invalid_file_header_multipart trying to backup to update Topic is solved

[eMT]

Hello! I'm in need of help

Our site is currently running with Joomla! 3.9.21, which is fairly outdated from what I'm gathering. I am trying to update it. I believe I read I should update to 3.10.-- before jumping to J!4. Regardless of that, I cannot seem to get my backup files extracted onto a localhost for any amount of updating. (Of course, PHP is outdated at 7.4.33 and Akeeba backup component was outdated as well)

The steps I have taken so far:
Downloaded and installed WAMPserver (all C++ are verified in place), performed Akeeba backup (with an old version of Akeeba), downloaded and installed FileZilla (connected to my site, ensured files would be transferred in binary, and moved backup files with the date of backup to local-- there were multiple other files in there as well, but I assumed they would be unnecessary? I transferred the J01-J90 and JPA files from the date I performed the backup), finally I ran Akeeba kickstart with direct write extraction method. That led to error: invalid_file_header_multipart.

What I've read makes it seem like I haven't transferred all the necessary files with my FTP process. I included all files in the backup folder at one point yesterday, after which trying to go to my /localhost first took me to the Akeeba restoration script even though I hadn't extracted all files, then on subsequent revisits gave me "Access Denied" errors.

I dumped all the local files, updated the Akeeba backup and kickstart programs, and started the whole process again. Yesterday before I left work I had the new backup ready and managed to transfer files to my /localhost then started extraction hoping I would come in today to a success screen. The same error is still popping up.

Can someone please help me try to pinpoint where I've gone wrong? Is it normal to have multiple (very old) files in a backup?

Edit: Three times this morning it has shown this error upon extracting the same file. Coincidence?

[toivo]

Welcome to the Joomla forum!

Have you searched the Akeeba website for information about this error? Here are a couple of pointers. Even though the Joomla versions are older, the method is the same:
#9085 Invalid Header in archive during restoration
#21377 Kickstart error in header file

[eMT]

Hello! Thank you for your response (and for moving my thread into a better-suited area-- I kinda jumped the gun on placement yesterday).

I had been searching both here and Akeeba's forums to the best of my ability attempting to find ideas on resolution but hadn't come across either of those that I recall. I realize this is far less of a Joomla! hiccup, but I'm grateful for the free access to this forum and input from others with far more experience than myself in this matter.

The first article suggested ensuring back-ups were not being made of error_logs (which I have since verified were excluded via File and Directories Exclusions) and also suggested using eXtract Wizard instead of Kickstart for the transferred JPA, J01, J02, etc. files, so I tried that this morning. And to, a minimal, extent it ..worked? While my backup is composed of 90 J## files and one JPA, eXtract Wizard would only let me choose the JPA file as the archive file. I'm sure that is why, as you can see below, some of my website's information comes across on localhost, but there is also a slew of accompanying errors.


I'm wondering why only the JPA file was allowed to be selected and will keep troubleshooting on that throughout the day.
Later in the first article, there is talk of PHP compatibility, but ultimately it seems like if that was the case a different error would be showing.

The second seems ultimately far less applicable to me because the OP has success with his file(s) with one upload to a server but not on another. It also recommends checking all files of a multi-part have been transferred with an FTP in binary (yes, yes, and yes on my end-- triple-checked). Further down a few more possibilities are listed, including "Kickstart itself. Make sure you have the same version in both cases and that the file size (in bytes) is the same." I have checked that the file sizes of back-up on the server match my local folder but I'm not sure what is meant by the underlined instruction... To my knowledge I only have Kickstart in one place; in the local file with the files I'm wanting to extract. Is this not correct? Could this be where I've gone wrong? Lastly, they talk about permissions. In FileZilla I have checked and, while I didn't examine every single multipart the JPA and the spot checks have 0666 permissions which should be enough for success? (says 0644 is the minimum... Found and checked the file it keeps erroring on/timing out on the backend and checked its' permissions too, which were 0644).

I'm going to play around with eXtract Wizard more throughout the day and see if I can make progress. More ideas and input are welcomed!!!

EDIT: Upon some Googling and Akeeba forum reading it appears that the J## files need not be selected individually, that the JPA relies on all the necessary J## files to be in the same directory and utilizes them as needed. Could out-of-date extensions/components be the source for all those errors I am seeing in localhost? Since I had tried extracting so many times with Kickstart I am going to delete re-download my backup (through FTP using binary) to my local directory just to see if anything changes since the Kickstart extraction process did seem to make minimal changes to the files I was trying to work with... not sure if that rambling made any sense, technical or otherwise...

[eMT]

I am on cloud 9. I spoke with one of my peers about the state of the current localsite and she brought to my attention (yes, I am new to all these steps) that I can login to the backside locally and disable that plugin, which is what the organization has had to do previously. I did that and she's a thing of outdated beauty.

I will now start updating everything locally and take it step by step from there.

Thanks again for your input.

The fix seemed to have been using eXtract Wizard vs Kickstart.