Website blank, white

[jenni101]

Hi,

I am at a complete loss as to what to do next, as my whole site (front and backend) has just become a white screen – no matter what url i put in! Luckily it’s on my duplicate site on a local server, where I was testing the new updates. Phew! However i have no idea what caused it or how to get it back, which means I can’t risk updating BPS pro on my live site.

What happened was:
1. I updated plugins individually (Buddypress, buddypress cover, contact from 7, rtmedia Sorting) in dashboard > updates.
2. I updated the Kleo theme via deleting the old ones and copying the new ones on to my local server.
3. I then backed up and turned back on ARQ. – All good.
4. Then I updated BPS pro to latest version, via the plugins page, and it seemed OK.
5. …Then I clicked on the BPS > Pro tools link to look at the new Xternal Lock feature and that’s when it all went white!

Since then I’ve tried to access the Xternal feature using the url http://localhost/my-site/wp-content/plugins/bulletproof-security/admin/xternal/xternal.php but with nothing showing; renaming the bps plugin folder – again no change, and deleting the root htaccess and wp-admin htaccess files – all with no luck! Really stuck as my only solution is to delete my entire site and duplicate it again – but then what happens when I try on my live site? It doesn’t bear thinking about! Any suggestions would be really appreciated! Thanks.

[AITpro Admin]

Important Note: If you have BPS Pro 12.8 or higher versions of BPS Pro installed click this link for quickier and easier steps to fix quarantined files problems: https://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/website-not-loading-after-wordpress-upgrade-or-theme-upgrade-500-error-files-quarantined/. BPS Pro 12.8+ versions automatically deactivate/turn ARQ Off when the /bulletproof-security/ plugin folder is renamed instead of having to use the BPS Pro XTF Form Tools to deactivate/turn ARQ Off.

Sounds like all plugin files including BPS Pro plugin files were quarantined due to some problem.  Do the steps below to be able to use the XTF tool.  I assume that you will see that files have been quarantined when looking at Total Files: X under the Current Status column.  You can restore all files in Quarantine using the XTF form.  Also reinstall the Kleo theme by just manually copying new files/folders to the Kleo theme folder while AutoRestore is turned off and then run the Setup Wizard again.

http://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/xternal-tools-xtf-guide/

Note:  XTF is a stand-alone tool.  If BPS Pro plugin files are quarantined due to some issue/problem and you want to reinstall BPS Pro using XTF do the steps below:
1. Unzip the bulletproof-security.zip file on your computer.
2. Upload the xternal.php file from the BPS zip file to this BPS plugin folder: /bulletproof-security/admin/xternal/xternal.php.
3. Go to the Xternal Tools page in your Browser: example.com/wp-content/plugins/bulletproof-security/admin/xternal/xternal.php.
4. Select the Turn Off|Deactivate AutoRestore|Quarantine (ARQ) XTF Form option and click the Submit Xternal Tools Form button.
5.  Use the Reinstall BPS Pro plugin files tool to reinstall BPS plugin files.

[jenni101]

Thanks for your super fast reply! I’ve checked that the xtrenal file is there, and have copied in a new copy just to be sure – but still no luck, just the blank/white screen.  Any other options do you think?? Cheers.

[AITpro Admin]

Most likely the site is blank/white due to missing theme files.  Reinstall the Kleo theme by just manually copying new files/folders to the Kleo theme folder.

[jenni101]

nope – still no luck! Is there a way to disable the autorestore, when you can’t access the site? Can I just rename the quarantine or autorestore folder?

[AITpro Admin]

Send this log file:  /wp-content/bps-backup/logs/autorestore_log.txt to info at ait-pro dot com so I can take a look at it.  You can delete the /bulletproof-security/ plugin folder for now.  Once whatever is causing the site to be blank/white is fixed then you can just reinstall BPS plugin files.  Try renaming your /plugins/ folder to /_plugins/ and see if the site displays normally.

[jenni101]

Thanks so much – log file sent. I had tried the renaming of the plugins folder but no luck… I have to stop here for the night now but will be back onto it tomorrow morning.

