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On this page you can find the most common problems and errors and information how to troubleshoot and hopefully fix them. Some information provided here is for advanced users so if you have problems following any of the tips on this page please head to the forums and post your problems there after reading the next paragraph "Getting help on the Gallery forums"
If you are stuck with a problem or you don't exactly understand the troubleshooting provided on this page you can head to the forums to get some more help. If you do please follow these rules:
| Search before you post | It is likely that someone else has had the same problem before you and you will find the solution by just looking for it |
| Make sure you are using the latest version | Check if there is a newer version of Gallery 3, any modules you are using and your current theme available. Especially if you see display problems (misaligned icons etc.) your theme might need updating. If there is please upgrade your installation by following the instructions provided here (Gallery 3), here (modules) and here (themes). It might be that the issue you are experiencing has already been fixed in the updated version. |
| Provide as many details as possible | To make it easier for others to help you with you problem please be as precise as possible. A good problem description should include:
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| Be polite | Gallery 3 and it's modules and themes are developed by a community of enthusiasts who are not getting paid for the hard work they put into developing, maintaining and supporting this great piece of software that you can use for free and for whatever purpose you want. Please keep this in mind when something breaks your Gallery 3 installation. |
| Be patient | The developers and community members have day time jobs, families, hobbies etc. For this reason it might take some time before you get a response. Please be a bit patient if no one has time to answer straight away. For most of the developers and community members |
There is a Fix your Gallery task on the Admin -> Maintenance page that might fix some common issues, like the breadcrumb not looking right.
There is some good information on the FAQ page that you should look though as well.
Gallery 3 is setup to not display errors / error details by default to avoid confidential information being revealed to non-admins. It will however save error information in log files. The log files are located in "/var/logs" and are a great help to troubleshoot problems with your installation. Therefore if you cannot figure out the solution to your problem by yourself and need help from the forums please do the following:
There are a few things that can go wrong during the installation of Gallery 3. The following are the most common errors:
| Cause | Gallery 3 needs a place to store your photos, videos, thumbnails etc. This folder has to be writable by PHP scripts and must be called "var". It has to be created in the folder of your Gallery 3 installation (the folder with "index.php" in it). |
| How to solve this | Create a folder called "var" in the folder of your Gallery 3 installation (using your FTP client or if you have SSH access by typing "mkdir var" without the quotes) and give it enough permissions so that it is writable (if you are unsure just set the permissions to 777 using your FTP client or if you have SSH access by typing "chmod 777 var" without the quotes which should work for 99% of all webservers). Unfortunately setting the right permissions varies from hoster to hoster so if this fails for you then please contact your web hoster and ask for detailed instruction how to get this folder writable for PHP scripts. |
| Cause | Gallery 3 needs a MySQL database to store information on photos, users etc. This error indicates that you have entered either a wrong server name/IP address, user name or password for the database. |
| How to solve this | Make sure to enter the correct login details for the database you have created for your Gallery 3 installation. If you have problems please have a look at the documentation of your webhoster on how to create and use MySQL databases. Please note that the user name and password you have to enter on the installer are those of the database not the ones you want to login to your Gallery 3 installation (the latter will be created automatically by the installer). |
| Cause | Gallery 3 needs a MySQL database to store information on photos, users etc. This error indicates that you have entered either a wrong server name/IP address, user name or password for the database. |
| How to solve this | Make sure to enter the correct login details and server name / IP address for the database you have created for your Gallery 3 installation. If you have problems please have a look at the documentation of your webhoster on how to create and use MySQL databases. Please note that the user name and password you have to enter on the installer are those of the database not the ones you want to login to your Gallery 3 installation (the latter will be created automatically by the installer). |
| Cause | The database you have specified on the installation screen is used or has been used by a different Gallery 3 installation. |
| How to solve this | This error may result from different scenarios and solution depends on that. Here are the most common:
You are trying to do a fresh installation of Gallery 3
You are trying to install a second Gallery 3 on your webserver
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| Cause | Most themes do not include the admin area so after you apply a new theme it will not change. You might also be using and outdated version of either Gallery 3 or the theme you are trying to apply or you are trying to use a theme for Gallery 2. |
| How to solve this |
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| Previous chapter: Uploading photos and videos | Back to the user guide main page | Next chapter: Embedding Gallery 3 in Drupal |
