Plugin seems to start, but never backs anything up.

When I try to start a backup. I get the “you have made changes to your settings, and not saved.” message. I hit OK, and start the backup, and get nothing. I verified with the host that there are no scripts running, or unfinished “changes” hanging out there.

I set max memory to 4096K, and execution time to 400 seconds, swapped theme to 2025, and disabled all other plugins. Still no go.

I get the “Requesting start of backup…” message and then the “Start backup: OK. You should soon see activity in the “Last log message” field below.” message. then nothing.

As far as timing, this seemed to have started sometime after I installed the Astra theme and then I tried to install the litespeed plugin to speed up the already very slow running site. The install may have never finished. Not sure. But the plugin showed as active and seemed to be working.

The plugin has worked for many years, and I didn’t change any settings.

After I try to do a backup, then leave to go elsewhere in the editor, I get the the “leave the site?” message, insinuating the script isn’t finished, but it doesn’t appear to be running.

The test with Amazon S3 stopped working as well, even that’s worked flawlessly on this site since 2018. No changes there either.

Backup log is:

0000.008 (0) Opened log file at time: Mon, 29 Dec 2025 18:00:25 +0000 on https://www.upanddowndoor.com
0000.009 (0) UpdraftPlus WordPress backup plugin (https://updraftplus.com): 2.13.12.1 WP: 6.9 PHP: 8.4.7 (cgi-fcgi, Linux sitea-web528.eigbox.net 5.14.0-570.37.1.el9_6.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue Aug 26 10:33:12 EDT 2025 x86_64) MySQL: 5.7.44 WPLANG: en_US Server: Apache safe_mode: 0 max_execution_time: 900 memory_limit: 4096M (used: 18.6M | 20M) multisite: N openssl: OpenSSL 3.2.2 4 Jun 2024 mcrypt: N LANG: ZipArchive::addFile: N
0000.012 (0) Free space on disk containing Updraft’s temporary directory: 1814375.6 MB
0000.053 (0) Tasks: Backup files: 1 (schedule: monthly) Backup DB: 1 (schedule: monthly)

Also got his email from Wordfence:

Subject: [] Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue

Howdy!

WordPress has a built-in feature that detects when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error on your site, and notifies you with this automated email.

In this case, WordPress caught an error with one of your plugins, UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore.

First, visit your website (https://www.upanddowndoor.com/) and check for any visible issues. Next, visit the page where the error was caught (https://www.upanddowndoor.com/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=updraftplus) and check for any visible issues.

Please contact your host for assistance with investigating this issue further.

If your site appears broken and you can't access your dashboard normally, WordPress now has a special "recovery mode". This lets you safely login to your dashboard and investigate further.

https://www.upanddowndoor.com/wp-login.php?action=enter_recovery_mode&rm_token=w15MkPfoE2bkZSHeFOAThI&rm_key=6cWLfwCpV51rn8uXDqBIuR

To keep your site safe, this link will expire in 1 day. Don't worry about that, though: a new link will be emailed to you if the error occurs again after it expires.

When seeking help with this issue, you may be asked for some of the following information:
WordPress version 6.9
Active theme: Astra (version 4.11.18)
Current plugin: UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore (version 2.13.12.1)
PHP version 8.4.7



Error Details
=============
An error of type E_PARSE was caused in line 2258 of the file /hermes/bosnacweb02/bosnacweb02ag/b173/ipw.upanddowndoorcom/public_html/wp-content/plugins/updraftplus/includes/S3.php. Error message: syntax error, unexpected token "{"

• This topic was modified 3 hours, 50 minutes ago by markrr.
• This topic was modified 3 hours, 41 minutes ago by markrr.
• This topic was modified 3 hours, 18 minutes ago by markrr.