Orderlock.num/Backup.num Problem

[JKent]

I have suddenly received the following message on my website when placing a dummy order

"An error occurred while creating the order number lock file (../acatalog/Backup.num). The error was Permission denied. Catalog can not create a unique order number and can not continue. Please contact us directly with your order. "

I have searched the knowledge base and old postings here and have deleted the orderlock.num file as suggested but when I uploaded the catalog again and tried to place an order I got the above message. Both files are on my server at the moment.

I have v4 of catalog and one solution previously mentioned on here was to delete both files and then go to "help:troubleshooting" to reset the counter. Am i beiing a bit dim but I dont have troubleshooting in my help menu.

Any further suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you

Joanna
@ The Crafty Quilter

[pinbrook]

2 things

1 v4 doesn't have "help:troubleshooting" to reset the counter."

2 the original error message refers to permissions - have you reset the permission on the file?

[JKent]

thx for the quick reply.

Re your first point - i hoped that was the case!

No i havent reset the permission on the file as I dont know how to. As far as I am aware I have not made any changes to the settings or anything, other than deleting the orderlock.num file as suggested on this site.
I am waiting to hear back from my web hosting company supanames as I did get an email at the end of August from them saying that they were updating server versions of various scripting languages and databases so Im not sure if this is where the problem lies.

Joanna
@ The Crafty Quilter

[zmagyar]

I am waiting to hear back from my web hosting company supanames as I did get an email at the end of August from them saying that they were updating server versions of various scripting languages and databases so Im not sure if this is where the problem lies.

Most likely that's the reason of your problems. I guess during the update they have changed the effective script user and the new one doesn't have permission to access these files. But this techie stuff doesn't help you. :-)

You can resolve the problem by deleting these two files from the server. If you can not do this (which may happen if the server config significantly changed) then ask your ISP to do it for you.

[JKent]

thanx for your reply. i have definitely managed to delete the orderlock file and think i did the backup one too but after doing so should i upload the catalog again or just try and place an order?

i'll try deleting the files again and see what happens.

still waiting to hear back from my web hosting company...they are still looking into it

Joanna
@ The Crafty Quilter

[JKent]

I just deleted the files again and have managed to place an order. Yippee!!!

Thanx for ur help...for some reason it didnt work when i did it the first time

Joanna
@ The Crafty Quilter

[zmagyar]

Theoritically you do not need to upload after the files are deleted. When the next checkout starts the files will be created by the perl script with the proper owner.

Glad you could get it work.