Gallery2:Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Gallery 2

More links on troubleshooting Gallery 2: Category:Gallery 2:Troubleshooting

Do this first

1. Clear your Gallery caches! - See FAQ: How can I clear cached data?
2. Ensure the Gallery application files are intact! - FAQ: How can I make sure that my installation files are all intact?
3. Clear your web-browser caches (cookies, page cache)!
4. Enable 'buffered' debug mode to ensure that no important warnings or details are hidden

Important Note: If you are not logged in as administrator, you need to enable 'buffered' debug mode to see the error name and the details. See: FAQ: How to enable Gallery's debug mode?. If 'buffered' debug mode does not show anything, you can try the 'immediate' or 'logged' debug mode.

Troubleshooting by...

You can either try to find your specific issue by looking for a specific 'error name' or by locating your issue in the categorized symptoms.

Error Name

Do you get the error just when browsing to the frontpage of your Gallery? If the error only occurs when browsing to a specific page / album or when attempting a special action, you should first try to 'troubleshoot by symptom / attempted action' (see below).

Error Name	Solution
ERROR_PLATFORM_FAILURE	FAQ: How can I fix the filesystem permissions of the Gallery storage folder?
ERROR_OBSOLETE_DATA	FAQ: How can I clear cached data?
ERROR_REQUEST_FORGED	Logout or clear your browser cookies and then try again. If your Gallery is integrated in a blog, portal, forum, ... ensure that you got the latest version of the integration.
ERROR_STORAGE_FAILURE	Usually either a database table got corrupted or the database connection does not work anymore. Enable 'buffered' debug mode to see the details, refresh the page and then search for 'error' in the page contents. If a specific table got corrupted, you can try to repair it in phpmyadmin or with 'mysqlchk' / 'misamchk' in the command line if you have shell access to the server. Maybe your webhost limits how many database queries can be done per hour. See FAQ: I seem to be running into some sort of MySQL query limit, is there anything that can be done? FAQ: I get the error 'Illegal mix of collations', what should I do? FAQ: Why do i get a MySQL 'Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket' error?
ERROR_BAD_PARAMETER	Did you customize / edit any template (.tpl) files or are you using a 3rd party theme or module? Try to rule out the possibility of being broken by this non-official code by removing it (in case of themes / modules: deactivate them, don't just remove them from the modules/, themes/ folder).
ERROR_COLLISION	When trying to log in, you get a Error_Collision; Try to repair and or optimize the 'g2_SessionMap' in phpmyadmin.
ERROR_LOCK_TIMEOUT	See FAQ: I suddenly get an ERROR_LOCK_TIMEOUT message, what can I do?
ERROR_MISSING_ITEM	If you can still access your 'Site Admin' section, you should consider running the 'integrity check' of the 3rd party module 'integrity'. It's available via 'Site admin' -> 'Plugins' since Gallery 2.2. See Installing Additional Components. TODO: Add link to instructions on how to manually fix such issues.

Symptom / Attempted Action

Please try to locate your issue in the below categorization. And don't forget that the debug mode can show a lot more information about a problem than you'd see without.

Installation

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Can't authenticate (Step 2) / login.txt	See FAQ: The installer does not accept my login.txt file. What's wrong?
System Checks report a problem with the 'file integrity'	See FAQ: What about the warning for missing / modified files in the installer?
Storage Setup (Step 4) - Error creating the directory structure	Mostly this can happen with Windows / IIS servers. See Installation in Windows Server In case it happens on a linux / unix server and you confirmed via FTP program that the permissions of the g2data folder are world-writeable (777), please talk to your webhost to find out why a PHP script wouldn't be allowed to create a folder structure in g2data/.
Storage Setup (Step 4) - Page blank / timing out when trying to submit	In case you're using G2.1.2, try G2.2. And you should check the error log of the webserver.
Losing Session / Falling back to authentication step	In case you're using G2.1.2, try G2.2. (related cookieless issue in 2.1). Also you should check the session settings of PHP. You can look at the PHP settings with a PHPInfo page, which is explained in: FAQ: What information is required when I ask for help in the forums?
Database Setup (Step 5) - Missing / Incorrect database connection information	The information to connect to your database is different for every host. Please ask your webhost for the correct database connection information. Usually, this information can also be found somewhere in your administration panel of your website (not part of Gallery). Many webhosts add a prefix (e.g. your account name) to the database name and the database user name. Don't bother changing the 'column prefix' and the 'table prefix' if you don't understand what they're for.
Database Setup (Step 5) - Client does not support authentication protocol	See FAQ: Why can't I install with MySQL 4.1 or higher? and FAQ: MySQL Client does not support authentication protocol error
Database Setup (Step 5) - Other connection problems	These are usually DB specific issues not related to Gallery specifically. You need to ensure that PHP can communicate with the database. Searching for the error message with Google is usually a good starting point. One specific is: FAQ: Why do i get a MySQL 'Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket' error?
Database Setup (Step 5) - Non-Default Port	If you need to use a non-default port, just append :xxxx to the Host Name, e.g. 'localhost:3307' for port 3307 on localhost.
Install Core Module (step 8) fails	See FAQ: I get an error in the installation step 8. What's wrong? (since Gallery 2.2, we warn you about this issue in the System Checks step already) Ensure that the PHP memory_limit is 16 MB or more. 8 MB is often not enough. Refreshing the page / doing the step again does not help. Sometimes, the problem goes away by running the installer again. To retry, you need to delete the storage folder, drop the database and start the installer from step 4 (or earlier) again, redoing these steps. Note: To save you some time, you can just click on the "Database Setup" step link on the left, click "save" and then click "erase". That way you don't have to manually delete the storage folder and the database.

