garbled site after move+upgrade, then "Store CSS Stylesheets as Files" fixed it...?

[mna]

I am preparing to move my vb4 forum to a new hosting company and upgrade it to vb5 in the process. After doing so the admin cp worked fine, but the main site was extremely garbled. I tried deleting any custom style templates and using defualt ones to no success, and running repair maintenance. Finally I fixed it by setting Store CSS Stylesheets as Files? to Yes in AdminCp>Settings>Options>Style & Language Settings.

Any ideas as to what caused this? I would kind of like to fix the problem so I don't have to enable that option.

Basic Run down of how I moved it:
1. disabled plugins
2. Update the URLs at AdminCP > Settings > Options > Site Name / URL / Contact Details
3. export database then merge it with a new database I created at the new webhost
4. upload vb5 files into empty directory on my new host
5. changed htaccess.txt to .htaccess
6. run upgrade.php
7. see garbled site!


Here is a screenshot to what it looked like:

[Glenn Vergara]

Are you sure you renamed htaccess.txt to .htaccess? Note the dot in front.

[mna]

Yes, I did rename it with the period in the front. Does it matter if you rename it before or after running the upgrade script? I can't remember which I did, I think I did before running upgrade.php.

[Wayne Luke]

If you had it set to store CSS as a file and moved to a new file structure, this can occur. The fix is to toggle the feature and write out new files for your current Style IDs. We attempt to do this during the upgrade process but it can fail.

It is recommended to rename the .htaccess before you run upgrade.php. However, the specific order doesn't matter much.

[mna]

If you had it set to store CSS as a file and moved to a new file structure, this can occur. The fix is to toggle the feature and write out new files for your current Style IDs. We attempt to do this during the upgrade process but it can fail.

My original site was not set to store CSS as files. I tried toggling it on and off to no avail. I've tried moving the site about 10 different times so far trying different things before moving the database but I still get the CSS mess. I deleted my old styles and made new default ones with no parent. I tried uninstalling all plugins and a bunch of other things...I'm not sure what to try next.

I really don't want to store CSS as files...any more ideas what I could try? Is there a way to reset ALL vbulletin4 settings to default values? Could this be a PHP thing? My old server is running either 5.2 or 5.4 while the new one I have set to 5.6. (phpinfo file says old server is 5.4 but tech support said they put it on 5.2).

p.s here is my test domain I have it setup on if that helps: http://amparty.org/vb5/index.php

[Wayne Luke]

The system can't load the CSS file. Did you delete all your vBulletin 4.X files before uploading the vBulletin 5 files?

Make sure there is no css.php in vBulletin's root directory. In fact, the only PHP file that should be in vBulletin's root directory is index.php.

Also, make sure that htaccess.txt is renamed to .htaccess and not modified unless you need to add a handler to support your PHP version.

You also cannot use a vBulletin 4.X style. You need to use one of the 15 styles provided with vBulletin 5.

[Glenn Vergara]

This css is good:

http://amparty.org/vb5/css.php?style...&ts=1496853718

But the other two:

http://amparty.org/vb5/css.php?style...&ts=1496853718
http://amparty.org/vb5/css.php?style...&ts=1496853718

contains:

/* Unable to find css template */
/* Unable to find css sheet */

[mna]

The system can't load the CSS file. Did you delete all your vBulletin 4.X files before uploading the vBulletin 5 files?

Make sure there is no css.php in vBulletin's root directory. In fact, the only PHP file that should be in vBulletin's root directory is index.php.

Also, make sure that htaccess.txt is renamed to .htaccess and not modified unless you need to add a handler to support your PHP version.

You also cannot use a vBulletin 4.X style. You need to use one of the 15 styles provided with vBulletin 5.

I uploaded a fresh vb5 directory into an empty directory, I did not bring over any vb4 files. There is a config.php and index.php in the root folder, I think the config.php one is needed though? I renamed the default htaccess file without changing the contents. I also tried deleting my old style and tried using the default vb5 style but did not work. Again, the website works fine if I Store CSS Stylesheets as Files, but I don't want to do that

[mna]

This css is good:

http://amparty.org/vb5/css.php?style...&ts=1496853718

But the other two:

http://amparty.org/vb5/css.php?style...&ts=1496853718
http://amparty.org/vb5/css.php?style...&ts=1496853718

contains:

/* Unable to find css template */
/* Unable to find css sheet */

Thanks, but why can't it find the templates if I am using the default styles? I tried rebuilding styles but that does not work, and reverting all templates but still no good. Sorry I am not very advanced at this, how do I tell which templates those are? Could it be from a plugin that is no longer there?

[Wayne Luke]

Upload the /core/install directory again.
Run /core/install/upgrade.php again.
Delete /core/install.

[mna]

Upload the /core/install directory again.
Run /core/install/upgrade.php again.
Delete /core/install.

still broken I even tried re uploading via file manager instead of FTP. same result. I even tried another fresh install uploading via cpanel file manger and that didn't work either (in case it was my FTP program). It's so strange that it works when css is saved as files but not otherwise...any other suggestions?

[mna]

I decided to try and install a blank vb5 5.31 and got the same issues....so thought I would try to install 5.30 and it worked first try! Would anyone be able to verify that the current 5.31 for download in members area is complete? I had also contacted my host (namecheap) and they said it looked like files were missing in the 5.31 install. I tried re uploading 5.31 various ways, and re running the upgrade scripts but still got the error, so I'm wondering if there is something wrong with the 5.31 download now?

[Wayne Luke]

5.3.1 is complete and released to customers. It is running here and on hundreds of Cloud sites without problems. Are you using Filezilla to upload? Does it list any failures?

The actual CSS isn't stored as files by default, they are in database. If you're storing them as files, you need to make sure that updated CSS can overwrite any files in the directory where you store them.

What version of PHP is your host using? Is the mb_string library installed in PHP?

[mna]

I have used Firefox and cpanel file manager just in case Firefox wasn't working. Firefox never gave any errors.

The actual CSS isn't stored as files by default, they are in database. If you're storing them as files, you need to make sure that updated CSS can overwrite any files in the directory where you store them.

What version of PHP is your host using? Is the mb_string library installed in PHP?

My whole issue is that the site ONLY works if CSS is stored as files. I don't want to store them as files and never have. mb_string is enabled and PHP is 5.6.30.

I'm going to ask my host to wipe reinstall my server and start over fresh, I don't know what else to try

[mna703]

...