AutoRestore|Quarantine Guide

[Michael]

Are you saying to delete the files from the BPS Quarantine web interface, after I have already deleted them manually vis FTP to the quarantine folder (and also autorestore folder on 3rd try, probably not a good idea)?  I hit clear|refresh inside BPS Quarantine, list won’t disappear.  So just select all and delete?

[AITpro Admin]

@ Michael – The Quarantine table that you see on the Quarantine page displays WordPress Database rows from the Quarantine Database table in your WordPress Database with information about each file that is/was in the /bps-backup/quarantine/ folder.

If you are unable to delete the Quarantine table database rows using the Quarantine Delete File option checkbox then you can delete the entire Quarantine database table by using the BPS Pro > Pro-Tools > DB Table Cleaner|Remover tool.  A new empty Quarantine database table is automatically created if/when the Quarantine database table is deleted.

1. Go to BPS Pro > Pro-Tools > DB Table Cleaner|Remover tool.
2. Click the drop radio button form option for this WordPress database table:  xx_bpspro_arq_quarantine.  Note:  The x’s are the database table prefix name.  Your database table prefix name may be wp_ or something else if you have changed your WordPress database table prefix name.
3. Click the Empty|Drop button.

[AITpro Admin]

@ Geoff – I did extensive testing on a Local Dev server/website, but the same problem did not occur on my test server/website.  Looks like I forgot to send you an email after I completed testing.  I tested the BodyTagErrorMsgs.inc.php with and without a closing php tag and got the same results.  So that means something about your PHP server configuration is different than my test server configuration.  Most likely some kind of buffering issue.  Anyway I think looking at that particular issue is not the right thing to be looking at.

The AutoRestore Add Folders & Files feature works differently and independently of all other AutoRestore standard functions that monitor standard WordPress folders.  ie root files, wp-content files, etc.  Typically using the Quarantine Restore File feature works fine to restore and create a new backup file of a file in AutoRestore file back that was modified/changed.  That is working correctly for all of your files that had a php closing tag, but not the file that did not have the php closing tag.  Once again I don’t think trying to figure out what is different about your server’s PHP config is the right direction to look at.

One approach that would definitely work consistently, but may be too much of a headache for you to do would be to do the steps below EACH time you modify the problematic BodyTagErrorMsgs.inc.php file.

1. Use the AutoRestore Remove Added Folders|Files Search tool and use a forward slash – “/” to search for all Added folders and files.
2. Remove/delete all the added files in your /BodyTag/ folder.  Note: In the form that is displayed to you and not your actual files.
3. Upload the new changed files to your /BodyTag/ folder.
4. Use the AutoRestore Add Folders & Files tool to add the files in the /BodyTag/ folder again.

Notes:  I believe the path to your folder was:  /htdocs/scripts/BodyTag/BodyTagErrorMsgs.inc.php.  I don’t know if this would make a difference or not, but it is worth a try > I assume you used the Add Top Level Folder option setting for either the /scripts/ or /BodyTag/ folder.  You could try one of the other options > Add A Specific Folder or Add An Individual File.  I doubt that would make any difference though.  I tested all the option settings on my test server/website and all of them worked fine for me.  The ARQ code itself iterates the directories the same no matter which option setting you choose.  So yeah I doubt that changing the option setting would make any difference for your particular server.

[Michael]

Thanks for the tip.  I ended up using ManageWP site restore in order to clean up the pile of files copied / in quarantine etc.

I WP_restored from a backup of our site, then disabled BPS AutoRestore (both drop down fields), and then cleared the BPS Quarantine from within the BPS backend which worked smoothly now. (250 instead of 1,500 files to clear!)

Question: So AutoRestore being disabled requires two items being disabled?

I have an idea: AIT should host there own Backup Restore similar to the ManageWP (now GoDaddy) service.  It does an awesome job of quickly doing a differential restore on files and DB.  BPS is already well positioned to offer the same service of super fast differential restore points (our main site backs up twice per day, and during development was backing up 4 times per day).  It’s only a few dollars per month (that also includes centralized plugin updates, vulnerability updates, and SafeUpdate which will auto trigger a restore point for us) for multiple sites through their manageWP worker plugin.  But actually their SafeUpdate has not been working since WP 5.2 as raw text is slowly being pulled out of the WP backend in order to control information about 80% of humanity which is near extreme poverty through land/resource ownership.

[AITpro Admin]

@ Michael – You do not need to turn off AutoRestore when you are updating plugins and themes within your WordPress Dashboard or when updating plugins or themes using ManageWP.  That will actually cause files to be quarantined unless you use the manual AutoRestore|Quarantine steps below.  Autorestore|Quarantine is hooked into the WordPress upgrader functions and so is ManageWP.  So when a plugin or theme installation or upgrade occurs, AutoRestore turns itself off, backs up files and then turns itself back on.

