SOLVED: Moved site; every page is the homepage; dashboard sitemap 503 error
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G'day,
I tried to duplicate a 5.4.0.5 site to a new server this arvo and every page is the homepage! (even though the URLs are updating) and the dashboard sitemap is giving me a 503 error.
In summary what I've done so far:
- Updated ect/hosts so I can view site on new host
- Installed clean C5.4 to check server was set up; not ok; uninstalled
- Installed C5.6 using Softaculas then uninstalled
- Installed clean C5.4 to check server was set up; all ok; uninstalled
- Copied all C5.4 files from original server to new server
- Gave 777 permissions to /files /packages /config sitemap.xml and their subfolders
- Created new empty database and imported sequel pro dump of original site
- Updated config/site.php with new database details
- Went to url and it looks beautiful
- Logged in to index.php and C5 looks fine; had a short poke about checking some add-ons and they looked fine
- Went to browse site; clicking on any link renders the homepage although the url updates
- I turned pretty links on and off to no effect
- I tried navigating to an internal page using the dashboard sitemap but I found another (related?) issue: the sitemap renders once, then if I click on it in any way I get a 503 error.
- I reinstalled the site as above and same error is occurring.
NB I tried clearing the cache on the original site before all this but it doesn't seem to work.
My thoughts at this stage is to try to dupe the site on its current server, perform the C5 upgrades I'm trying to do, then try moving it. But moving the site is a higher priority than upgrading so if the upgrades are too buggy I wasn't going to worry about them - it was just a nice opportunity to do it.
Another thought is to temporarily delegate a domain to the new host so I don't have to use the ect/hosts to see it and see if that fixes it - but I don't have a spare domain name?!
Can you shed any light on this or make a suggestion please?
I tried to duplicate a 5.4.0.5 site to a new server this arvo and every page is the homepage! (even though the URLs are updating) and the dashboard sitemap is giving me a 503 error.
In summary what I've done so far:
- Updated ect/hosts so I can view site on new host
- Installed clean C5.4 to check server was set up; not ok; uninstalled
- Installed C5.6 using Softaculas then uninstalled
- Installed clean C5.4 to check server was set up; all ok; uninstalled
- Copied all C5.4 files from original server to new server
- Gave 777 permissions to /files /packages /config sitemap.xml and their subfolders
- Created new empty database and imported sequel pro dump of original site
- Updated config/site.php with new database details
- Went to url and it looks beautiful
- Logged in to index.php and C5 looks fine; had a short poke about checking some add-ons and they looked fine
- Went to browse site; clicking on any link renders the homepage although the url updates
- I turned pretty links on and off to no effect
- I tried navigating to an internal page using the dashboard sitemap but I found another (related?) issue: the sitemap renders once, then if I click on it in any way I get a 503 error.
- I reinstalled the site as above and same error is occurring.
NB I tried clearing the cache on the original site before all this but it doesn't seem to work.
My thoughts at this stage is to try to dupe the site on its current server, perform the C5 upgrades I'm trying to do, then try moving it. But moving the site is a higher priority than upgrading so if the upgrades are too buggy I wasn't going to worry about them - it was just a nice opportunity to do it.
Another thought is to temporarily delegate a domain to the new host so I don't have to use the ect/hosts to see it and see if that fixes it - but I don't have a spare domain name?!
Can you shed any light on this or make a suggestion please?
Thanks for responding JohntheFish, it would have been a daunting task to start fresh, but what I tried this morning was doing the upgrades over the top hoping for the best and this solved all of the above problems! Of course I have a fresh set of problems as the host doesn't allow external database connections so I kind of have to start again with a new host?! Ho hum.
Depending on how big the site is, how much custom development there is and and how many users there are, and with the number of upgrade steps you would need to go through to get the site completely current, you may find it quicker and cleaner to simply start with a fresh 5.6.2.1 install and copy/paste content and users across.