Local Beta - "Local couldn't load the file list"

Support
1

Trying to Test for MySQL 8 Compatibility using the WPEngine Guide

What issue or error are you experiencing?

I’m using Local Beta (up-to-date) because I googled this exact problem and the solution on the forum was to use the Beta. However that’s not working for me as I continuously get “Local couldn’t load the file list!”

What steps can be taken to replicate the issue? Feel free to include screenshots, videos, etc

  1. Start site and push (production, also MagicSync is on)
  2. Select environment: ‘Staging’ (unchecked ‘Include database’)
  3. Sometimes the list loads
  4. Switch from ‘Push: only new files’ to ‘Push: all modified files’
  5. Loading for a minute
  6. Error message: Local couldn’t load the file list!

LOCAL-BETA-SS-1
LOCAL-BETA-SS-11184×718 40.7 KB

I can get all modified files to load on ‘Select Environment: Production’, but I can’t get it for Staging.

System Details

  • Local Version: 7.2.1 (Beta)

  • Operating System (OS) and OS version:

Windows 11 Pro Version 22H2

Local Logs

Attach your Local Logs here (Help Doc - Retrieving Local’s Log)
local-logs.zip (1.2 KB)

Security Reminder
Local does a pretty good job of scrubbing private info from the logs and the errors it produces, however there’s always the possibility that something private can come through. Because these are public forums, always review the screenshots you are sharing to make sure there isn’t private info like passwords being displayed.

2

Hi @cnguyen!

How large is the install? Have you tried direct import a backup instead?

3

Hey Nick,

Thanks for the response. The ZIP backup file is 2.76GB.

I just imported it with Local Beta and I still get the error message.

4

2.76 GB is a hefty zip file. How large is the overall site? I’m wondering if the footprint might be part of the issue and is causing a timeout.

You could attempt a more manual import. The steps would look like this:

  • Unzip the file in a common location, like the desktop
  • Create a new, blank site in Local. Use whatever username/password you like since you’ll overwrite the DB with this site archive’s dump.
  • Copy the wp-content folder from the unzipped location to this newly created site’s location
  • Copy the correct SQL dump to the site root.
  • Within Local, open the site shell
  • Import the dump with wp db import <dumpfile>
  • If that works, now Search and replace the domains. wp search-replace ' https://production.com ' 'http:mylocalsite.local'
5

On our WPEngine page, our production is 3.49GB and staging is 3.59GB.

I’ll try the manual import.

1 Like
6

Also you shouldn’t need to use the Beta version of Local. I’d recommend just grabbing our latest release from the page below which includes any features or bug fixes in the previous Beta.

1 Like
7

So I’m doing the manual import and I’m stuck at
'Copy the correct SQL dump to the site root".

Could you explain to me what that means?

Here’s what I have so far. I copied ‘wp-content’ into the newly created site’s location.

SS-LOCAL
SS-LOCAL746×1159 122 KB

8

You’ll need to find the database file for your exported site, and you’ll put that database file where you put the wp-content in the new Local site you made. Then you can run the import command in terminal for the database.

9

Is this it? I have one in each ‘wp-optimize-premium’ and ‘wp-optimize’ folders

DATABASE-1
DATABASE-1652×578 63.9 KB

10

That could be it. Did you create this site backup with WP Optimize? Or did you download the backup from WPE’s UI?

11

I got the site backup from WPEngine using the ‘Backup ZIP’ button and downloading it from there.

When I search the folder for ‘database’, those were the two database folders that showed up.

12

Would this be the ‘SQL dump’ database file? It’s quite large
SQL

The above image is from a regular imported production site.

This is the ZIP Backup file SQL file:
SQL-ZIP

13

Any folders for WP Optimize would be specific to that plugin if you’ve used it lately or in the past. So it might not be a recent backup of the database. Your WPE backup should just have a regular SQL file, I think it might be inside of the WP Content folder itself. That will be your database backup from WPE. You’ll just want to move that out and put it in the root.

14

@cnguyen Yes that mysql.sql file will be your database. You’ll want to move that into the Public folder, and then you can run the command wp db import mysql.sql to get it imported. Once that’s done you’ll do a S/R to clean up the domains.

15

So finally got back to trying it again.

SITE-SHELL-ERROR
SITE-SHELL-ERROR1097×125 33.5 KB

16

I think what you might be running into now is a bug between Windows/WPCLI/PHP8.

If you create a site with PHP 7 you might be able to import there.

Going back to the original backup zip though. I had a thought that maybe you could try honing the zip file down to just the necessary WP-Content and SQL files. Could you remove any core files, WP-Optimize directories, backups, etc and then zip the file up again?

17

Sorry for the late reply. Just got back from vacation.

I see. I’ll give that a shot once I free up some work haha thanks Nick!

1 Like
18

Sounds good @cnguyen! Keep us posted and we’d be happy to help further!

19

Successfully pushed the honed production ZIP version to Staging. The website looks funky, naked, and from the 90s, but it works! The final steps for testing MySQL8 compatibility is pushing Staging to Production, though, I’m not going to do that for obvious reasons.

Is the push to Staging more than enough as a test that the upcoming 9/27 update will be fine for our production site?

20

Hi @cnguyen

9/27 or 10/27?

Your Staging site might be borked if you downgraded PHP. You could try upgrading that again for Staging to see if that helps repair everything.