One of the newest features of the Total Upkeep WordPress backup plugin is the Site Check feature, which tests your site on a regular schedule to make sure that no fatal errors have occurred. When enabled, it checks your website every 15 minutes (by default) and sends you an email if an issue has been detected.
Examples of Failure Emails
Failed Site Check – A Site Check has failed. You should check your site and can perform a manual restoration. For help, please visit: https://www.boldgrid.com/support/boldgrid-backup/what-to-do-when-boldgrid-backup-site-check-fails/. You can manage notifications in your WordPress admin panel, under Total Upkeep Settings at “yourdomain.com”.
Failed Backup – We were unable to create a backup of your website due to the following:
If you receive one of these emails, don’t panic! Follow these steps to make sure your website is up and running smoothly.
Troubleshooting WordPress Fatal Errors
- Make sure it is not a false alarm. Visit your website using at least two different devices, browsers, and networks. For example, visit your website from your computer, using Firefox and Chrome, and then from a mobile device that is using mobile data, not WiFi. On each of these devices, log into your WordPress Dashboard. If your site works reliably on each device, the error may have been resolved by WordPress’s own Site Health system.
- Check the error message from your email. Your email will contain the fatal error message that triggered the Site Check failure. Specifically, look at the file path mentioned in the error, which may look like …/wp-content/themes/theme-name/… or …/wp-content/plugins/plugin-name/…
Most fatal errors in WordPress are related to PHP and learning how to troubleshoot PHP problems can help you reduce your website’s overall downtime in these situations.
- If you also received an email from WordPress Site Heath, it contains a link to log into your dashboard in recovery mode. Use this link to regain access to your site.
- If your error mentioned a theme, try switching your Theme via WP-CLI or switching your Theme via phpMyAdmin.
- If your error mentioned a plugin, try disabling the Plugin via WP-CLI or disabling the Plugin via FTP or File Manager.
- Try switching your PHP version. WordPress now requires PHP version 5.6, and by the end of 2019, it will require PHP 7.1 or above. We recommend running PHP 7.2 or above. The steps to change this will depend on your WordPress hosting provider.
- Ensure your WordPress Core files are unmodified. If the error message you received in your email did not contain a Theme or Plugin, your WordPress Core files may be modified, which could be a sign of a hack or data corruption. Use these instructions for checking your WordPress Core Files with WP-CLI.
- Restore a backup. If all of the above steps have failed, you may need to restore one of your backups. Use these instructions to restore a Total Upkeep Backup from the Command Line or utilize your hosting provider’s backup restoration process.
Congratulations! You now know all about troubleshooting WordPress fatal errors, and your website is back up and running. With Total Upkeep, you can rest assured that your site is always able to recover from a fatal error.
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Manuel says:
First of all: HUGE FAN of Total Upkeep, it has saved me many times now.
So, I migrated to a new shared hosting provider, and now I am also receive every 2-3 hours a Failed Site email, and just as described above, there is no final error message. I have tried all the steps, using the Command Line Interface, and there is no error at all. I even followed the steps to check the Word Press Installation, and all is fine (fortunately my shared hosting allows me to do SSH for this).
So, I just disabled the “Site Checker”, and I am still getting emails once every 2 days.
Has anyone resolved this? Or is any way that I could inform my hosting provider of what changed they need to do to my account (they are also baffled about this)?
Final item, and I assume it is related and might give more information: In the “Tools -> Site Health” I have only one error:
“Your site may have problems auto-updating plugins and themes Security
Plugin and theme auto-updates ensure that the latest versions are always installed.
Auto-updates for plugins and/or themes appear to be disabled, but settings are still set to be displayed. This could cause auto-updates to not work as expected.”
Jesse says:
Hi Manuel-
Sorry to hear about the trouble. Did you have the opportunity to check for the
file while you’re in there with SSH? The log might hold some clues.
The message you see in Site Health is expected, because Total Upkeep does in fact change the plugin and theme auto-updating process if you’re using its Backup before Autoupdates feature.
Manuel says:
It just failed a few minutes ago (right now is 1:03 PM in here, so I went to the log, and all the entries are the same and not helpful:
2021-06-17 13:00:12 [ERR] Site Check: Failed
This same entry is repeated for all the past failures where I have received an email.
Just like the email, I have no further way to know what is wrong.
Any more pointers for troubleshooting?
And understood that the message I see in Site Health is expected, somehow, I thought they were related.
Thank you very much.
Jesse says:
Hi Manuel-
Thanks for the updates! I did a little digging and I can’t find a case where the site check fails but nothing is logged, so I’d like to escalate your case to the developers. Do you mind starting a new thread in our Support Forums so we can try to take a closer look for you?
Manuel says:
Sure, I will do this now. Thank you very much for the help.
Hugh says:
The e-mail I get when the Site Check fails is as follows:
A Site Check has failed. You should check your site and can perform a manual restoration.
For help, please visit: https://www.boldgrid.com/support/boldgrid-backup/what-to-do-when-boldgrid-backup-site-check-fails/
You can manage notifications in your WordPress admin panel, under Total Upkeep Settings at:
https://domainname.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=boldgrid-backup-settings
Best regards,
The Total Upkeep plugin
_________________________
There is no final error message. This help file says, “Your email will contain the fatal error message that triggered the Site Check failure. ” but it doesn’t. Any suggestions?
Jesse says:
Hello Hugh,
If your site seems to be working reliably on the front-end as well as the dashboard, this might have been a false alarm.
For more detailed information about what triggered the site-check failure, make sure that logging is enabled in the Total Upkeep > Settings > Site Check menu, and check for a file in wp-content/plugins/boldgrid-backup/cli/bgbkup-cli.log. More information is also available on the Command Line Interface Wiki.