What to do if something goes wrong

If you faced difficulties, we are really sorry but we will do our best to help you overcome them. This document describes how you can treat the problem before we get to fix it.

Sometimes some things can go wrong and the website can break or become unavailable or some error messages can appear. Unfortunately, it happens. The reason could be:

  1. Installation or update of an add-on
  2. Installation of third-party add-ons
  3. CS-Cart upgrade
  4. Changes in the code and file configuration
  5. Hidden issues in the add-ons that can be reproduced with specific settings of the store and add-ons.

If this happens, keep calm and don’t panic. Here we will tell how to bring your store back to normal performance, how to locate and isolate the problem before our support team fixes it. If you follow our instructions, you will keep the store functioning and give us time to help you.

Here is what you should do if there is a problem

  • Clear cache
  • Find the problematic add-on and disable it
  • Remove the add-on and reinstall it
  • If all of the above doesn’t help, restore the website from backup.

How to clear cache

It doesn’t take much time and can help in different cases. Check out the instructions: https://docs.cs-cart.com/4.3.x/developer_guide/getting_started/cache_clearing.html#clearing-cache-in-a-browser

How to disable the add-on

You probably remember the add-ons you have installed recently. If not, you can disable the add-ons one by one to find the add-on that causes the issue. The add-on can be disabled in several ways.

If the admin panel is accessible

Do this:

  1. Log in to the admin panel, go to Add-ons > Manage Add-ons or go to URL http://website.com/admin.php?dispatch=addons.manage.
  2. Find the necessary add-on in the list.
  3. Click “Deactivate”.
  4. Clear cache here: Administration > Storage > Clear Cache. Or follow these instructions: https://docs.cs-cart.com/4.3.x/developer_guide/getting_started/cache_clearing.html#clearing-cache-in-a-browser.
  5. You can also clear cache by deleting or renaming the var/cache directory.

If the admin panel is not accessible

You can disable the add-on with PHPMyAdmin.

  1. Log in to the control panel of your server.
  2. Go to PHPMyAdmin.
  3. Find the “cscart_addons” table.
  4. Find the line related to the necessary add-on in this table.
  5. Click “Edit”.
  6. Change the status from A to D.

Can’t disable the add-on yourself?

Please submit a ticket for our support team here https://www.simtechdev.com/login.html

How to remove and reinstall the add-on

Sometimes after the update of the add-on the files of the old version may still be on the server, or not all the necessary files may be transferred to your server when installing the add-on due to the permission settings. And this may cause issues. If the steps mentioned above don’t help, you can do this:

  1. Open the file editor on your server, find the files related to the necessary add-on and delete them.
  2. Install the add-on anew manually.

How to restore the website from backup

Do you back up your store? If you do, contact your hosting company for help with restoring. Also, we strongly recommend to back up the store before making any changes to be able to restore it if anything goes wrong.

P.S. Your hosting company doesn’t do backups? Then why are you still with it? Looks like it’s high time to change hosting and we know a good one. Check out https://www.simtechdev.com/services/amazon-cloud-hosting.html, we believe it’s the best hosting for CS-Cart.

“I haven’t found a solution here, what should I do?”

Contact our support team. You can go to https://www.simtechdev.com/ and click “Get a free quote”, or log in to our Help Desk system at https://www.simtechdev.com/login.html and submit a new ticket there, or send an email to sales@simtechdev.com. Before doing it, we highly recommend to check out these articles, they will help resolve the problems quicker:

  1. How to make your support ticket effective https://www.simtechdev.com/docs/info/how_to_create_a_perfect_ticket/index.html
  2. How the support service is rendered https://www.simtechdev.com/docs/#about-our-support

Places to seek help: