Troubleshooting
The logs and where they are, and fixes for 500 errors, licence, e-mail, cron, payment gateway, sign-in and permission problems.
Most problems leave a clear trace. This chapter lists where the logs are, then the usual problems by area with the message you will see and what to do. Work from the top of the list: check the log, then the setting.
Where the logs are
| Log | Where | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Activity Log | Utilities → Activity Log | What staff and the system did: settings saved, logins, orders, gateway and plugin changes. |
| Admin Log | Utilities → Admin Log | Administrator sign-ins and their IP addresses. |
| Module Log | Utilities → Module Log | Every call to a gateway, registrar or server module, with the request and the answer. |
| Email Message Log | Utilities → Email Message Log | Every e-mail the system tried to send, with sent or failed and the error. |
| Gateway Log | Billing → Gateway Log | What the payment gateways sent to the callback address and how it was answered. |
| Automation Status | Utilities → Automation Status | The last result of every cron job and the recent failures. |
Files in data/logs/ | On the server, not reachable from the web | errors.log (a page failed), mail.log (a mail failed), cron.log (a cron job failed), plugins.log (a plugin could not load or boot), hooks.log (a plugin hook failed), api.log (API calls). |
| PHP error log | The host's error_log file (on cPanel, in the folder or under Metrics → Errors) | PHP warnings and fatal errors. The script switches display_errors off, so they never show on the page. |
Turn on Debug Mode under Setup → General Settings → Security to see the real error message on a failed page, and turn it off again on a live site.
500 errors and white pages
| Symptom | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| A completely blank page or 500 Internal Server Error on every page | The database cannot be reached or config.php is damaged. Check AB_DB_HOST, AB_DB_NAME, AB_DB_USER and AB_DB_PASS in config.php, and that the user is added to the database. The PHP error log names the exact message. |
| A box Something went wrong on this page. The error was written to the log. | One page failed. Read data/logs/errors.log; the line names the page, the message, the file and the line. Send it to support. |
| 500 right after an update | An old PHP version, or the update ZIP was extracted in a sub-folder. Check Requirements and that index.php sits directly in the site folder. |
| Every page except the home page gives 404 | .htaccess is missing or mod_rewrite is off. In the File Manager switch on hidden files and check it came along. |
403 on a file under data/, includes/ or *.log | Working as designed; these are blocked. |
Licence problems
| Message | Meaning and fix |
|---|---|
| This installation has no active licence. Activate it to use the admin area. | The state is not Active. Open Setup → Licence, read the state and message, press Check now. |
| Could not reach the License Center. followed by a reason | The server cannot make an HTTPS call to license.faruk.bd. Ask the host to allow outgoing HTTPS and check that curl and openssl are enabled. |
| The License Center sent an answer we could not read. | A proxy or firewall changed the answer. Try again; ask the host if it persists. |
| Registered to another domain | The key is bound to a different domain. Release it there or contact support. See The licence key. |
| The licence allows N clients. Upgrade the licence to add more. | You reached the package limit (5 with no licence). Upgrade or remove old client records. |
| Premium - needs the "..." addon on your licence | Buy the addon, then Check now. |
E-mail problems
- Open Setup → Mail Settings. Is Send E-mail on? If it is off, the log says mail is switched off.
- Use Test the mail settings. A failure appears in Utilities → Email Message Log as one of: SMTP host is empty, SMTP connect failed: ... (wrong host, port or encryption, or the host blocks the port), SMTP: ... (the server's own refusal, often a wrong password) or, with PHP mail, mail() refused the message or no mail() function.
- If PHP mail works but messages land in spam, switch to SMTP and use a sender address on your own domain; add the SPF and DKIM records your mail provider gives you.
- If one template looks wrong, check Setup → Email Templates.
Cron problems
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| The cron has never run. Add the cron job shown on the Automation Settings page. | There is no cron job yet. Add the line from Setup → Automation Settings. |
| The heartbeat says Stale (older than 15 minutes) | The cron stopped. Check the line in the cPanel Cron Jobs page, the PHP path, and that the user can run it. |
| Invalid cron key (403) | The web address has a wrong key. Copy it again. |
| The command runs but nothing happens | Some hosts' php is the CGI version, which counts as a web call and needs the key. Use the web cron address instead. |
| Run now says shell_exec is disabled on this server. | The host disabled shell_exec. Run the cron from the command line or the web address. |
| A job shows Failed | Read the result under Recent failures, and data/logs/cron.log. A failing job does not stop the others. |
Payment gateway problems
- The invoice is paid at the gateway but still unpaid here: open Billing → Gateway Log. No entry means the gateway never reached your site. Give it the Callback URL shown at the bottom of the gateway's settings page (
https://your-domain/callback/<gateway code>), and check that the address is public over HTTPS. - An entry whose answer starts with
ERRORshows the reason (a wrong key, a wrong amount, a bad signature). Fix the keys on Setup → Payment Gateways → Configure, and check Test Mode matches the keys. - A gateway offered in the wrong currency: the plugin's currencies and the client's currency must match. See Gateways.
- For registrar and server module calls read Utilities → Module Log.
Sign-in and permission problems
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Too many failed sign-ins from your address. Please wait a few minutes. | The ban lasts the minutes set in Setup → Security → Settings (default 15). Lift it on Setup → Security → Banned IPs and E-mails from another address. |
| The username or password is not right. | Reset the administrator password in Setup → Administrators. |
| This administrator account is disabled. | Another administrator must enable it. |
| The security code is not right. | The two-factor code. Check the phone's clock. |
| Your administrator role may not ... | The role lacks that permission; edit it in Setup → Administrator Roles. |
| Cannot upload a logo, attachment or plugin | Folder permission. Utilities → System Health & PHP Info lists each writable folder as Writable or Not writable. Set data/ and uploads/ to 755 (or 775) owned by the site user. |
Plugins
A plugin that fails to load writes to data/logs/plugins.log; Setup → Addon Modules shows hook failures at the bottom. The plugin could not be installed: ... gives the reason (often a missing PHP extension or a table that cannot be created). Switch the plugin off, fix it, and switch it on again.
Still stuck
Collect the version (Utilities → What's New), the last lines of data/logs/errors.log and of the PHP error log, and the licence state, and write to the support contact shown on the Setup → Licence page.
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Updated 2026-11-03