Script was slow in presenting the newest WP upgrades and wanted to improve their own service to their customers. Enter SimpleScript.
SimpleScript is actually quite easy to use if you want to do a New Installation of WordPress, I even used it to set up my personal Family Blog. Everything went perfectly on the New Installation. So, I decide to do a test changeover from Fantistico to SimpleScripts on the Joe’s Freeware Finds Blog. I figured, if anything went wrong, that would be a better place for it to happen rather than here or MCBS (the business blog).
Good Thing…
The changeover Did Not go smoothly. Far from it! I Lost EVERYTHING! Posts, Themes, Plugins, Comments… The only thing I had was the “Welcome to WordPress” thingys. Square One!
So, I decided to try the most recent Backup that I had. It wasn’t new, I hadn’t updated for a month, but it had everything since the last post I had written, all the plugins etcetera. Things should just fall into place and work, or so I thought…
NOT…
It seems that Fastico and SimpleScript hate each other almost as much as PC and MAC. They just can’t work together no matter how hard we try.
Uninstalling SimpleScript and reinstalling using Fantistico… NO GO
Reinstalling Fantistico and using the original Backup From Their Script… NO GO
Uninstalling BOTH and starting fresh with WP 2.5.1 using the Backup… NO GO
Using any combination of Scripts with the Backup… NO GO
Fresh installation of WordPress Not Using Any Scripts and then using the B/U… You guesses it… NO GO
Finally, Brice, the Tech from Bluehost, suggested deleting everything WordPress, Fantitico, SimpleScripts from that particular sub-domain and just copy everything from the Backup to the sub-domain. And guess what?
It Worked!
Reason being, there were two completley different Scripts trying to compete against the other. They ended up cancelling each other out, so Nothing Worked.
Moral of the Story
Even though you take precautions and do your Backups faithfully, you may still run into problems with compatibility if you decide to change from one type of system, program or software provider.
Just Be Aware and make sure the Backup you have will work with the New Setup you are installing.
Have you ever run into a similar situation? Please share your experience with us.
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