ManageWP not able to backup and suspects their IP’s are being blocked

I have a hunch that this may be related to the recent Mod Security issues that we are seeing worldwide. What appears to have happened is that new Mod Security SecRules and/or SecFilters were created and distributed to web hosts worldwide. See this forum topic for more information: https://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/mod-security-common-known-problems/.

To confirm or eliminate that BPS is causing the problem do the BPS Troubleshooting steps here: https://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/read-me-first-free/#bps-free-general-troubleshooting

We have not confirmed this, but this is a possible logical theory about what is going on with Mod Security recently. cPanel added Mod Security as a new feature back around January 2017. So what we suspect is happening is that as web hosts worldwide upgrade cPanel to the new cPanel version that includes the Mod Security feature then the Mod Security SecRules and/or SecFilters that have been created by default by cPanel for Mod Security are causing various problems for BPS, other plugins, etc.

I think you may be onto something. We just completely removed BPS from one of our accounts to test this and ManageWP was still not able to complete the backup. Thank you VERY much for pointing me in what I am hoping is the right direction (early signs would suggest so).

You actually do not need to deactivate or delete the BPS plugin to do troubleshooting since all BPS features have On/Off troubleshooting capability. Did you also manually delete the BPS root and wp-admin htaccess files when you did the “complete removal” of BPS? Instead of manually deleting the BPS root and wp-admin htaccess files you can click the BPS Root and wp-admin Deactivate buttons to turn BulletProof Modes “off”.

We did a full uninstall using the uninstall option provided by your plugin. We checked the .htaccess file after and it was void of any of the BPS code. We tested on a site that has very little traffic, so wanted to completely remove it for purposes of troubleshooting.

Ok yep that will work too. If you have the newer cPanel version that has the new Mod Security feature in it then it should have a Disable/Enable button so that you can see if Mod Security is causing the block. Some web hosts allow you to enable and disable individual Mod Security rules and other hosts just have the Disable/Enable button. Other possibilities could be that your host is blocking ManageWP in their server firewall, you have added some code in your wp-config.php file that blocks API connections, you are using the open_basedir php.ini directive setting and need to “fix” the path settings in your open_basedir php.ini directive settings.

Again, thank you for your feedback. You went above and beyond on this one!!

Sure no problem. Post the cause and solution when you get this figured out. Thanks.

Hey, Guys! Just a quick follow up to put a bow on this thread. Turns out we had about 35 sites running through the SiteLock CDN that is provided for free on GoDaddy dedicated servers. We stopped using that service some time ago due to some crazy caching issues we had experienced and forgot we had some older ones still routing there.

Looks like they must have made some sort of change to their firewall that was blocking ManageWP from accessing whatever it needed to do remote backup. Rerouted the sites and backup took off again as it should.

Bottom line….nothing to do with BPS.

I REALLY appreciate your input during the troubleshooting we went through to track this down. Thank you again for your help.

Great! Glad you got it figured out. ??