AutoRestore|Quarantine Manual File Editing/Uploading Procedural Steps
AutoRestore|Quarantine (ARQ IDPS) is a real-time file monitor that monitors all of your website files for any changes. When manually uploading or modifying files or folders with FTP use these simple procedural steps to avoid having those files autorestored and/or quarantined. If files are sent to Quarantine then use the Restore File option in Quarantine to restore those files. ARQ is amazing, but it cannot tell who you are if you are manually modifying or uploading files or folders outside of your WordPress Dashboard – that is not possible.

1. Turn AutoRestore Off on the AutoRestore page.
2. Manually upload files or manually modify/edit files or folders.
3. Click the appropriate AutoRestore Backup Files button: Root Files, wp-admin Files, wp-includes Files or wp-content Files Backup Files button or run the Setup Wizards.
4. Turn AutoRestore back On.

[Michael]

See edit:

[AITpro Admin]

@ Michael – do you have another question?  Please restate that question. Thanks.

[unregsg]

For some reason, ARQ ist always quarantining newly uploaded files in an added folder even though I turn it of. That’s what I do:

1. Go to the AutoRestore page and turn Off AutoRestore.
2. Upload my files into an added folder (non-wordpress) via FTP
3. Everything works fine.
4. Run the setup wizard which turns AutoRestore back on.
5. When the cron jobs runs, these 1500 files are in quarantine.
6. Restoring is not working, because it’s too many files.
7. Restoring via BPS Pro Xternal Tools (XTF) does nothing.

8. The only thing that works is delete all files in quarantine in BPS Pro Xternal Tools (XTF).

But then again of course, I don’t have any files. 😉 What am i doing wrong here? It actually did work fine for before…

 

[AITpro Admin]

@ unregsg – AutoRestore “Add Folders & Files” is handled separately than standard AutoRestore folders and files.  The Setup Wizard does not do anything with new uploaded files in an “Added Folder”.  You would need to repeat the AutoRestore Add Folders & Files steps that you original did in order to Add and backup any new files.  In other words, the “Add Folders & Files” feature is a completely independent feature.

The Xternal Tools are outdated.  To fix the problem do the steps in this forum topic > https://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/website-not-loading-after-wordpress-upgrade-or-theme-upgrade-500-error-files-quarantined/

Notes:  You should see a Quarantine folder called:  added-files.  For step #7 you would go to AutoRestore > Add Folders & Files and repeat your original steps to add (backup) any new added files.

[unregsg]

Thanks.

I’m still struggling, though. That’s what I did so far:

Quarantine was emptied via XTF.

1. renamed bulletproof-security to _bulletproof-security
2. I checked the “added folder” folder: empty (because I deleted the files via XTF)
3. So I uploaded the files again simply via FTP
4. I didn’t see any “Must-Use link at the top of the Plugins page” when loggin back in. Where am I supposed to click?
5. renamed bulletproof_security back and activated it. ARQ was already on. Files that I have just uploaded were pretty much immediately put back in quarantine.

1. Next I droped xx_bpspro_arq_quarantine and erased the whole added folder.
2. Then I again renamed the plugin again. Logged in: it’s inactive.
3. Then I erased the whole folder that was constantly beeing quarantined and re-uploaded it again. Everything works fine.
4. I renamed the plugin back and *boom*: 1 minute later, my files are quarantined again and because it’s approx. 1600, I also can’t restore them.

Any ideas?

I realized I can’t find the folder in question in the ARQ DB Search For Folder Names function…

[unregsg]

I think I have a possible solution: I selected “specific folder” instead of “top level folder”, which means all files from subfolders are quarantined. Now how do I fix that setting for that folder?

[AITpro Admin]

You have completely lost me at this point.  Send me an email directly > info at ait-pro dot com.  Explain in as much detail as possible what folder or files you are trying to add.

Example:
I am trying to add this folder or files to AutoRestore Added Files:  /public_html/some-folder/
My WordPress website is installed in this folder:  /public_html/wordpress/

[hypnos]

Managed to delete the error logs but continue to get wp-admin/error_logs quarantined

[AITpro Admin]

@ hypnos – You can exclude the wp-admin/error_log files from being quarantined by using the Quarantine > Exclude Folders|Files from being checked by AutoRestore option.

[Tony Payne]

Firstly, Happy New Year to you and I hope it’s a good one.

I figured out what to do to clear over 115,000 files from the quarantine list by using a response to https://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/20000-files-sent-to-quarantine/ so problem now resolved.

[Author]

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