Cannot see my website

Hi Herb, that’s great to hear.

Uploaded images are stored in the data folder as well. I’m not at my computer, but they should be files under data/designer/uploaded_images or a similar name. They’re named with a number and no file extension. It’s likely that these weren’t uploaded properly during your transfer back via FTP.
If you can identify a given cover image that’s not working by it’s numerical name (this should be discoverable in Backlight’s Uploaded Image page by the number in the URL when looking at the details of an uploaded image), then try reuploading that image again via FTP. If that fixes it then doing the same for the remaining images should work.

You could also try to verify that the images are good by trying to view them on your PC. Though the lack of filename extension may be a problem there.

It’s safe to remove ben-test and your own test folder.

First, let me thank you for your patient care throughout this issue.

I located the numerated uploaded images in Backlight, identified which number corresponded to a particular cover and uploaded it again from my backup. No change. I even went to a prior backup from when the site was behaving normally and uploaded that version. No luck. Incidentally, I could not view the numbered images on my PC. I tried editing the name on a copy I added the jpg extension, but my software said it was not a valid jpg file.

So I selected a fresh image, uploaded it and it looks fine. So I will begin the process of selecting and uploading the remainder of my images that are not displaying correctly. That should have me back in business.

Ben, I am sorry to say that I am having trouble again. The symptoms are not identical to what I had before, and this time I got a more detailed error message.

My website loads fine and I can navigate around. I have been using the Backlight interface for several days to reload my cover images to replace the corrupted ones. Today Backlight stopped responding. I left it and was not able to get Backlight to appear on my browser again. Instead I got this message:

Unable to upload cover image for album: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 5 database is locked
sql:
‘INSERT INTO image (title,width,height,image_type,file_type,file_size,file_name,created) VALUES (?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?)’
params:
array (
‘title’ => ‘Myshka Model IMG_3892.jpg’,
‘width’ => 680,
‘height’ => 680,
‘image_type’ => ‘coverImage’,
‘file_type’ => ‘jpeg’,
‘file_size’ => 111975,
‘file_name’ => ‘Myshka Model IMG_3892.jpg’,
‘created’ => ‘2021-06-09 11:34:15’,
) in PdoExtended.php on line 603

Thinking the image might be corrupted, I deleted it from my PC and exported a fresh copy from Lightroom, but I cannot get into Backlight. I want to repeat that the website does work.

Does this error message reveal anything to you?

Update: Now I don’t get into my site at all. Should I use what worked before – copy the data folder, delete from server and copy it back? Or do you want to look at the error message first?

Hi Herb, that’s the same underlying error as before. Moving the data folder again should get it back. But that’s not a sustainable solution if this keeps coming up.

Hi Ben. OK, I am back up and running after doing the capture and reload of my data folder, but my hours of work replacing corrupted cover images was wasted as they are again corrupted. I will have a talk with my host tomorrow and threaten (politely, of course) to go elsewhere if they don’t have some solution for me. I don’t have high hopes.

If I have to move, is it appropriate for me to ask you if there is a host you would recommend. In addition to my Backlight site, the host needs to support my business Squarespace site and email through my own two domains.

I am having the same issue. Also hosted by Strato…

@TheoMolenaar, @Ben: I was just about to write Ben and tell him I have found a workaround for what seems like a PHP issue at Strato when I upload custom cover images. This is what worked for me. I hope Ben will chime in and say if any of this is inadvisable.

  1. To unlock your database, copy it via FTP to your hard drive, delete the copy on the web and then copy it back. Unfortunately, most custom cover images display corrupted.
  2. The only reliable way I found to assign cover images is to delete the corrupted cover images, add my custom cover images to the respective albums and assign them as cover images from inside the album. (I used Backlight for assigning, even though I am using LR for managing my albums.) I realize that this way my custom cover images are now normal cover images and appear in the albums themselves whereby custom ones would not. Ben could probably tell us how to cause those cover images not to appear in the albums using CSS, but I have not tried that out yet,
  3. I have had no problems after assigning many cover images – BUT as a safety net I have stopped and created a backup of the valid database to my computer using FTP after every 20 or so new cover images I assigned. This way if a problem occurs, I would just replace the online database with the latest valid copy and only lose a limited number of the newest assigned cover images. BUT to date I have not had to use the backups during this method of assigning cover images.

@HerbNestler that sounds like a reasonable workflow. If you’ve been copying over and deleting the entire backlight/data directory then that could explain the corruption. The cover images are stored as files under backlight/data/designer. If they are failing to download or upload properly via FTP then they will be corrupted.

@HerbNestler and @TheoMolenaar I didn’t realise this was on Strato. They are a notoriously poor host in our experience. If you visit our archived forum at https://community dot theturninggate.net/ and search for Strato you’ll see a large number of posts related to issues, including several related to SQLite performance.

That Backlight runs without issue on just about all other hosts our customers use suggests this isn’t an issue with Backlight. We have gone so far as to create test scripts absent of all other Backlight code that attempt to access SQLite databases and still suffer from terrible performance or database locking.

I can’t see your experience with Backlight on Strato as ever being a good one.

@HerbNestler, @Ben: I have no custom cover images. However my logo and one image used on a page were on the place Ben mentioned… And the Logo was not displayed in the part of my website that did work. (the website is mainly Wordpress, with two album sets populated with albums https://www.theomolenaar.nl/)

I copied and deleted the database master.sq3. And ftp’d it back. Does not work.

So what parts should I delete apart from the sq3 file? ttg be and backlight directories ?

Theo, your symptoms and site structure are very different from mine. So I don’t think what is working for me would work for you. Best to let Ben answer your questions. I do think he is right (sad to say) that a change of web host would be good for both of us. Good luck.

By the way, Theo, what I saw of your site has wonderful images.

Thank you, the best are in the albums. You are right, it is different from your structure. But the main problem (lock) looked the same. Problem with changing host is transferring domain, time and contract…

Good luck to you to.

The solution @HerbNestler found works for me. Copying and deleting ttg-be and backlight directories.

just an FYI, if you’re running Backlight there is no need for the ttg-be folder.
The only use it had with Backlight was in migrating albums from CE4 Publisher to Backlight Publisher control as well as migrating Cart settings from CE4

@TheoMolenaar, the fix should only involve the backlight/data folder, and not the entire backlight folder.

Thxs for the info. I’ll delete it…

Ok, thxs. Only the database was not enough so i did everything. Better next time