Title: error retrieving the JSON data ; parsererror Last modified: August 21, 2016 --- # error retrieving the JSON data ; parsererror * Resolved [Damiaan van Vliet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/damnsharp/) * (@damnsharp) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/) * Hi support, I have used XCloner now a few times and works great. But now on another website (and another provider) I have a problem when the actually back- up starts. Error: There was an error retrieving the JSON data from the server Details: parsererror — SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character JSON url: admin-ajax.php?action=json_return&option=com_cloner&lines=3810&task=refresh&backup =backup_2014-03-13_06-39_websitename.nl-sql-nodrop.tar&excl_manual= * Do you have any idea where to look or what the problem is? Thanks for this nice plug-in. * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/xcloner-backup-and-restore/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/xcloner-backup-and-restore/) Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total) * [XCloner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xcloner/) * (@xcloner) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4703944) * Could be a timeout, did you try clicking the retry link? Otherwise, try and exclude some of the larger folders and see if it helps! * Ovidiu * Thread Starter [Damiaan van Vliet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/damnsharp/) * (@damnsharp) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4703980) * Thank you for the quick reply Ovidiu! I will try the retry link and also try to exclude folders. And than I try later manually copy/paste the folders. I will respond later what happened. * Thread Starter [Damiaan van Vliet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/damnsharp/) * (@damnsharp) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4703996) * Hi Ovidiu, I tried retry link but same message. Also tried to exclude different directories (for test wp-content or wp-includes) and I tried to exclude different tables (like nextgen or others) but still same error. So now I don’t know what to do. * Could there be a problem at the hosting provider site? * And the message “unexpected character” I think it has to do with indeed a strange character? * Thank you. * [XCloner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xcloner/) * (@xcloner) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704010) * Feel free to contact me here [http://www.xcloner.com/contact/](http://www.xcloner.com/contact/) and send me the site admin details to have a look * Ovidiu * Thread Starter [Damiaan van Vliet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/damnsharp/) * (@damnsharp) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704097) * Thanks very much for your help Ovidiu! With your help it solved the problem and it works perfect 🙂 * [XCloner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xcloner/) * (@xcloner) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704098) * For others seeing this, the issue was caused by the “WordPress Database Backup” plugin which was throwing an error for some reason. * [Bill Kochman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordweaver777/) * (@wordweaver777) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704101) * Ovidiu, you wrote: * “For others seeing this, the issue was caused by the “WordPress Database Backup” plugin which was throwing an error for some reason.” * That’s nice, but the rest of us don’t know what was said between you and Damiaan, or how the problem with the plugin was resolved. * Would you please explain more clearly what had to be done? * Thanks! * Thread Starter [Damiaan van Vliet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/damnsharp/) * (@damnsharp) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704102) * Hi [@wordweaver777](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordweaver777/). For what I know, deactivate and remove the WP-DB-backup plug-in solved the error. * [Bill Kochman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordweaver777/) * (@wordweaver777) * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704103) * Thanks Damiaan, but that does not appear to be my problem. I just checked my plug-ins page, and I do not have that particular plug-in installed. * As I told Ovidiu, I can perform a manual backup. * My problem is that for some reason, my automatic backups have stopped working. * I am sure that it has something to do with my settings on the cron tab in XCloner. I set that up so long ago that I don’t even remember how I did it now. * When I click on the “execute cron” link on the cron tab, I get this error: * To run this script you need to create a custom config file inside XCloner Config, and call the script using php cli command like this: * php /Applications/MySite/Blog/wp-content/plugins/xcloner-backup-and-restore/cloner. cron.php mycustomconfig.php * I am clueless regarding how to create a custom config file, as well as how to call the script using the php command line interface. * As I said, I am sure I set up properly years ago, but I don’t remember how I did it. * So for now, I guess I am stuck with remembering to do occasional manual backups. * [oranblackwell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/oranblackwell/) * (@oranblackwell) * [12 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704117) * Thank you Ovidiu. * Disabling wp-db-backup instantly resolved the issue. * [andreaplanet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andreaplanet/) * (@andreaplanet) * [12 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704118) * Same here. Disabling/Uninstalling wp-db-backup resolved the issue. Thank you Ovidiu. * [sficht](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sficht/) * (@sficht) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704144) * Hi, it seems I have the same problem: I keep getting an error message * JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data * JSON url: admin-ajax.php?action=json_return&option=com_cloner&task=refresh&json =1&startf=8500&lines=9821&backup=backup_2014-09-20_10-35_sitename.de-sql-nodrop. tar&excl_manual= * I do not have the WP DB Backup plugin so I cannot deactivate it. Any other idea that could help me? (The plugin used to work fine for quite a while. I can’t determine the point when the error came up though.) * Thread Starter [Damiaan van Vliet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/damnsharp/) * (@damnsharp) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704145) * [@sficht](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sficht/), strange but on another website I got same error when I was using Firefox (my favorite browser) but using Chrome it did not! In that specific case wp-db-backup was not the culprit. Maybe this can help you? * [sficht](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sficht/) * (@sficht) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704146) * Hi Damiaan, thank you for the hint. I am indeed using Firefox, so I tried IE instead and got very similar error message: * Details: parsererror — SyntaxError: Invalid character * JSON url: admin-ajax.php?action=json_return&option=com_cloner&task=refresh&json =1&startf=8700&lines=10007&backup=backup_2014-09-22_04-25_sitename.de-sql-nodrop. tar&excl_manual= * Will try Chrome later on but I don’t think that the browser is the reason in my case. Thank you anyway! * Thread Starter [Damiaan van Vliet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/damnsharp/) * (@damnsharp) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704147) * Hi [@sficht](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sficht/), I find it also strange the browser would be the issue. Maybe I had luck that the second time the import worked and I connected it in my head due to a different browser 😉 But try, you never know. * Did you also try to disable some plug-ins if that would be the cause? Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total) The topic ‘error retrieving the JSON data ; parsererror’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/xcloner-backup-and-restore/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=2766426) * [Backup, Restore and Migrate your sites with XCloner](https://wordpress.org/plugins/xcloner-backup-and-restore/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/xcloner-backup-and-restore/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/xcloner-backup-and-restore/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/xcloner-backup-and-restore/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/xcloner-backup-and-restore/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/xcloner-backup-and-restore/reviews/) ## Tags * [json](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/json/) * [Unexpected](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/unexpected/) * [xcloner](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/xcloner/) * 15 replies * 6 participants * Last reply from: [Damiaan van Vliet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/damnsharp/) * Last activity: [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/error-retrieving-the-json-data-parsererror/#post-4704147) * Status: resolved