[AITpro Admin]

Looking at the log file I think the site is blank/white due to BuddyPress.  Download the BuddyPress zip file.  https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/   Unzip it on your computer.  Delete the existing /plugins/buddypress/ folder and copy the new /buddypress/ plugin folder to your /plugins/ folder.  If the site is still displaying blank then do the same thing for these 2 plugins:  bp profile search and advanced image styles.

[jenni101]

Hi again,

Good news, it has returned! It appears it was BuddyPress to blame…

For anyone else who has this problem this is what I did:-
1. deleted the bps plugins folder (still blank/white screen)
2. deleted the buddypress folder and copied in new bp plugin files as instructed above – got back a login screen!
3. logged in Ok and reinstalled BPS pro via plugin zip upload
4. this then showed a warning that Akismet, BP Profile Search and Advanced image styles (& BPS Pro) were deactivated as the plugin file could not be found….
5. Went to Q and this then showed 224 files in Quarantine!
6. deleted all buddypress files in quarantine, dated the day of all the problems, as I’d manually reinstalled them anyway
7. restored all other files from quarantine, as these included Akismet, BP profile Search and Advanced Image styles
8. got some new php errors re: ‘Failed to open….bp-loader.php’, so after reading your BP Upgrade Tutorial i re-saved my BP Settings, and it seems to be OK so far…
9. all other plugins now working fine
10. and all seems to be working on the front-end too.

So as you say it must have been buddypress – I had read your BP Upgrade Tut but as it seemed only a minor update, and previous one had been OK i just went ahead with a standard plugin update.

So do you think it’s better/safer to always update BP manually? Or perhaps it was just something particular in this one that triggered the problem?

Thanks for your time and help – I might risk updating my live site soon…

Cheers.

[AITpro Admin]

Actually whatever caused the ARQ FailSafes not to kick in to prevent the BuddyPress plugin files and other plugin files from being quarantined is really to blame.  There is a critical timed sequence of events that must happen without any interruption and in perfect sequence.  A server hiccup or lost connectivity for only a millisecond is all it takes for this problem to occur.  Then the other factor is that if you have a plugin or theme that has dependent files that must be where they are supposed to be and they are not there then you will see a blank/white website.  Luckily this problem only happens very rarely and there are very few plugins and themes (around 5 total) that have dependent files where this problem can even occur.  It is fairly easy to fix this problem.  Just requires manually copying files.

Nope, BPS Pro should not be updated manually.  That can actually cause this problem due to the critical timed sequence of events not happening when they should.  There is one particular file that contains all of the ARQ filters and if that file is missing/not yet installed when the next ARQ Cron fires then that is when this problem occurs.  A typical WordPress plugin update/upgrade deletes all of a plugin’s files and then adds new plugin files.  So actually there is a 100% safe BPS Pro upgrade method where it would be impossible for this problem to happen – if you use the BPS Pro Upload Zip Installer it overwrites/replaces BPS Pro plugin files instead of a deleting old plugin files and then adding new plugin files like the WP Upload zip installer or the WP API plugin and theme upgrader.

[jenni101]

Thanks – good to know. From what you’ve just said the problem may be because i did the plugin updates too quickly one after the other. I’ll try to be more patient next time to see if that helps!

Actually, re. the manual install Q above, I was referring to BuddyPress, not BPS Pro – as that was the plugin that seems to cause the problems. What’s your recommendation for that?

[AITpro Admin]

Oh yeah I definitely recommend manually upgrading BuddyPress.  I always have to manually upgrade BuddyPress on this BuddyPress Forum site and if I don’t then the entire site crashes with a 500 error and I have to restore the database to get the site back up:  http://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/buddypress-upgrade-tutorial-buddypress-upgrade-500-error/  I spent about a month trying to figure out the root cause of that problem a couple of years ago and never could figure it out.  The 500 error and site crash still happen when I test each new BuddyPress version upgrade on my Local Development BuddyPress test site.  😉

[jenni101]

good to know it’s not just me!

[AITpro Admin]

Yeah not just you.  I just tried to upgrade BuddyPress to 2.3.2.1 today and got a blank/white page.  I can upgrade my XAMPP site fine, but not this Live site.  So I will keep using BuddyPress 2.1.1 on this site since it works great. 😉

[AITpro Admin]

LOL turns out the problem was an incomplete FTP file upload problem.  Uploaded new individual BuddyPress subfolders and the upgrade to 2.3.2.1 worked.

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