Upgrade to PRO 3.5 freezes backend

[dutchess]

I recently updated from Events Calendar PRO 3.3 to 3.5, and all wp-admin pages are no longer loading at all. My error log shows multiple instances of:

WordPress database error The SELECT would examine more than MAX_JOIN_SIZE rows; check your WHERE and use SET SQL_BIG_SELECTS=1 or SET MAX_JOIN_SIZE=# if the SELECT is okay for query SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT wp_posts.*, wp_postmeta.meta_value as EventStartDate, eventEnd.meta_value as EventEndDate  FROM wp_posts  LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta ON wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id AND (wp_postmeta.meta_key = '_EventStartDate' or wp_postmeta.meta_key is null)  LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta as eventEnd ON( wp_posts.ID = eventEnd.post_id AND eventEnd.meta_key = '_EventEndDate')  LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta as tribe_event_end_date ON ( wp_posts.ID = tribe_event_end_date.post_id AND tribe_event_end_date.meta_key = '_EventEndDate' )  LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta as tribe_event_duration ON ( wp_posts.ID = tribe_event_duration.post_id AND tribe_event_duration.meta_key = '_EventDuration' )  WHERE 1=1  AND wp_posts.post_type = 'tribe_events' AND ((wp_posts.post_status = 'publish'))  ORDER BY DATE(wp_postmeta.meta_value) DESC, TIME(wp_postmeta.meta_value) DESC LIMIT 0, 20 made by WP_Posts_List_Table->prepare_items, wp_edit_posts_query, wp, WP->main, WP->query_posts, WP_Query->query, WP_Query->get_posts
PHP Warning:  require_once(/public_html/wp-content/plugins/the-events-calendar/admin-views/recurrence-dialog.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /public_html/wp-content/plugins/events-calendar-pro/events-calendar-pro.php on line 793
PHP Fatal error:  require_once(): Failed opening required '/public_html/wp-content/plugins/the-events-calendar/admin-views/recurrence-dialog.php' (include_path='.:/usr/php/54/usr/lib64:/usr/php/54/usr/share/pear') in /public_html/wp-content/plugins/events-calendar-pro/events-calendar-pro.php on line 793

I’ve tried settings SQL_BIG_SELECTS, but WordPress is still unresponsive until I rename the PRO plugin’s directory and it gets deactivated. I have community events installed as well.

[dutchess]

This is now affecting more than just the admin area, my entire hosting account was suspended and I have a 270mb error log with millions of lines of:

PHP Warning:  next() expects parameter 1 to be array, boolean given in /public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 472
PHP Warning:  current() expects parameter 1 to be array, boolean given in /public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 468

My account was reactivated after disabling the pro plugin.

[dutchess]

There’s definitely something wrong with recurrences, there are about 30,000 events right now. Can I please get a little priority on this issue? My site has become unusable with this plugin. I’ve had to disable community events to prevent visitors from submitting new events until this is addressed.

[Barry]

Hi – I’m really sorry you’re facing difficulties here.

Can I please get a little priority on this issue?

We’re committed to helping all our customers as quickly as we can. That said, in delivering support we work to what we feel is a reasonable and achievable timetable and so it’s important to note it can take 24-48hrs before we can respond – often it is faster, but equally it can tend toward the latter end of that scale, particularly during times of peak activity.

To the problems at hand, it sounds like there might be two separate issues at work.

The first is an issue with a restriction on join sizes – if the approach you tried previously (is this the snippet you used?) didn’t work it may be that your host has essentially clamped things down here. If so, that’s definitely going to be a problem – but it would be worth talking to them and making some enquiries to confirm this (we’d also love it if you could share a note of who your hosting provider is).

There’s definitely something wrong with recurrences, there are about 30,000 events right now.

Did you update the PRO plugin recently? If so, please review this blog post and checkout the plugin it links to – it might help to bring things back under control.

Does that help at all?

