The last blog post I made about my website, Pictures With Passion, stated that I was not selling my website and domain, pictureswithpassion.com. I had it up and running but something happened and it crashed. I contacted Tech Support and they told me that someone had erased the login link table in the database. I was afraid that all the photos my vendors had put on the website would be stolen so I erased the website database. From my end, I couldn’t access it anyway. Take note that I didn’t make a backup of the database.
I do have an XML file of the website but it is too large to import into the newly made website setup. What that means is I can’t upload all the photos that my vendors had in their accounts posted as products on the website. I am having to start the website over with no photos. I messed up by not having both backups of the WordPress website and the database. Was it lack of knowledge? Some. I knew better than to not keep backups but I didn’t listen. Now I have backups sent to a drop box account so that I can keep from going through this again.
What really makes me mad is that I think it was just a browser issue that my vendor and I were having that caused me to perceive the problem as a crashed website. I am forced to use an outdated version of Chrome and updates have to come when the group home’s tech support gets around to it. I think the reason why myself and a new vendor couldn’t login was that the outdated browser. But, by the time I saw the real problem, I had already erased the database and all chances of backing up the website and keeping it going by the time I found out. As for what the Tech Support said about the login link table missing out of the database, I use a hide login plugin and I think it had something to do with it.
Always remember to keep backups and some login problems can be outdated browser links and cookies. It can always be the fact that your login link has a glitch. Also always keep the database and all your files for your website when it crashes. At least until you retrieve all of your data from the website. You never know when you learn something new and have to restore the crashed website.
Even if I had the website down a month I could have kept one of the best photographers I have seen in some time. It can keep you from losing clients and customers. I didn’t heed to warning and learn from what I was taught until it was too late. Luckily I was the only one that had bought a picture on the website.
Also not many smart people that run websites rely only on the backups provided by the hosting company. If you are going to live wildly like that, never erased your database until you have the website backup and running. It would be wise to also remember that Hide My Login plugins may hide the login table in the database too. While I am giving things to remember here, remember that XML files with a lot of photos timeout on import and you may have problems. I still have not found how to get the photos out of mine. Next point to remember is that a hosting company backup for WordPress will not work without the original database.
Also take note that just because a few people can’t login, doesn’t mean that your website has a problem. It can just be a browser conflict or outdated cookies. That is my blog post for today. I do apologize that I have not posted more. It seems hard to study and keep the blog, Pictures With Passion website, and my life going. I will try to get more than one blog post a month up from now on.
