Admin Panel the product description box is blank after upgrade to 1.5

Hello I up graded my site from 1.38 to 1.5.1 since the upgrade sales dropped dramatically to almost 0

In the back end Admin Panel the product description box is blank yet product descriptions show for the products on the main web site fine?

I cant change or edit any information in Admin Panel for Define Pages Editor or Ezy Pages all the description boxes are blank yet the information is showing on the main web site? Such as the front/main page, contact us etc?

Meta Tag descriptions in Admin blank some show and some don't?

When i place a description in for a product in Admin i get Capital A's all over the place?

I did previously have a Pay Pal issue that's why i upgraded the site to 1.5 but this was resolved by a new IP address.

My site has not functioned correctly since the upgrade to 1.5.1

Should i go back to the old version 1.38 or does any one have a solution please? Thank you

It sounds as though you have made errors in your merges during upgrade.
The A's you are seeing sound like utf-8 issues.

Carefully check all your merges, be sure to check any files in custom folders against the vanilla files from default folders.
Save any language files as utf-8, without BOM.
Don't change the reference to utf-8 in the 1.5.1 english.php
Run Dr Bytes MySQL-latin1-to-UTF8-Converter script, available from downloads i believe, that will update your db to utf8.

Or just: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?313-should-i-convert-my-store-from-iso-8859-1-to-utf8

Very true DrByte, although it should be pointed out, as we don't know the level of knowledge the OP has, that the utf-8/iso-8859-1 point won't be the cause of a bunch of blank boxes in admin. Of course, if sensei knows better, i will stand corrected :)

Hello

OK so i feel it will be best to re install the old back up i have of 1.3 i have because i have no idea what any of this means.

Is this possible just to go back to the old version that was working really well? and how would i do this? :bow:

Web master tools also says Googlebot can't access your site so i guess this is why no sales for me?

I don't know what my SEO company is getting paid to do if they don't already know this!

OK so i feel it will be best to re install the old back up i have of 1.3 i have because i have no idea what any of this means.

Is this possible just to go back to the old version that was working really well? and how would i do this?

Can i re install the old back up i have of 1.3 i have because i have no idea what any of this means.

Is this possible just to go back to the old version that was working really well? and how would i do this?

First of all, the 1.3.8a that you came from is known to have several vulnerabilities. Going back to that is not recommended.

Secondly, while it seems that there's no light at the end of the tunnel other than a train, these things are often fixed more simply than one might think. I for one would like to know more about your installation. Answering some of the posting tips could help. What mods are installed on this cart? Are you in the root or a subdirectory? Have your SEO "experts" done any link rewriting?

Thirdly, what part of editing the files are you having problems with? Finding them or editing them?

Lastly, have you also looked in your log files for any clues? https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=82

Balloonalicious:

OK so i feel it will be best to re install the old back up i have of 1.3 i have because i have no idea what any of this means.

Is this possible just to go back to the old version that was working really well? and how would i do this? :bow:

Please don't do this. You will regret it.

The problem you describe isn't particularly unusual, and generally quite easy to fix.

1. Edit your upgraded english.php file to use the old CHARSET and setlocale settings (SEE YOUR OLD english.php FILE CONTENTS).
   That is, KEEP the old references to iso-8859-1 INSTEAD of utf-8.
   ... AND ...
2. Also edit your two configure.php files to set DB_CHARSET to 'latin1' instead of 'utf8'
   (add the line if it doesn't exist):
   define('DB_CHARSET', 'latin1');

If you try anything else before trying these 2 steps (3 files to check/edit) you are doing yourself (and us) a great disservice.

Don't worry if you don't have any idea what it all means. Just check/ensure that these files have the text 'iso-8859-1' & 'latin1' and that there are no references for 'utf8'.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

Please don't do this. You will regret it.

The problem you describe isn't particularly unusual, and generally quite easy to fix.

2. Edit your upgraded english.php file to use the old CHARSET and setlocale settings (SEE YOUR OLD english.php FILE CONTENTS).

That is, KEEP the old references to iso-8859-1 INSTEAD of utf-8.
... AND ...

3. Also edit your two configure.php files to set DB_CHARSET to 'latin1' instead of 'utf8'

(add the line if it doesn't exist):
define('DB_CHARSET', 'latin1');

If you try anything else before trying these 2 steps (3 files to check/edit) you are doing yourself (and us) a great disservice.

Don't worry if you don't have any idea what it all means. Just check/ensure that these files have the text 'iso-8859-1' & 'latin1' and that there are no references for 'utf8'.

Cheers
Rod
Like Rod said, but make sure that for item#1 you make sure that the setlocale setting changes are made to /includes/languages/english.php, in addition to your template-override version!

Hello OK i will try and find a zen tech guy to take a look today. Thanks

None of what has been suggested worked my son tried over the weekend this did not fix the problem and i cant find some one to help me they all want to much money up front so i am at a loss

I have over 1000 pages in 403 error - Google cant access my site - and define pages information such as shipping, main page etc in my admin is all missing all this happened after the upgrade!

Can i reinstall my old version from previous back up? this is 6 yrs of work down the drain and loss of income?

Please can any one suggest anything?

Hello yes have read the posting tips and tried to look at some things but i have no idea how to do any of the file stuff' My son is up with a lot of things but says he cant find the problem and why the site is failing. I have tried to find some one who works on zen carts but they want to much money to take a look and help me.

I have over 1000 pages in 403 error - Google cant access my site - and define pages information such as shipping, main page etc in my admin is all missing all this happened after the upgrade!

I have no idea what the SEO are doing they didn't even know Google was not accessing my site!

I have shut them out and stopped paying them since the upgrade months ago i have made no sales!

Any suggestions?

Hi Guys, I'm trying to do this as i'm missing descriptions for products in the admin backend, I've done as much as I can understand based on the instructions but I cannot get the descriptions back.

My english.php has @setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US'); (as does my template override version)
should this be set to something else to revert back to ISO8859-1? I'm pretty sure my server is linux based. I'm also trying to fix this at work but all my backups of previous version are on my home pc so I can't check the files.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks

Still no luck getting my descriptions back in the admin area, they show fine on the shop page but I cannot edit any of my products :(

Here's what I've got...

includes\languages\english.php

@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
  define('CHARSET', 'iso-8859-1');

(these lines are identical in my template override version of the file.)

in includes\configure.php I had to add the line as it didn't exist, ditto for [admin]\includes\configure.php

define('DB_CHARSET', 'latin1');

I cannot find any references to UTF8 in any of those files.

Thanks

Yay fixed. I did not realise there was also an english.php file for the admin backend :)

So to clarify for anyone else having the same issue, here's what you need to do.

\includes\languages\english.php
\includes\languages[your_template]\english.php

@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
define('CHARSET', 'iso-8859-1');

[admin]\includes\languages\english.php

setlocale(LC_TIME, 'en_US.ISO_8859-1');
define('CHARSET', 'latin1');

\includes\configure.php
[admin]\includes\configure.php

define('DB_CHARSET', 'latin1');

I have also upgraded to 1.5.1 and have found the product descriptions missing. I didn't really do any merging of files prior to the upgrade because I didn't make any modifications to 1.3.9, but perhaps I should have been more careful about that step? Is there anything in particular that I should be looking for that could have caused the descriptions to not be read during the upgrade? I also had the character problem, but I seem to have been able to resolve that following the many suggestions in these posts. Grateful appreciation to all for each of your input.