all import attempts return white screen (blank screen of death)

just read another post that mentioned it was sending to the wrong URL so i’ll add this: clicking the import button returns this page: https://mysite.com/blog/wp-admin/admin.php?step=1

just for kicks i took the advice from this post and manually changed the url to:
https://mysite.com/blog/wp-admin/import.php?import=movable-type-backup-importer&step=1

which returned a dashboard panel that simply said “are you sure you want to do this?” a start, i guess, but there was no actionable object on the page, just text.

update: on a whim i decided to export an existing wp blog and try to import that. it worked, so it must be something specifically related to the MT import (or export)

beuller?

i decided to try it with an older version of wordpress (since the plugins “have not been tested” with the newer versions) but now i have a whole new problem. wordpress 3 installed just fine but wordpress 2 keeps getting a 500 error at step 2 of the install process. i can’t even log in… can’t set a password and even setting it directly in the database doesn’t work. each time i try to log in, wordpress overwrites the password i’ve set in the database to some crazy long string of random numbers.

help!

anyone know how to fix this install problem? i feel like i’m talking to a wall here.

i’ve tried every solution i could find on the net and none worked. when i click the button to install, it gives an error 500 message. however, it DOES write the tables to the database, including user, email and all that jazz. it just doesn’t create a working password and no password change methods seem to work.

when i take the password WP wrote to the user account, it *still* says the password isn’t correct. once i got stuck in a loop where it would “accept” the password but return me to the login screen as though i hadn’t input anything at all.

i’m running out of ideas here.

This seems like the issue you are having:

Importing a Huge Number of Posts
If you don’t have administrative control of the server (root access), then Importing a Large Number of Posts has relevant links and help. This should be helpful if your import process dies before completing the import. The php installation on your webserver may have a low script timeout, or if the file is too large, your server may run out of memory. This is what’s happening when you see a blank, white page, during the import, or your browser says “Done” before WordPress says “Have Fun!” after the import.

If you do have root access to the server, edit php.ini and increase the maximum memory setting. For a large import (e.g. 5MB), increase the script memory to 100MBs and restart apache. When the import is complete, restore the limit to what it was originally and restart apache again.

I found this near the middle of this codex page.

Hope it helps. ??

this doesn’t apply. the file i’m uploading is under 500k and the php settings are already set to file size upload of 80MB with memory of 2000MB. i have a hard time believing it’s a memory or file size maximum problem.

unless i’m missing something?

Have you checked in the error logs on your server? They may shed some light.

Obviously an error is occurring, but for some reason isn’t displaying, but it’s more than likely still being output in an error log file somewhere. Try checking the php error log, and also the apache error log file.

i’m trying to get my hands on it. i know where it is on the server but due to the way it’s set up i can’t navigate to it and will have to rdp into the server itself… still trying to get the info to do that. not having that error log available to me is causing a lot of problems.

so… got into the php error log and all the file contained was this

{\rtf1}

riiiiiiiight. i rdp’d directly into our dedicated server and did an advanced find for any document with the word “error” in the file name and there wasn’t a single file modified since march.

i’m about to throw this stupid computer out the window.

There are always errors in there…you are sure its the correct file?

Also – don’t throw that computer out…you need to throw out the server! ??

well, when i run phpinfo that’s the file it says for the error log… i would *assume* it’s the correct file but given the circumstances no, i’m not sure

Is this your server or are you hosting? In other words – can you get help?

Is your server *nix or Windows? Running Apache or IIS?

It might be worth contacting your hosting provider for assistance with troubleshooting. They’ll be able to access everything more easily and are probably used to this sort of thing.

it’s windows server 2008 (not my choice!) and we have dedicated, self-managed hosting meaning no technical support outside of needing things to be physically done to the hardware.

i’m not all that familiar with IIS, being a linuz server junkie myself. is there an easy way to find the error log? obviously the file path denoted in phpinfo is incorrect.