Logo upload is not working after restore from backup

[aksiksi (Assil)]

I created a new Discourse instance on a different domain and restored it from backup. Everything went through smoothly. However, none of the logos appeared (all blank, not default). So, I went ahead and used the Branding menu to try to re-upload the logos.

Here is the Discourse log from uploading a new logo:

New : /uploads/default/original/1X/75a192f211147f512bdddabaf50addd43c6a9d86.png
Previous : /images/discourse-logo-sketch.png

But, when I check my uploads directory, that particular image does not exist:

/var/discourse# tree shared/standalone/uploads/default/ | grep 75a1

Note that this incorrect logo filename (hash?) matches the one from the original Discord instance which is still online:

New : /uploads/default/original/1X/75a192f211147f512bdddabaf50addd43c6a9d86.png

Any clue what went wrong here? Should I create a new instance and restore that from a fresh backup?

Thanks.

[Stephen]

We need to know more about your environment to be able to help here.

• How was the new instance installed?
• Is it behind a reverse proxy, or CloudFlare?

[aksiksi (Assil)]

Hey Stephen,

1. It was installed using the standalone discourse-setup script.
2. No reverse proxy or CDN is involved.

[aksiksi (Assil)]

Just an update on this. I ended up creating a new instance today and the logos were restored fine from backup. It was probably some kind of intermittent issue.

[aksiksi (Assil)]

Scratch that, I’ve hit the issue again… So, the logo images worked fine until I cleared my browser cache.

Solution

The root cause was that most of the images were not correctly restored from the backup during the restore operation. I was able to solve the issue by manually extracting the tarball and copying over the missing images into the Discourse uploads directory.

Analysis

When I try to upload a new logo, I see the following:

1. Image upload seems to work fine:

2. But then the subsequent GET to display the uploaded image hits a 404:

3. The image is not present in the uploads directory:

/var/discourse# tree shared/standalone/uploads/default/original/
shared/standalone/uploads/default/original/
`-- 1X
    |-- 52b3aff4e63a7e38bef42d469bafd1ed7c1cc1a2.png
    `-- e952cfd4c1bc58e77024e4c2b518531356319780.png

Here is what the backup tarball contains:

/tmp# tar tvzf ask-tunisians-2020-07-28-042934-v20200728004302.tar.gz 
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data 11767008 2020-07-28 04:29 dump.sql.gz
drwxr-xr-x discourse/www-data        0 2020-07-26 21:11 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/
drwxr-xr-x discourse/www-data        0 2020-07-26 21:11 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/
drwxr-xr-x discourse/www-data        0 2020-07-27 20:33 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data    14843 2020-07-26 21:56 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/7835873085d7323b640c2504cd737b51f370360f.png
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data     9039 2020-07-27 20:33 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/75a192f211147f512bdddabaf50addd43c6a9d86.png
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data     5783 2020-07-26 21:56 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/19629775936660ecc73235158b4d68b9ec4b2abe.png
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data    11124 2020-07-26 21:11 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/e952cfd4c1bc58e77024e4c2b518531356319780.png
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data    35570 2020-07-26 21:11 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/52b3aff4e63a7e38bef42d469bafd1ed7c1cc1a2.png
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data     2375 2020-07-26 21:56 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/d4af3550a7c3f857c974b996257c8e3db72e7850.png
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data     9759 2020-07-26 22:14 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/dfc47da4c22ffeddf59f736a46a2c50ee55d7fa1.png
-rw-r--r-- discourse/www-data    24898 2020-07-26 21:46 var/www/discourse/public/uploads/default/original/1X/d832b24f2cb338139984be98045d22e0af093c4a.png

Clearly, the images were there, but I suppose the question is: why were most of the images not copied over correctly as part of the restore operation?