ATA settings resetting themselves to default
 

I posted earlier about the mystery of why one of the sites I manage constantly has it's Atahualpa Theme Options re-setting itself. I re-import the theme options and everything is fine, but really it's annoying. I know for sure the client isn't doing it, because she doesn't even login as an admin.

I have tried everything. I upgraded wordpress several times, and went to the latest theme version of 3.6.4. All plugins are up to date. Same host and configuration I have used for years, and I have used Atahualpa for years on several sites, with no intervention.

The only thing different is a plugin called Frontpage-Slideshow, so I have removed it and will see if that fixes the problem.

Just wondering if anyone thinks it could be a plugin conflict or?

It sounds more like a host issue.

I just wanted to follow up on this. It keeps resetting itself to the default every couple of weeks. I actually removed a plugin I thought was causing the problem (just guessing since I use ATA and this host on other sites and have never had a problem).

I have upgraded to the latest version of WP and ATA 3.6.7.

Thought that fixed it, but bam, the site reset itself to the defaults AGAIN. So annoying. I keep re-importing my ATA settings.

The user can't be hitting the reset button by accident because they use the editor login.

I noticed another post about this http://forum.bytesforall.com/showthr...settings+reset

I use a variety of security plugins on this site and have not had an issue, nor any other signs of hacking.

Is any other data changing, like the posts?

I can't quite nail it down to when it's happening. It could be happening when the client posts a new article but I am not sure. Again, she's using the editor login, so it's not because she is doing something wrong. Whenever I go in as an admin and do something, it does not reset itself.

Also I scanned it for malware and viruses and it came up clean.

do you do a daily backup? if not I would start a daily backup (try the plugin wp-dbmanager) and then when it resets, you can compare the two database exports. It might tell you something.

I'd also grab the hosts access log, and error log for the past 24 hrs when it changes.

Have you contacted the host?

I did contact the host and they told me they won't look into the wordpress issue because I don't use their site installer (well I learned my lesson using hosting companies WP installers - they tend to be nonstandard and cause problems).

Working on getting more detailed logs.

We do backups, not sure if I have the right before and after snapshot. I don't even know what I would look at in the database though.

I would do a file compare to see what it shows. It might be nothing but it might give another clue.

I would also drop that host (who is it?) like a hot potato

It's aplus.net. They used to be good but they way overload their servers and I don't use them anymore for new projects. I have had other hosts tell me they can't help if I don't use their WP installer so that's not a surprise.

I am going to move her to another host with a clean WP install. I just verified that although there was some adware on her PC, there are no viruses or malware.

Yesterday after I fixed her site again, she did add a new post before I had a chance to tell her not to, and it did NOT reset the theme options. No telling what is triggering it.

The only thing that goes wrong with the site is that the theme options are reset to the default. When I re-upload the ATA settings, it's fine.

I am having a similar problem, except it relates to the addition of new users. When I installed Atahualpa, I made sure that new users were automatically assigned subscriber status. I went in several weeks ago and found that all my users were administrators. I was able to change all of them to subscribers, but when I went in today, they were all administrators again.

I decided I would just delete them this time. I can't delete them.

I don't think I had this problem before the upgrade.

I don't think this is even a resetting to default issue, as the default was to add new users as subscribers.

Am I looking as something more serious?

there is no way that I can think of, that a theme could cause a situation like this. Themes don't touch the user table in teh database.

Unless you have database corruption, the only think that comes to my mind is you might have been hacked.