Backup buddy reveals errors "Ping, waiting for server;" and PHP Magic Quotes

[Gene Gene]

I just sign up with backup buddy and when I attempt to back up my
databases I get this error: "Ping. Waiting for server . . ."

Can anyone advise me how to correct a Ping. Waiting for server . . .
error?

My Back Up Buddy also indicates this as a warning on my site:

PHP Magic Quotes GPC disabled enabled WARNING


How can I fix this issue?

Thanks for your help. Gene

[Justin Time]

Were you able to fix this yet? I'm having the same issue and I thought it was server but I've moved it to another server and still having same problem

[Winnie Williams]

I think you are running into the http loopback error.  The following information is available in ithemes support forum.  I've bumped into the same thing  twice and this has fixed it.  But it also reported an error on one of the backupbuddy settings pages, so you might go look and see if you have an error at the top of one of the pages.

Backing Up

HTTP Loopback Connections Disabled

• Also known as Endless Ping.
• This usually happens before the second Scheduled Cron in your backup is run. You can see the number of times "Scheduled Cron" is mentioned in the Advanced Logs shown on the backup page to see if this is the case.
• If your Server Information page reports that HTTP Loopback Connections are disabled or the following occurs (see below), you need to either enable HTTP Loopback Connections or enter the WordPress Alternate Cron setting in your wp-config.php file. This is caused if your host is blocking loopback connections within their firewall. You will need to request that your host change this (this is very standard to have this available), enable the alternate cron method in your wp-config.php (as Solution below - often the only solution for those in a shared environment), or move to a new host.
  • If your backup progress (as detailed in the Advanced Details area) consistently never progresses beyond this point except for the continuous "pings":

Backing up with BackupBuddy v2.1.8...
20:35:15: Setting greedy script limits.
20:35:15: Set memory limit to 256M. Previous value < 256M.
20:35:15: Finished greedy script limits.
20:35:15: Full backup mode.
20:35:15: Performing pre-backup procedures.
20:35:15: Backup serial: pyisomo736
20:35:15: Creating import data file.
20:35:15: Finished creating import data file.
20:35:15: Finished pre-backup procedures.
20:35:15: Scheduling Cron for pyisomo736.
1307910918|ping
1307910922|ping
1307910926|ping

• Solution:
  • Add define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true); to your wp-config.php
    • Open your wp-config.php in a text editor. This file is located in the root of your site.
    • Add the line somewhere between the first ( <?php ) and last line of the file (but before the line that says /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */)

    • define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true);

  • Deactivate all other plugins and see if it works then, if so then make sure you don't have a plugin that may apply a maintenance mode
    • This is because maintenance mode plugins rarely, if ever, take into account WordPress scheduling crons
• See also
  • Endless Ping on Second Scheduling Cron in BackupBuddy Codex
  • WordPress Codex / Alternative Cron on WordPress.org

• Related threads with same/similar solutions:
  • http://ithemes.com/forum/index.php?/topic/17385-backupbuddy-doesnt-backup-at-all-infinite-ping/
  • http://ithemes.com/forum/backupbuddy/endless-pinging-v2-2-14

On Jan 5, 2013, at 12:48 PM, Pepe Preciado wrote:

I also have this issue. How did you sort it out?

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[Stella Sutton]

Hi I just found this

http://www.chriscolotti.us/technology/how-to-resolve-the-backupbuddy-http-loopback-error/  

and this.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mpls-stpaul-wordpress/UnK_q2pIgPo

hope this helps  Stella.

[Peter - Computer Steroids]

I'm not sure on the details of this particular issue but sometimes reinstalling WordPress and the plugins helps clear error messages.

[Peter Fleck]

These are standard issues with BackupBuddy that have to do with server configuration. Reinstalling WP won't help.

The iThemes/BackupBuddy site has good documentation on how to resolve this stuff.

Peter

On Jan 14, 2014 9:43 AM, "Peter - Computer Steroids" <pe...@computersteroids.com> wrote:

I'm not sure on the details of this particular issue but sometimes reinstalling WordPress and the plugins helps clear error messages.

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[Michael Fraase]

BackupBuddy has saved my ass several times, but it’s pretty picky about server configurations, plugins (especially caching plugins), etc.

