One of the best kept secrets that techs love; when your computer is dong something it shouldn't; reboot it.
So what do we do when Magento is not responding or playing nice?
- Magento Blank Screen
- Admin redirecting to dashboard
- Magento Report Error
- Memory limit issue
Hopefully this is your Magento Development system and not your live site.
To begin with most php errors are easier to troubleshoot with the following in your .htaccess file
php_flag display_startup_errors on
php_flag display_errors on
php_flag html_errors on
Other Magento specific options depending on the size of your database, how much your processing / crunching and what your trying to upload.
php_value memory_limit 256M
php_value max_execution_time 600
php_value post_max_size 8M
php_value upload_max_filesize 8M
If your curious what these do, checkout the php.net website (it's amazing)
Next turn off caching
- Login to your Magento admin
- Goto the Top right System Menu
- Cache Management
- In the Drop down for All cache
- Disable
- Save Cache Settings
And finally turn on Magento System Logging
- Login to your Magento admin
- Goto the Top right System Menu
- Configuration
- On the bottom Left of the Navigation
- Developer
- Then Log Settings
- Set it to Yes
- Save config
You now need to get into your FTP and ensure the var/log folder exists and for simplicity you can make it world writable (*777)
This should allow you to troubleshoot most everything with Magento.