Backup restore problem with DB

Hello,

I’m having serious problems restoring some sites of mine in wordpress. My SysAdmin has been trying to solve it for almost two weeks without results, he said to ask WordPress support for help.

So I’m here requesting your support. Let me try to explain the issue that I’m facing on this server:

I have some (updated) WordPress sites hosted on this server, one time that I was working on one of them, I needed to restore a backup from a previous day, that normally restores the site to a working version. I started to notice the issue from this day, this because the backup restore was successful but the site didn’t work as expected.

For example, I did some tests and tried to disable 3 plugins that were always enabled in previous backups. Then, I did a backup restore from the previous day I noticed that the plugins were still disabled!

In another test, I disabled all the plugins from my WordPress site, and after, I tried to do a cPanel backup restore from an older date, March 17, it was supposed to have my plugins active again, correct? I have used WHM/cPanel for almost 20 years and it always works like that. Because when we do a backup restore, he restores the files and databases as well. The problem is that the backup restore from March 17 had all the plugins disabled… and on that day, March 17, I only had one or two plugins disabled, not all of them. I have this issue happening in 3 accounts on this server. This makes me think that the backup restore is not working fine

I contacted cPanel support and they gave me this report:

“When reviewing the reported behavior, I found that the MySQL database information is being restored without an apparent issue. The plugin configurations are stored in the wp_options table and when querying this table post restore we can see that it matches the backup data.

Comparing the two we can see that the listed plugins match with the backup.

[02:44:24 server root@99xxx /backup/weekly/2024-03-17/accounts]cPs# mysql username_best_english -se “select * from wp_options where option_name=’active_plugins’” option_id option_name option_value autoload 33 active_plugins a:46:{i:0;s:33:”admin-menu-editor/menu-editor.php”;i:1;s:31:”envato-market/envato-market.php”;i:2;s:34:”bsa-pro-ap-scripteo/bsa-pro-ap.php”;i:3;s:35:”bsa-plugin-pro-scripteo/bsa-pro.php”;i:4;s:63:”block-specific-plugin-updates/block-specific-plugin-updates.php”;i:5;s:29:”acf-repeater/acf-repeater.php”;i:6;s:37:”acf-options-page/acf-options-page.php”;i:7;s:30:”advanced-custom-fields/acf.php”;i:8;s:31:”buddypress-followers/loader.php”;i:9;s:33:”classic-editor/classic-editor.php”;i:10;s:35:”classic-widgets/classic-widgets.php”;i:11;s:25:”cloudflare/cloudflare.php”;i:12;s:45:”taxonomy-terms-order/taxonomy-terms-order.php”;i:13;s:24:”buddypress/bp-loader.php”;i:14;s:43:”custom-post-type-ui/custom-post-type-ui.php”;i:15;s:31:”code-snippets/code-snippets.php”;i:16;s:34:”custom-sidebars/customsidebars.php”;i:17;s:45:”enhanced-text-widget/enhanced-text-widget.php”;i:18;s:50:”google-analytics-for-wordpress/googleanalytics.php”;i:19;s:17:”mycred/mycred.php”;i:20;s:25:”kk-star-ratings/index.php”;i:21;s:74:”official-statcounter-plugin-for-wordpress/StatCounter-Wordpress-Plugin.php”;i:22;s:37:”plugin-organizer/plugin-organizer.php”;i:23;s:41:”photoswipe-masonry/photoswipe-masonry.php”;i:24;s:39:”q2w3-fixed-widget/q2w3-fixed-widget.php”;i:25;s:27:”redis-cache/redis-cache.php”;i:26;s:47:”regenerate-thumbnails/regenerate-thumbnails.php”;i:27;s:65:”reorder-post-within-categories/reorder-post-within-categories.php”;i:28;s:21:”safe-svg/safe-svg.php”;i:29;s:39:”simple-post-notes/simple-post-notes.php”;i:30;s:39:”simplejpegquality/SimpleJPEGQuality.php”;i:31;s:33:”smart-slider-3/smart-slider-3.php”;i:32;s:13:”snax/snax.php”;i:33;s:57:”ssl-insecure-content-fixer/ssl-insecure-content-fixer.php”;i:34;s:27:”image-sizes/image-sizes.php”;i:35;s:19:”weforms/weforms.php”;i:36;s:23:”wordfence/wordfence.php”;i:37;s:39:”wp-file-manager/file_folder_manager.php”;i:38;s:29:”wp-mail-smtp/wp_mail_smtp.php”;i:39;s:41:”wp-simple-galleries/wp-simple-gallery.php”;i:40;s:25:”wp-user-frontend/wpuf.php”;i:41;s:27:”wp-pagenavi/wp-pagenavi.php”;i:42;s:23:”wp-rocket/wp-rocket.php”;i:43;s:33:”wp-postratings/wp-postratings.php”;i:44;s:21:”wp-sweep/wp-sweep.php”;i:45;s:24:”wordpress-seo/wp-seo.php”;} yes

For comparison, I extracted the SQL file from the backup to locate this table data.