Here’s a configuration tutorial for BackupBuddy on OS X (the http loopbacks section is appropriate for Linux variants):

http://www.farces.com/wikis/naked-server/wordpress/configure-backupbuddy/

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www.farces.com

[Winnie Williams]

Something has happened with BackupBuddy of late.  In the last couple weeks, for all the sites I have at hostgator, I am getting "ping, waiting for server" and they aren't backing up.   I've tried everything I know to do and have looked extensively at documentation.  I'm presently waiting on a response from the ithemes support folks.

[Nicholas Ciske]

You sure something hasn't happened to hostgator?

They've been under massive attack as of late and are likely locking down servers in ways they had not previously...

Defining ALTERNATE_CRON doesn't fix the ping issue?

Have you tried setting up an actual cron job every 15 min?

_________________________

Nick Ciske

http://thoughtrefinery.com/

@nciske

[Winnie Williams]

Mine isn't the ping issue.  Zip just won't finish on even small sites.  Working with themes and hostgator now.

[Nick Pelton]

My guess is the shared server just can’t handle the amount of time or memory required to zip the site. In the past I ran into an issue where backup buddy was recursively zipping the backups on every backup - making the zip grow X2 every backup. Might be worth looking into.

Thanks,

Nick

[Winnie Williams]

Nick you're right, that this is an issue, and it was related to part of my problems.  It didn't used to be, but themes announced that because of a change hostgator had made, that this was now a prevalent problem unless you have it delete backups after a successful send.  Part of my backups were taking longer because they were still backing up old backups.

It looks to me like it is a time issue, that the backup is getting killed off if it takes too long.  The backup buddy server settings let you see how big the backup should be that it is trying to create.  The advanced settings in backup buddy let you turn off compression so it can back up twice as much in the same amount of time.  Between those two things, it looks like I can get past most of the recent errors.  

I bet Nick Ciske is right that they tightened things up because of breakins, and stopped allowing these jobs to take so much time or so many resources.  I consider most of these pretty tiny sites, or I wouldn't have them at hostgator, so I was a little surprised.  But when backups include backups, they get big pretty fast.

[Jodi Stammer]

I thought BackupBuddy automatically excludes the previous backups. I do remember having this issue a while back though. I just checked a GoDaddy site I have and it looks like I’d manually excluded the folder to prevent it from happening again (see screen shot). I believe I also have all my sites set to delete after sending.

 

 

Jodi Stammer
Graphic & Web Designer
Uncorked Design LLC

jodi.s...@comcast.net
763-954-0820
______________________
www.uncorkeddesign.com
BURSTING WITH CREATIVITY!

	VIEW MY PROFILE
	jodi.stammer

 

[Winnie Williams]

It's supposed to.  But if you look at themes support, it says that because of a change hostgator has made, this is no longer working.  You can hand exclude some of the backup buddy folders, but others you aren't permitted to exclude.

I think the delete after sending is key. But if you hand run a backup it doesn't auto delete so you have to remember to do it or if you choose to send it, you have to check the box, because it isn't checked by default.

On Jan 14, 2014, at 2:19 PM, Jodi Stammer wrote:

I thought BackupBuddy automatically excludes the previous backups. I do remember having this issue a while back though. I just checked a GoDaddy site I have and it looks like I’d manually excluded the folder to prevent it from happening again (see screen shot). I believe I also have all my sites set to delete after sending.

 

<image001.png>

[Nicholas Ciske]

It does... if command line zip is enabled.

When it has to fall back to the PHP based ZIP library it takes forever, uses lots of memory and can't exclude folders... it would appear HostGator disabled PHP's access to the command line zip tool.

Which means workarounds, cPanel based backups... or leaving HG for greener pastures. If iThemes could fix this, they likely would have by now...

I wonder if storing BB backups outside the web root would work (or if HG would even support that?) It should avoid the backup-ception problem at least.

_________________________

Nick Ciske

http://thoughtrefinery.com/

@nciske

[Carolyn Wilson]

Hi, I found the cause of this was that there was no space left in the hosting account - increasing the quota fixed the problem.

I hope that helps someone.

C.