Need help! "Add to cart" broken suddenly!

Hi,

Apparently, effective Saturday 1/24, around 2:15pm, something broke on my website, and customers can no longer add anything to a cart.

I received an email from a customer trying to buy something this morning, and when I checked myself, I cannot add anything to a cart, either.

I get NO error messages, it just goes immediately back to my home page. I've removed my 400 and 404.shtml files, to see errors, but no change.

Anyone have a suggestion what to do to find the problem, quickly? <g>

I've emailed my hosting company, to see if they changed anything over the weekend... have not heard back yet.

I have the site down for maintenance right now.

Thanks

Has your host upgraded PHP or MySQL ?

I don't know if they have, but I have an email into them to find out... have not heard back yet. That was one of my first thoughts, too, since I have done nothing since early January.

fairestcape:

Has your host upgraded PHP or MySQL ?

If nothing is going into the cart, then you should also check whether customers can log in to their account. If not, then your server has a "sessions" problem, which your hosting company will likely have to fix.

Hi DrByte,

No, I can log into the site fine, as myself, or using my admin override password as any user with an order or account.

Would that mean that sessions is not a problem?

The host says nothing's changed on their end recently.

DrByte:

If nothing is going into the cart, then you should also check whether customers can log in to their account. If not, then your server has a "sessions" problem, which your hosting company will likely have to fix.

I recommend comparing your existing site files against a good backup from a time when you were not having these problems, to see whether something's made its way onto your server unexpectedly.
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Troubleshoot_-_Diagnosing_Obscure_Issues

I'm comparing right now, but so far, none of the PHP files are different. I'm now re-doing the compare with ALL files.

I think it's a hosting problem, frankly... but can't fix that either, because it's not my server.

Could a database problem cause this?

DrByte:

I recommend comparing your existing site files against a good backup from a time when you were not having these problems, to see whether something's made its way onto your server unexpectedly.
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Troubleshoot_-_Diagnosing_Obscure_Issues

PHP files are all the same.

I have also turned off all of my SEO URL settings, so that is not the problem (although they've been working fine for a year, also)... I was hoping that maybe I'd get some other messages to diagnose this, but no help.

You said you can login fine. Does it "keep" you logged in if you try going to the my-account area and review previous orders, etc?

Are the server drives full?

Does your Admin->Configuration->Sessions->Session Directory point to your cache folder? Is the actual path shown truly correct? And is that folder writable? ie: 777 permissions?

I installed the Debug Error Logging Utility, and I get nothing in my Cache folder when I try to add something to my cart. No help there either, unfortunately.

rcrosier:

I installed the Debug Error Logging Utility, and I get nothing in my Cache folder when I try to add something to my cart. No help there either, unfortunately.

I'm not surprised ... since you're not getting errors or blank pages.

Yes, I can see previous orders, I stay logged in.

I have 700MB disk space available, and only 505 used.

Yes the Cache directory is there, and correct, best I can tell from my cpanel file management.

777, yes. There are four files in my cache directory. They are:
.htaccess
index.php
zc_d6616cb5f4c2cb55d422ea67feb723b0.sql and
zc_e830bfcec88106453506f54ff42fc580.sql

Should these be there, or should it be empty?

DrByte:

You said you can login fine. Does it "keep" you logged in if you try going to the my-account area and review previous orders, etc?

Are the server drives full?

Does your Admin->Configuration->Sessions->Session Directory point to your cache folder? Is the actual path shown truly correct? And is that folder writable? ie: 777 permissions?

Those look fine.

What's in your "sessions" table in your database? Are there any records, or is it blank? (ie: use phpMyAdmin to browse it)
What happens if you do a "repair" on that same table, also using phpMyAdmin. Does the add-to-cart work properly again?

Is this only happening to you? or to others as well? What other browsers have you tested with? What happens when you test from another computer?
Without seeing your site it's hard to help with specifics.

There are about 8 records in my sessions table. I did a "repair" on that, and my customers_basket & customers_basket_attributes tables, no changes at all. Still broken.

Happens to me, AND to customers... that's how I found out originally... a customer emailed me to say they could not "add" to my cart.

I've tried Firefox, IE 7and Chrome, all of which used to work fine.

I've tried it on multiple computers here, and my ISP has tried it, and we all get the same result. No Cart items can be added.

I PM'd you, DrByte, earlier today... did you get that? If you reply to that with your IP address, I'll enable you in the "Down for Maint" IP list, so you can see it happen from your end, if you want to.

Thanks!

DrByte:

Those look fine.

What's in your "sessions" table in your database? Are there any records, or is it blank? (ie: use phpMyAdmin to browse it)
What happens if you do a "repair" on that same table, also using phpMyAdmin. Does the add-to-cart work properly again?

Is this only happening to you? or to others as well? What other browsers have you tested with? What happens when you test from another computer?
Without seeing your site it's hard to help with specifics.

What addons are installed on your site? and in what other ways is your site different from a brand new untouched install?

Quite a few... but nothing has been added or changed since a year ago. I've added in (that I can think of):

Better Together
Sales Report 2.0
Google Analytics
Ty Package Tracker
Super Orders
Batch Status Update
Batch Print
SuperTracker
Google Froogle Feeder
A custom mod by Ajeh over a year ago, for wholesale custs.

Probably others I cannot think of, as it's been a LONG time since I did any changes. And it's worked flawlessly since a year ago, pretty much.

DrByte:

What addons are installed on your site? and in what other ways is your site different from a brand new untouched install?

Doing more investigation this morning, it appears that I cannot add anything in my ADMIN section either.

I tried adding an admin user, and a Manufacturer, and BOTH screens send me directly to my Home Page, which is where my 400.shtml and 404.shtml redirects are supposed to do.

It's like it's not finding the PHP code or pages...???

Sure seems like a hosting problem or change to me.

rcrosier:

Sure seems like a hosting problem or change to me.Yes, that's what it smells like.

Ask your host if they changed or updated ANY of their mod_security rules lately ... either by hand or by any automated scripts.

Thanks to DrByte and AJEH for helping me to fix this problem.
It appears that it was a setting in my .HTACCESS file

I don't know (yet) how it got changed, as I don't think I changed anything myself, and have done no changes for many months, so maybe the hosting company did. I'm checking to find out.

I appreciate the help GREATLY!

DrByte:

Yes, that's what it smells like.

Ask your host if they changed or updated ANY of their mod_security rules lately ... either by hand or by any automated scripts.