Upgrade

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Can't authenticate (Step 2) / login.txt	See FAQ: The installer does not accept my login.txt file. What's wrong? (applies to the upgrade wizard as well)
System Checks report a problem with the 'file integrity'	See FAQ: WHat about the warning for missing / modified / obsolete files in the upgrader?
System Checks report a problem with 'Storage Directory Permissions'	See FAQ: How can I fix the problem with the storage directory permissions reported by the upgrade wizard?
Upgrade Core Module Step fails with error	Do you see 'Illegal mix of collations' in the debug output? See MySQL UTF8 Upgrade
Upgrade Other Modules Step reports missing plugins	You risk that your Gallery does not work correctly anymore if you upgrade without those modules. You should try to get the latest version of these plugins and to put them into your Gallery modules/, themes/ folders before continuing to the next step of the upgrade wizard. Also see FAQ: I get a warning for missing themes / modules in the upgrader. What should I do?
Some things don't work anymore after upgrading	Maybe a plugin is missing or not active. Consolut Site Admin -> Plugins (G2.2, previous versions had Modules) and ensure everything is the way you want it to be.

Images

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Thumbnails / Resized Images don't get generated correctly	See FAQ: Thumbnails / resized images don't get generated properly. How can it be fixed?
No images are shown at all	Not even original (fullsize) images? See FAQ: Images don't show up and the album photo links don't work either. What can I do? Maybe your webhost is corrupting the image transfers. Does your webhost automatically add ads / commercials to all pages of your website? If so, this is the likely reason. Ask your webhost if you can manually add the ads somewhere on the page and then disable the automatically added ads because they break Gallery 2. If original images show up correctly but thumbnails and resizes do not, please see FAQ: Thumbnails / resized images don't get generated properly. How can it be fixed?
Errors when trying to build thumbnails / resized images	Uninstall and then reinstall image toolkits. Details: FAQ: Thumbnails / resized images don't get generated properly. How can it be fixed?
Thumbnails are (not) square instead of preserving the normal aspect ratio	Gallery generates square thumbnails if the 'square thumbs' module is active. Deactivate this module in 'Site Admin' -> 'Plugins' ('Modules' until G2.2) to change this. To change existing thumbnails, you need to rebuild them. Go to 'Edit Album' -> 'Album' to rebuid existing thumbnails according to the new settings.
Error when trying to view images	What kind of error? See the below section about 'troubleshooting by error name'.
Images load very slowly	Apache mod_deflate / gzip not deactivated for binary files? Is the Server CPU, file I/O or bandwidth limited? See: Performance Tips
Larger images are distored / corrupted	Very rare issue. No details yet. We suspect webserver configuration issues / webserver bugs. Check via FTP whether the files in g2data/albums/ are correct. Helps to find out whether the files on the server are corrupted or if they get corrupted during the transfer to the browser.

Videos / Flash

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Download link instead of movie player	Did you set the dimensions of the video in 'Edit movie' -> 'Movie'? Gallery only shows an embedded movie player if the dimensions are set (to a value greater than 0). You can play the movie on your computer to find out its dimensions (movie players like VLC or Windows Media Player show the dimesions in the movie properties. Note: If the ffmpeg module is active, Gallery will detect and set the dimensions for all movies automatically (unless your ffmpeg binary can't handle a specific movie type).
No thumbnail for videos	Is the ffmpeg module active? Gallery can only generate thumbnails for movies with this module. Can your ffmpeg binary handle the specific movie type? In 'Site Admin' -> 'ffmpeg' you can click 'Test' to see what types of video it should handle correctly.
Cannot locate ffmpeg binary	Please see ffmpeg module for further information.
Movies are not playing	See FAQ: Movies are not playing, why?

Adding Items / Albums / Upload

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
I can't upload anything	To diagnose this problem you should use the 'Add items' -> 'From browser' method since it shows most debug information. In case PHP uploads are disabled completely on your webserver, there is a warning about that on the 'Add items' -> 'From browser' page. Also, this page shows the upload limits. What exactly do you see when you try to upload a file? Any errors? Verify that PHP's upload_tmp_dir is configured correctly. If you consult your webserver's error log, you might see 'PHP Warning: File upload error - unable to create a temporary file in Unknown on line 0'. In that case, upload_tmp_dir is either not defined or the webserver doesn't have access to write a file in that directory. Other errors / warnings might have the same cause.
I can't upload big files	See FAQ: Why can't I upload big files (e.g. over a megabyte or two)?
I get an ERROR_STORAGE_FAILURE after I click the upload button	See FAQ: I get ERROR_STORAGE_FAILURE when adding new photos or creating albums, what should I do?

