Yes, exporting in the browser is subject to limits defined in the hosting. In your case, the data to be exported is probably above these limits. However, a host will not simply increase such limits, because they exist for a reason. Among other things, they help to protect the hosting against attacks.
Downloading and deleting the images will not change anything either – on the contrary, you will destroy your project. The export mentioned only downloads text data, not files. This is the next challenge for you: if the export worked, it would not contain any images, only their URLs and file names. Normally, you would then import this file into a new installation where the importer uses these URLs to download and import the files.
I would therefore generally question why you want to do this in the first place. Please describe the problems in more detail:
Since then there are loads of things that are odd on the back end whilst editing, bits of plugin functionality missing even after removing and reinstalling, etc. etc.
Thank you for your response.
Here are some of the problems I have encountered:
1. Rank Math SEO – Social images won’t display when shared to Facebook; just a blank placeholder.
2. Events Manager – Conditional Placeholders – some work some don’t – all worked perfectly before.
3. Gutenberg blocks no longer work – just the classic editor.
4. Several custom scripts (in Code Snippets) will occasionally not function – wasn’t a problem before.
I ran a Site Health check and it identified a problem with my DB. The new install of WP 7 had updated my DB to MySQL v10. On restoring from UpDraft it had over written with the old DB MySQL v5 or v6 (can’t remember). So I created a new v10 with my host, exported the old and imported it into the new, and updated the config to point to the new hoping this would solve the issues. It didn’t.
I’ve done various troubleshooting to see if a plugin is causing the problem but even in safe mode the problems persist.
Mid July I have 7 weeks between events so plenty of time to take my site offline to rectify.
When you say the export only downloads text data and not files, I assume this text data will also contain the structure of the posts, links etc? So therefore the 11Gb shouldn’t be the problem then as it’d be ignoring the actual image files?
I don’t see any commonality in the problems described that would lead me to say that there is a single reason for all of them. I would rather say that you need to examine and solve each one individually.
I took a look to see if I could understand any of it from the outside. For example, an OpenGraph image is stored in a blog post via Rank Math SEO. The path to it is also stored, but when you call up the path, you get the message “Forbidden.” I simply called up some of the media data directly—the same message appears everywhere when you try to call up an image directly. If it is embedded (like the background image in the header), then you can see it. To me, this indicates a problem with the hosting or a setting in a security plugin. Direct access is probably being prevented, which is why the Open Graph images are not visible on social media either. Do you have a security plugin? If so, try deactivating it as a test. If not, you should check on the server side to see if something has been set up there. This is often set up to prevent “hotlinking” – i.e. the integration of files into external websites.
What exactly happens with the block editor? Does an error message appear when loading? This could also be caused by a strange server setting, as numerous scripts are loaded here.
By the way, I don’t know what you mean by “WP 7.” The latest version of WordPress is 6.8.1, and that’s what you have installed. If you are referring to some other software, please name it in full so that we can follow you here.
I also don’t know what kind of safe mode you mean. WordPress doesn’t have anything like that. I only know the term from the page builder Elementor, and you don’t have that.
I would still recommend that you forget about the idea of setting up again via export/import. You obviously need to solve something on the hosting itself to fix the actual problem.
If you need personal support with all of this, you can find it here: https://jobs.wordpress.net/
Again thanks @threadi, I was looking for solutions in the wrong place.
WP7 – sorry my confusion, knew there was a 7 in there somewhere – upgrade from 6.7-6.8.
Safe Mode – WP tools >health check >troubleshooting.
So I delved deeper, used one of my other domain names to set up a clean install of WP. Added just Rank Math and Events Manager.
Still WP tools >export – Forbidden message
og.images won’t display, and get the Forbidden message if using the url in the browser, further digging and if I assigned that image to a post then viewed post, viewed image in new tab, copied that images url into a new browser tab and viewed it would display (a -1024×538 suffix was added), then copied the og.image into a browser tab again (without the suffix) this would now display. Results varied across browsers though.
So looks like a server end thingamajig – I have passed this on to my host’s support so hopefully will get a response soon.
Further investigation on main site into Gutenberg showed it was only not working the in the event post editing. The WP update had overwritten the config which included a command to use Gutenberg for Events Manager; this hadn’t happened before so I was looking in other areas for the fix.
The WP update had overwritten the config which included a command to use Gutenberg for Events Manager
Where was this “command” stored? Any customizations should never be stored in WordPress Core or in plugins or themes that you did not write yourself. However, there are many alternative ways (code snippet plugin, your own plugin, child theme, etc.) where customizations are not overwritten by updates.
But yes, to me it all sounds like a server-side problem, as I suspected at the beginning. I’m curious to hear what the host has to say about it.
