Elgg 1.7.6 - missing images and user profile avatars

Yesterday (25th Jan 2011) I discovered that all the images, including user profile avatars, on my live ELGG site had vanished. Everything else on my ELGG site works perfectly. The site has been 'live' for about 2 months without any other problems.

Does anyone know why this has happened and how to fix it please.

 

 

  • same problem here plus i can't access in admin pages. Seems this is becoming a common problem.

    try to read this discussion if you find something can help you :

    http://community.elgg.org/pg/forum/topic/677299/problem-on-a-elgg-site-need-help/

  • did your host move to another server?

  • lord55, I have looked at this and the other entries about missing images etc before posting here, nothing sorts the problem. My admin page is loading correctly - I hope you find a solution to your problem :)

    jekwumoore, I'm waiting for the host to get back to me. I'm hoping this is the problem and that there's a solution to fix it!

    Many thanks to both of you :))

  • I've had a response from the hosting company. The last time they upgraded/altered the server was over a month ago!

  • What hosting are you using? Did you check if your database has any errors? If not, please check and repair your site database. 

    Rodolfo Hernandez

    Arvixe/Elgg Community Liaison

  • Have the image files vanished from the data directory or are the files still there and just don't show?

  • RESULT :))

    It's all working properly. The hosting company spotted that 2 lines of code had been added to the .htaccess file. I don't know which 2 lines but I've asked them to tell me (I'll post them here) and I've know idea how the 2 lines of code where added.

    This is the message I recieved from eHosting my hosting company,

    We identified that your .htaccess files had been modified and two lines added to this which were causing the problem.

    We have upgraded the version of PHP on the server to ensure that it is secure so we would ask that you also ensure that any software running your site is up to date - eHosting - www.ehosting.com

    As you can see, they upgraded the version PHP too, awesome :)

    Many thanks to everyone here who offered help and advice. This is a great community ;)

    I hope this post will help others who might encounter similar issues.

     

  • This is what worked for me.

    Remove the 2 lines of code at the bottom of the .htaccess file under </IfModule>

    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml .php3 .php4 .php5 .htm .html
    php_value auto_prepend_file /tmp/25454b22bf39c75795851f39d5e347c4

    Hope this helps ;)

  • Those lines shouldn't be there and are a good indication it's being used by a spammer to serve up ads or malicious code. You were probably hacked.  Make sure your .htaccess file isn't set to world-writable (777 in unix)

  • Thanks Brett, it's set to 644 and not 777. I don't know if it's related but the problem seemed to occure after a user name was changed because of a typo. I remember reading about this causing problems, especially if the user name has a space in it (which it did). I can't see anything wrong with the site. I hope it's not a hacking issue!