Login

See FAQ: I can't login anymore, what can I do?

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Login fails with error / warning	Forgot password? (does email not work? Contact admin, admins can use login.txt instead and fix email or reset the user account) Do you have any special characters in your password? Prior to Gallery 2.1 this could lead to login problems under certain circumstances. Consider upgrading your Gallery. Does it say your user account is "disabled"? (since G2.2) Use the "Forgot Password" link on the login page to reactivate your account.
Login fails and just displays a normal Gallery page again	Often clearing the browser cookie cache helps. Check your web-browser settings and clear the cookies for your Gallery website. Sometimes, you are actually logged in but still see a page that looks like you are not logged in because your browser did not update its own cache. Please check your web-browser settings and clear the browser cache. Is your webserver IIS/5.0 or older and is your Gallery 2 version older than 2.0? We added a workaround for an IIS bug shortly before the official release of Gallery 2.0, you should upgrade your Gallery.

Toolkits / Module Activation

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
There are errors when trying to test the binaries (or when saving the configuration)	See: Installing an Image processing Library Does it report that it can't find files at the given path? See the note about the 'path' in the above linked article.
netpbm reports 'errno 13 (permission denied)' or ' Error reading magic number' when testing binaries	If you are sure that filesystem permissions are correct, please check Installation on a SELinux Server as well.
Windows / IIS specific: I cannot install any binaries	See Installing binaries on a MS Windows / IIS server
Windows specific: Warnings about 'unable to fork'	See FAQ: I get lot's of 'unable to fork' warnings, what should I do?

Themes

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Can't upload theme into themes/ folder	See FAQ: How can I upload a theme or module via FTP when I used the preinstaller?
Can't edit theme settings	Does it work for the 'matrix' theme but not for a 3rd party theme? Then it's probably a specific problem with the 3rd party theme and you should contact its author. Is JavaScript enabled in your browser? Does it show no theme blocks at all? Maybe your webserver is not configured properly and blocks JavaScript requests. Or it doesn't return the right content-type for JavaScript files. Please browse to http://www.example.com/gallery/lib/javascript/BlockSelectWidget.js (change the URL to match your Gallery location) and if the JavaScript code of the file displays correctly in your browser (or if you can safe the file on your computer), then it's working fine. If not, it is probably a 'mod_security' problem. See: Known Issues -> Apache mod_security. Your webhost should be notified about the problem such that they can fix the webserver configuration.
Nothing works anymore after changing theme	See FAQ: I have changed the default theme and nothing works anymore. How can I switch back?
Can't reach 'Site admin'	See FAQ: How can I change the default theme when I can't reach 'Site admin'?

Modules

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Can't upload module into modules/ folder	See FAQ: How can I upload a theme or module via FTP when I used the preinstaller?

Translation / Localization

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Changing language does not work	See FAQ: I changed the language but nothing happens, what's wrong?
"Wrong charset, cannot convert" or "Illegal character encoding" or "Illegal recode request"	See FAQ: Where I should see dates I see "Wrong charset, cannot convert" or "Illegal character encoding" or "Illegal recode request".. what is wrong?

Other

Symptom / Attempted Action	Solution
Blank / Empty Page	See FAQ: I get only a blank screen when trying to view my Gallery. What's wrong?
Error when editing an album / photo item	ERROR_OBSOLETE_DATA? -> Clearing the cache might help: FAQ: How can I clear cached data?
PHP memory_limit - Allowed memory size exhausted	FAQ: Why do I get the error 'Allowed memory size of Xxx bytes exhausted?
Performance - Page loads are slow	Is the Server CPU, file I/O or bandwidth limited? See: Performance Tips
Nothing happens when I click on a link / thumbnail	Probably due to a memory limit or a fatal webserver error. See: FAQ: get only a blank screen when trying to view my Gallery, what's wrong?
'Site admin' link does not work	Does the link point to '/admin/'? If so, then it's likely that your URL rewrite module doesn't work correctly. You should disable it. See: FAQ: Images don't show up and the album / photo links don't work, what can I do? Also check: FAQ: About blank screens (the notes about memory_limit and webserver error log are helpful here too)
'HTTP/1.1 503 Server too busy' with IIS / fastcgi (usually just for 'Site Admin')	This seems to be a bug in isapi_fcgi.dll (the initial fastcgi implementation). See the resolution of PHP bug #37448. We suggest you rather try mod_php (instead of fastcgi) or you can use Microsoft's IIS FastCGI component (a more recent FastCGI implementation) or use the Apache Webserver (usually easier to install, it's our recommended platform) instead.
No edit link / cannot edit album / item	In case you removed the 'Item Actions' block from your theme settings, Gallery should display a small "edit" link in most themes. You can add this link to your themes with {g->block type="core.EmergencyEditItemLink" class="gbBlock"} Else, verify that you're logged in with the admin user or any other user with sufficient permissions and consider clearing your browser's cache.
Some Error (don't know more)	Enable buffered debug mode to see the exact error name. See the below section about 'troubleshooting by error name'. Does the error occur when browsing to your Gallery on the front page or only when you browse to a specific page?