The most commonly encountered problems during upload (and how to address them) are:
- The PHP
upload_max_filesize
configuration parameter is set too low - On a lot of hosting this defaults to 2M which is generally too low these days. Either refer to your host support for details on how to increase this to a more reasonable value (8M is a good choice) or use the second FTP based upload method.
- Not enough disk space
- This can happen for any of the upload methods but will be more or less obvious depending on the method used. When using the preferred method, WordPress will usually indicate a problem with unzipping or with copying a file and will back out gracefully. When using the FTP upload it may just stop as if complete without indicating any problem which is why you need to check the FTP client upload logs. In either case, you need to make more space available by deleting any unwanted stuff or by increasing your disk quota.
- "Unable to create directory uploads"
- BackupBuddy itself doesn't play any part in the installation process itself. That is pretty much all WordPress core functionality. So the message would suggest that WordPress is having some issue with the site.
- Usually this is caused by the site's server running out of disk space. So please check with your host to make sure that you're not hitting any disk quota. If that doesn't help, please try manually installing BackupBuddy via FTP/SFTP or some similar host provided File Manager.
- "Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error"
- This usually happens if BackupBuddy was once previously installed on the site and now you are trying to install it again.
- If you have FTP/SFTP access or some similar host provided File Manager, please navigate to this site's `/wp-content/uploads/` directory. Once there, look for a `/pb_backupbuddy/` directory. Please delete that entire directory. It's okay to delete the entire directory as mainly temp files are stored there and once BackupBuddy is activated, it will recreate the directory and recreate the temp files as needed.
Note: You need to have enough disk space for your backups. Unless you only intend to make Database Only backups, you should take this opportunity to make sufficient space available to be able to make the backups you require. You need at least as much space as the size of your WordPress site to be able to make a full backup along with some headroom. Generally, you will want to give yourself much more than that to allow for multiple backups and an expanding site.