[dutchess]

I did indeed use that snippet, and the version I upgraded to is 3.5.2. My host is Bluehost, and I’m on a shared hosting account. Have other people reported having a problem like this on this host?

[Barry]

OK – so after using the snippet did you get the number of recurring events down to a lower number? How many are still on the system?

I don’t know of any particular problems with Bluehost as such, but it is of course always true that – depending on the amount of content and how popular your site is – you need a suitable hosting package to meet the site’s needs.

If you are still hitting the issue with MAX_JOIN_SIZE and can’t correct this it would definitely be worth approaching Bluehost and asking for their help – certainly if it turns out you are not permitted to increase it then that could be a real difficulty, here.

[dutchess]

After I put in the snippet I was still unable to use the backend. I called up Bluehost and SQL_BIG_SELECTS is disabled for shared hosting accounts.

I had no issue prior to the 3.5 upgrade, have the plugin requirements changed recently?

[dutchess]

This reply is private.

[dutchess]

I upgraded my hosting to a VPS plan and I’m now able to run the PRO plugin without it crashing the site. However, I still have many thousands of duplicate events and the cleanup plugin isn’t working; the “Merge Duplicate Recurring Events” button takes about twenty seconds, then redirects to the site’s 404 page without removing any of the duplicates.

[Barry]

Hi dutchess,

Can you please email a copy of PRO versions 3.3 and 3.4

You can grab historic versions of the plugins from here (the free, core plugin) and here (premium plugins like PRO).

I upgraded my hosting to a VPS plan and I’m now able to run the PRO plugin without it crashing the site. However, I still have many thousands of duplicate events and the cleanup plugin isn’t working; the “Merge Duplicate Recurring Events” button takes about twenty seconds, then redirects to the site’s 404 page without removing any of the duplicates.

That sounds pretty strange. It can take a fair amount of time for the merge duplicates process to complete – especially with many thousands of events – so I’m surprised it is ending after just 20 seconds and am unsure why it would terminate with a redirection to a 404 page (and haven’t heard reports of that elsewhere, so far).

We’re sorry for all the inconvenience, but could you A) confirm you are doing this with the latest versions of the plugin (ie, you haven’t already downgraded) and B) would it be possible to temporarily deactivate all other plugins/switch to a default and completely unmodified theme before running the tool, to guard against the possibility that something else is conflicting?

 

[dutchess]

I have not downgraded, I’m still on 3.5.2, and I just tried deactivating all non-calendar plugins and tried again, with the same result.

[Barry]

OK – this must be pretty frustrating- but just to be clear, you also switched to a default, unmodified theme (such as Twenty Thirteen) at the same time as deactivating all non-events plugins?

[dutchess]

I disabled all plugins and had Twenty Fourteen as the active theme. Same thing, but now it’s using the Twenty Fourteen 404 page.

[Barry]

OK – thanks for giving that a shot.

Unfortunately I’m not sure what’s going on here and this is definitely a pretty atypical situation. Sadly I’m not sure how much more we can do to assist here – I suspect that either something was unintentionally missed in earlier troubleshooting steps or else the issue is environmental in nature.

On this occasion though we aren’t going to be able to provide much further help here – it may be worth seeking assistance from a suitable developer who can work directly on your site and/or we’d happily consider any request for a refund to help you find a plugin that might provide a better fit for your particular situation (and if you want to take us up on that, please do email us at pro [at] tri [dot] be – including a link to this thread and also a copy of your purchase receipt).

[dutchess]

I am a developer, and I’ve been feeding you the details of the error logs generated by your company’s malfunctioning plugin so that you can correct your bugs. When we purchased this plugin we were under the impression that releases were rigorously tested to prevent these kinds of issues, and that support would consist of more than an unhelpful recommendation to deactivate all other plugins and to upgrade our hosting. Can you please put me in contact with someone on your development team who has the acumen to debug this?

[Author]

Posts