Help diagnosing extremly slow loading site...

[DrByte]

If the server is slow, especially with high parse times, then get your hosting company involved to fix the server.
A sudden increase in parse times is a server issue, not a PHP issue.

[toomanyknots]

So should I call my hosting company (ipage, yes I know, famously bad hosting company..) ?

[toomanyknots]

I am on hold with my ipage CS right now waiting to speak with a tech. So if I want to attempt to redo my entire site, but I want to import my current products and categories, how should I go about it?

[DrByte]

So if I want to attempt to redo my entire site, but I want to import my current products and categories, how should I go about it?

Make a backup:
a) all the PHP files
b) and your MySQL database

See: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?144-how-can-i-do-a-site-backup

[toomanyknots]

Make a backup:
a) all the PHP files
b) and your MySQL database

See: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?144-how-can-i-do-a-site-backup

Thank you!

[HappyMom]

My site was good for several years and all of the sudden it got very very very slow. I looked everywhere in this forum but did not find anything to resolve my issue. Well, I resolve the issue and just wanted to posted here how i was able to troubleshoot it in case someone else has the same problem.

These are the symptoms:
store is very very very slow, but other portion of the website: forum, gallery, blog, FAQ were OK/fast/normal
Nothing was change on the code when the site displayed the slowness

It turned out to be that a third party java script (external to my site) that was required for one of the plugins that I had installed months ago, stop working.
The plug in was added to the header, so every time any page was loaded, it keep on waiting for the java script to complete, but it will never complete. So the rest of the page loading was on hold until it resolved to a failure.

To find the bad plugin:
use Chrome to open your site.
On the Chrome browser, select "More Tools" -> "Developer Tools"
On the Developer Tools Window, click on "Network"
Click on something on your web page.
The bad plugin will show in Red and as a failure.
Use your Zen Cart Admin: "Admin->Tools->Developers Took Kit-> Under Look up all files: enter the name of the plug in . Select "All Files Look up". Then click on Search.

This will show you where exactly the dead plugin is on your store. I just removed it and the site went back to its normal loading speed.