I published a post yesterday on Maybank Sports Carnival I participated in last weekend. Everything was fine, the photos looked nice, my officemates even left a couple of comments on it… but when I viewed my blog this morning, the post has disappeared! Yup, completely gone. Even the comments were not there anymore. I checked my control panel but there is no trace of them. It’s like it never existed.

I tried to view my blog last night when I got home after work. It took so long to open the page. When I managed to view it, there was this error message displayed all over the page: “WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]“

I reported the error to the Support Team of the company where I host my blog. Here’s the ding-dong of the email messages, which in the end, did not solve anything. I still lose the post on the sports carnival. sad

Me, 11 Dec 2007 07:19 PM
“Is there something wrong with the database? I can’t access my website (http://ayusli.com). The error message is “MySQL server has gone away”. This happened since yesterday.“Support, 11 Dec 2007 07:31 PM
“Hi,Thanks for contacting us.Refer to your problem, may i know have you did at your website yesterday for we investigate the issue. FYI, our MYSQL server is running and all the website using MYSQL at our same server like your hosting is running fine.Hope this will helps

Thank You.
M.Irwan”

Support, 11 Dec 2007 09:14 PM
 “Hi,

Thanks for waiting. After we investigate we found out that this issue is due to the Long Query using MYSQL by the wordpress script. There are fix has been created to the public for this issue.

You may try visiting the following link for the resolution.

http://robsnotebook.com/wordpress-mysql-gone-away

Kindly let us know if the above link has solved your issue after you have replaced your “wp-db.php” file.

Thank You.

M.Irwan”

Me, 12 Dec 2007 09:05 AM
 “Thank you. I will fix the file as mentioned below.

The only problem remaining is my latest post (titled “Maybank Sports Carnival”) which actually went live yesterday around noon is missing. That was before the problem with MYSQL. Even the comments are missing. Is it possible to recover the missing post? I don’t find re-writing the article a good option.”

Support, 12 Dec 2007 09:34 AM
 “Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

The problem with MYSQL may not cause your Post to be missing, kindly chek again in your worpress control panel and see whether the post is set to be Unpublished or not. If it is set to be not published, please click the publish link to make it appear on your websites.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Senior Sales & Support”

Me, 12 Dec 2007 11:03 AM
“I’m sorry. The post has completely disappeared. There is no DRAFT post in my list. I have checked so many times already. You may refer to the attachment if you don’t believe me.“

Support, 12 Dec 2007 11:10 AM
 “Hi,

Thanks for contacting us.

Normally the post will not lost if it was not deleted. Perhaps you can consult to the wordpress developer and ask about this.

Thanks.

Best regards,
Adi.S”

Me, 12 Dec 2007 11:37 AM
 “What is the point of contacting the wordpress developer? They only developed the blog codes, not the database.

I agree with you, the post should not be gone if it was not deleted. Well, I did not delete it. Why would I delete a post after spending so much time writing it?

The thing is, the post was already published. My readers have viewed it and even commented on it. There were at least 3 comments as at yesterday. If you doubt my complaint, please refer to the attachment.”

Support, 12 Dec 2007 11:42 AM
 “Hi,

We can restore full backup from server backup but there is no guarantee that you get back your post. Kindly confirm if you want us to restore the backup from server.

Thanks.

Best regards,
Adi.S”

Support, 12 Dec 2007 11:52 AM
 “Hi,

If we restore, all the latest post will be gone because it will be overwritten by backup. Kindly confirm you want us to restore.

Sorry for inconvenience.

Thanks.

Best regards,
Adi.S”

Me, 12 Dec 2007 11:56 AM
 “Thank you. May I know what is the date and time of your latest backup?”

Support, 12 Dec 2007 12:04 PM
 “Hi,

Below is the latest backup for the database.

-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1194709 Dec 8 01:13 ayusicom_blog.sql
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 751 Dec 8 01:13 ayusicom.sql
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 1232 Nov 12 23:57 ayusicom_wordpress.sql

Hope to hear from you.

Thanks.

Best regards,
Adi.S”

Me, 12 Dec 2007 01:31 PM
 “It seems that your latest is as at 08/12/2007. Restoring it would not make any difference since the post was published yesterday.

Never mind. Thank you for trying to help. I still don’t understand why the saved post has totally disappeared from the database.”

So the case was closed and I have to re-write the post. *sigh* Ah well… what to do.

On the other hand, I would like to praise the Support Team of the hosting company for their quick responds to my problem. Thank you. Your help is greatly appreciated.

WangRakyat