I went to log in yesterday and kept getting an Invalid Login, so I tried the Forgot Password, and it stated that there was no such username.

So, I came here and started reading other peoples problems. So I do the MT-Medic, which tells me that I don't have any users or any blogs!

What in the world is going on? This is the first time since 2001 I have had problems with Moveabletype.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Could your host have made any upgrades to your server that would have affected the version of Berkeley? (Or are you using MySQL?)

I am not using MySQL, so I must have Berkeley. I have checked with my host and there have been no changes. =(

Do you think that I should just go ahead and install the upgrade and convert Berkeley to MySQL? Or do I have to start all over since it seems to think that I have no username or blogs at all?

If the data's gone, it's gone. Did you make recent backups?

Yes I have backups of all my entries. I was curious as to whether or not I should install the update or simply install totally over again.

I am concerned that installing the update only will do no good since there are no registered accounts or blogs.

An upgrade likely won't work, since any of the upgrade scripts (if you have to run them) have to be able to read the database files too.

So I'd plan on installing all over again.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I appreciate it.

Hi,
I'm having similar problems as wellsaf --can't login, mt-medic says there are no blogs or users. But my host recently did upgrade Perl and some other stuff. So, I suspect, after looking through the documentation, that the problem may be a newer version of Berkeley DB being unable to read the older version's db files. But I don't have shell access to my server and I have no idea how to go about uploading my db files or if its even possible.

Any help or info would greatly appreciated.

I'm hoping to find some answers about this, too. My ISP upgraded Perl yesterday, which I learned after I tried to log in to MT and had the same problem mentioned in this thread: invalid login, no recognition of a username, and MT-Medic showed no blogs, nothing.

My ISP installed the latest MT for me just a month or so ago.

So now I'm wondering what needs to be done to get MT working again.

FYI, my ISP's server uses Win2K/IIS and the Berkeley DB, and my weblog is at Brainstorms and Raves.

I'm using a fair number of plugins and tweaks, and I've documented most or all of that... but I'd rather not have to do it all over again, too, of course. I've also backed up everything. My last entry export was about 5 days ago, though.

1. Does he need to reinstall MT?
2. Are there just certain files that can be tweaked rather than a full reinstall?
3. What are the options?
4. What do I need to watch for, avoid, problem-prevention tips?
5. If he reinstalls MT, will I need to then reinstall all my plugins, or just what will I need to do to be back up and running again?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide! This isn't exactly what I had in mind for my Saturday... but oh well! ;-)

What host are you on? (The people experiencing problems) I wonder if a particular host decided to upgrade, and that's why a bunch of people are experiencing this at once?

Generally, as mentioned above this problem is caused by a host upgrading Perl, which in the process upgrades Berkeley DB. This section of the MT manual. describes diagnosing the problem, and upgrading the Berkeley DB databases to fix the problem. If you don't have shell access, you might want to ask your host to help you--since they were responsible for the breakage in the first place.

Hi, Ben,

I wrote that post before I'd heard back from my ISP and from you earlier Saturday. My ISP did do a Perl upgrade Friday, so that appears to be the reason behind why my MT installation quit working Friday.

My ISP has Win2k and IIS and upgraded Perl sometime Friday. Since he's just started supporting a few of us with MT he had no idea that upgrading Perl would mess up our MT installations. He felt terrible when he found this out earlier Saturday!

I'm now just waiting to hear back from my ISP after your note about how to handle the Berkeley DB upgrade when the ISP has upgraded Perl. My ISP is a locally owned husband-wife team and not a 24-7 huge conglomerate with a huge staff, so I'm not sure if I'll get this resolved over the weekend or not. They're fantastic but they do need some time off, just like we all do, of course.

Your note, though, is the first definitive answer I've seen about what to do about this specific situation... others have suggested an MT reinstall, which wasn't really the answer for this, and I plan to link to this from my weblog to hopefully help others, too.

I'd read the troubleshooting information in the manual but didn't think it applied since it's about changing hosts.

If it turns out there's something else going on or in addition to my ISP upgrading Perl, I'll be sure to write about that, too. I'm hopeful that the manual's instructions re: Berkeley DB and changing servers will take care of my own problem with the Perl upgrade on the same server.

Thanks, Ben!

I am having this problem too. My host - Hypermart - switched hosting platforms a few days ago and really screwed up my blogs.

My main problem is that I am missing the last month of updates -- but it also seems that the new platform has a different version of the Berkeley database. Hypermart has not been very helpful (yet), the tech support people don't seem to know what the berkely DB is. And Hypermart has also just barred shell access, so I can't try the suggestions in the troubleshooting guide....

Having the same problem! Can't log in, mt-medic shows no blogs, etc. Site is on Covad, any other Covad users?

I am getting a similar problem. My blogs all dissappeared, and I am told that I can't load DB_File anymore (must have had it before since the blogs were working fine). It looks as though there may have been an upgrade of Perl Recently.

It says 5.8.0 in the error message but 5.008 on my cpanel. I am on the massive ipowerweb.com, but they are perhaps resellers for rackshack (?).

If we use MYSQL instead will we avoid these problems? Most of them seem to relate to updates to the Berkley DB.

By the way, I don't see anything relevant in the TROUBLESHOOTING section kindly linked by btrott below.