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After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared” Started by Mrs. Chaos · · Read 715 times 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Hello!
I'm currently having a problem with my forum that I caused myself ...
Apparently, there was a DDoS attack on it for two days. It wasn’t a very large one, and it doesn’t seem like anyone was trying to sign up or log in, but around the clock, there were 8 to 10 times as many visitors as usual. These “visitors” all had completely different IP addresses, so I couldn’t simply block certain IP ranges.
I then decided to put the forum into maintenance mode for almost a day, hoping that would put an end to these fake visits. But I apparently did something wrong in the process.
There are apparently two ways to set maintenance mode, and I must have chosen the wrong one. In any case, the forum is now completely inaccessible via the internet. A page loading error and a “500 Internal Server Error” are displayed.
I can log into the database through my host. There, I simply restored/imported the latest backup, which I had made two days ago, hoping that the forum would be back online afterward. Unfortunately, it isn’t. It’s still gone.
What else can I try now? What is the correct way?

Greetings to all  :smiley:
ElkArte version: 1.1.8 / Theme: BeSocial / PHP 8.1

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #1 –

Taking a quick stab while waiting for Spuds, the first thing I'd look at is any .htaccess files in the public_html directory (or whatever the webroot folder is.) You may need to set the file manager to show hidden files. The .htaccess file is where servers often tuck IPs to be blocked, etc., and ElkArte (at least my v 1.1.6), has some config info in there as well..
I've not encountered the problem you refer to, but that's the first location I'd sniff around in to see what's there.  If no clues there hopefully Spuds (or someone else more knowledgeable than I) has a better idea..
Last Edit: June 10, 2026, 01:09:25 am by Steeley
// Deep inside every dilemma lies a solution that involves explosives //

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #2 –

If you can access your Settings.php file, you need to edit that so $maintenance = 0; its probably set to 2 which makes it untouchable.

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #3 –

Thanks for your replies. I’ll see what I can do.
ElkArte version: 1.1.8 / Theme: BeSocial / PHP 8.1

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #4 –

I set it back to 0 in settings.php. But that didn't help.
It’s probably because I also activated maintenance mode in the forum’s administration center afterward. I probably shouldn’t have done that. :embarrassed:  Attached are two screenshots I took while doing that (the text is in German).
Is there any way I can get back there? Right now, I don’t know how to do that, since I can’t even access the admin area.

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #5 –

That is strange, the admin panel only updates settings.php, it does not change anything in the database.   Are you still getting a 500 error?

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #6 –

Yes, the error message is still there and the forum has disappeared.
ElkArte version: 1.1.8 / Theme: BeSocial / PHP 8.1

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #7 –

.
Any ideas on what else I could do or try?  :undecided:
ElkArte version: 1.1.8 / Theme: BeSocial / PHP 8.1

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #8 –

Is there any other content on your server than you can access via the internet (and the forum is the only thing that is inaccessible)?

Is there other content besides the forum you also can't access?
// Deep inside every dilemma lies a solution that involves explosives //

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #9 –

I would reestablish a copy that forum (files and database) temporarily elsewhere, and run test(s) there. If there all are good, then I'd migrate the forum to that new location. Sorry, this might not be the solution you are looking for, but I think nowadays, moving things are faster than fixing things, especially when the causes are unknown / mystery, and I think that is also why we have snapshot(s) for virtual machine i.e. for easier and faster restoration.

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #10 –

Have you reached out to your web host about this?
This unfortunately sounds like an issue with the server, which might mean that the DDoS attack caused server issues, not site issues.

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #11 –

Quote from: Burke Knight – Have you reached out to your web host about this?
This unfortunately sounds like an issue with the server, which might mean that the DDoS attack caused server issues, not site issues.

That was probably the next step I was going to suggest.. but my experience is that having some more detail in hand other than "It's broke and this is what I think I did" is helpful all around. If other content on the server is accessible, that rules out all kinds of stuff including most server-issues, and narrows down the problem a lot. If other content is N/A also, that rules out the Forum (for now, anyway - it could still be a problem, but not the main one at the moment) and the host probably DOES have to get involved with that.
Last Edit: June 13, 2026, 12:31:06 pm by Steeley
// Deep inside every dilemma lies a solution that involves explosives //

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #12 –

Quote from: ahrasis – I would reestablish a copy that forum (files and database) temporarily elsewhere, and run test(s) there. ...

Put it on another server?
Or same server but different directory (reconfigure the database and forum for new location)?
If you can't get in the new location either, then what? Did you misconfigure the forum copy for that new location, or is the server (if the same one, still) broke?  Now you have something else to troubleshoot before you get back to working the first problem....
My experience is that it's best to isolate and fix a problem, not create and dart down a new rabbit hole trying to side-step it. :grimacing:

[EDIT: And if @Spuds is working with her back-channel (s)he should make that note here so we don't complicate/duplicate the troubleshooting in the "public silence" (while they ignore us), eh? :smirk:]
Last Edit: June 13, 2026, 12:44:30 pm by Steeley
// Deep inside every dilemma lies a solution that involves explosives //

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #13 –

There must be an server error log available, can you get to that so we can see what error may be logged when you try to access?

You might also be able to check the elkarte db directly, look at the last entries of log_errors, there might be a clue IF its getting that far.

Also make sure the site files are accessible by the web server user .. are you using Apache or Nginx?

If all that fails, you can PM me with a SSH id/password so I can take a look at what is going on.

Re: After trying to put the forum into maintenance mode, it “disappeared”

Reply #14 –

Quote from: Steeley –
Quote from: ahrasis – I would reestablish a copy that forum (files and database) temporarily elsewhere, and run test(s) there. ...

Put it on another server?
Or same server but different directory (reconfigure the database and forum for new location)?
If you can't get in the new location either, then what? Did you misconfigure the forum copy for that new location, or is the server (if the same one, still) broke?  Now you have something else to troubleshoot before you get back to working the first problem....
My experience is that it's best to isolate and fix a problem, not create and dart down a new rabbit hole trying to side-step it. :grimacing:

[EDIT: And if @Spuds is working with her back-channel (s)he should make that note here so we don't complicate/duplicate the troubleshooting in the "public silence" (while they ignore us), eh? :smirk:]
What is your problem @Steeley in attacking me? I know not everyone has the same toolkits, but no facts were given about what Mrs. Chaos has, so I offered what works from my experience. Isolate and fix problem, yes, in a new place, yes, even on own PC, yes. True, some use shared hosting without them, but others do have VPS or dedicated servers. Either way, we're both trying to help.