(33,’active_plugins’,’a:46:{i:0;s:33:\”admin-menu-editor/menu-editor.php\”;i:1;s:31:\”envato-market/envato-market.php\”;i:2;s:34:\”bsa-pro-ap-scripteo/bsa-pro-ap.php\”;i:3;s:35:\”bsa-plugin-pro-scripteo/bsa-pro.php\”;i:4;s:63:\”block-specific-plugin-updates/block-specific-plugin-updates.php\”;i:5;s:29:\”acf-repeater/acf-repeater.php\”;i:6;s:37:\”acf-options-page/acf-options-page.php\”;i:7;s:30:\”advanced-custom-fields/acf.php\”;i:8;s:31:\”buddypress-followers/loader.php\”;i:9;s:33:\”classic-editor/classic-editor.php\”;i:10;s:35:\”classic-widgets/classic-widgets.php\”;i:11;s:25:\”cloudflare/cloudflare.php\”;i:12;s:45:\”taxonomy-terms-order/taxonomy-terms-order.php\”;i:13;s:24:\”buddypress/bp-loader.php\”;i:14;s:43:\”custom-post-type-ui/custom-post-type-ui.php\”;i:15;s:31:\”code-snippets/code-snippets.php\”;i:16;s:34:\”custom-sidebars/customsidebars.php\”;i:17;s:45:\”enhanced-text-widget/enhanced-text-widget.php\”;i:18;s:50:\”google-analytics-for-wordpress/googleanalytics.php\”;i:19;s:17:\”mycred/mycred.php\”;i:20;s:25:\”kk-star-ratings/index.php\”;i:21;s:74:\”official-statcounter-plugin-for-wordpress/StatCounter-Wordpress-Plugin.php\”;i:22;s:37:\”plugin-organizer/plugin-organizer.php\”;i:23;s:41:\”photoswipe-masonry/photoswipe-masonry.php\”;i:24;s:39:\”q2w3-fixed-widget/q2w3-fixed-widget.php\”;i:25;s:27:\”redis-cache/redis-cache.php\”;i:26;s:47:\”regenerate-thumbnails/regenerate-thumbnails.php\”;i:27;s:65:\”reorder-post-within-categories/reorder-post-within-categories.php\”;i:28;s:21:\”safe-svg/safe-svg.php\”;i:29;s:39:\”simple-post-notes/simple-post-notes.php\”;i:30;s:39:\”simplejpegquality/SimpleJPEGQuality.php\”;i:31;s:33:\”smart-slider-3/smart-slider-3.php\”;i:32;s:13:\”snax/snax.php\”;i:33;s:57:\”ssl-insecure-content-fixer/ssl-insecure-content-fixer.php\”;i:34;s:27:\”image-sizes/image-sizes.php\”;i:35;s:19:\”weforms/weforms.php\”;i:36;s:23:\”wordfence/wordfence.php\”;i:37;s:39:\”wp-file-manager/file_folder_manager.php\”;i:38;s:29:\”wp-mail-smtp/wp_mail_smtp.php\”;i:39;s:41:\”wp-simple-galleries/wp-simple-gallery.php\”;i:40;s:25:\”wp-user-frontend/wpuf.php\”;i:41;s:27:\”wp-pagenavi/wp-pagenavi.php\”;i:42;s:23:\”wp-rocket/wp-rocket.php\”;i:43;s:33:\”wp-postratings/wp-postratings.php\”;i:44;s:21:\”wp-sweep/wp-sweep.php\”;i:45;s:24:\”wordpress-seo/wp-seo.php\”;}’,’yes’),(34,’category_base’,’/category’,’yes’),(35,’ping_sites’,’http://rpc.pingomatic.com/’,’yes’),(37,’comment_max_links’,’2′,’yes’),(38,’gmt_offset’,’0′,’yes’),(39,’default_email_category’,’1′,’yes’),(40,’recently_edited’,’a:5:{i:0;s:79:\”/home/username/public_html/wp-content/themes/wp-bestp/single-freegallery.php\”;i:1;s:66:\”/home/username/public_html/wp-content/themes/wp-bestp/style.css\”;i:3;s:77:\”/home/username/public_html/wp-content/themes/wp-bestp/single-freevideo.php\”;i:4;s:85:\”/home/username/public_html/wp-content/themes/wp-bestp/single-freegallery-bckup.php\”;i:5;s:83:\”/home/username/public_html/wp-content/themes/wp-bestp/single-freevideo-bckup.php\”;}’,’no’),(41,’template’,’wp-bestp’,’yes’),(42,’stylesheet’,’wp-bestp’,’yes’)

This indicates there is not an issue with the database restore, but this behavior may have changed in WordPress. Are you able to identify any variances between the backup data and the database post restoration?

The interface shows the test plugins as still disabled despite being listed in the database. I attempted to identify any changes or matching reports of this behavior with an online search, but I was unable to identify a cause for this change in behavior. For confirmation, we would advise reaching out to the WordPress support forums for further discussion.

In the meantime, we advise managing plugins through either the wp-admin interface or utilizing the WP Toolkit feature if there is a desired to change this through the cPanel software.”

Please advice, I’m desperate with this issue.

Thank you in advance.