Continuing FTP hell (Solved w 8.1.7!)

Is anyone experiencing this issue:

I enter my FTP details and test – all is fine.

I click Browse to check the upload location on the remote server – all is fine.

I publish, and I get ‘Can’t connect to FTP server.’

This is happening on a project that previously worked, but now, nothing. I checked with my hosting company about another issue, and they’re not interested in specifics: as long as it works fine in one app (CYberduck gives zero issues, Dreamweaver can’t connect), it’s ‘not their problem’ but something for the developer.

Why does Rapidweaver refuse to upload, no matter how few connections I use, yet DOES connect, and even allows me to choose a remote folder?

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It’s hard to say what might be causing your issue.
If you follow all the steps in this kB article, include is how to generate log information that can give a clue as to what exactly is failing. You can also send realmac the information to get help.
https://help.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver-troubleshooting/how-to-fix-ftp-publishing-issues

Thanks Teefers. Yes, I’ve read it many many times. Sadly, all previous efforts have failed, including sending logs to RW support. (Plus, RWs advice to send login details over email is concerning). Our host rightly says that if it works in other apps, the failing app is the problem, not the connection. I’m inclined to agree.

Pretty much every other FTP app I’ve tried works fine. Even the usually unstable Dreamweaver has better connections that Rapidweaver, and I can connect with no issues.

I’m currently looking into developing a major website for a big publisher, and I was going to recommend RW for the build, but I can’t, as it won’t connect to its server reliably.

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What can I say? Some of us are faced with the same problem for years and several major versions of RW.

The obvious thing to do is to use a workaround. Publishing with any 3rd party FTP app is ALWAYS fail-proof. That will save you tons of frustration.

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I rarely use the publishing portion of RapidWeaver. In My workflow I like to publish and test locally (MAMP Pro) kinda “quality assurance”.

I never had a problem with RapidWeaver publishing when I’ve used it.

Hey Kevin,

Sorry to hear about these publishing issues you’re experiencing.

Would you mind sending over your publishing logs so I can take a closer look at this?

  1. Go to RapidWeaver > Preferences > Publishing and make sure “Upload Logging” is enabled

  2. Now, try publishing / recreating the issue again

  3. Finally, go to Help > Copy Support Logs and paste this into a document, and send it over

Send them to support@realmacsoftware.com

Hi Arron. Yes, did that a few minutes ago. In the meantime, I’ve been trying all manner of combos. Nothing. We are forbidden from using plain FTP, so I can’t even use that as a backup.

Forbidden!!!

@Kevin_Atkins Why are you forbidden from using FTP? Essentially RW is FTPing when it publishes. So if there is some e-reason you can’t FTP (the regular way) then it may explain why RW can’t publish.

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Yes, me too. In the past, we’ve gone with it or managed to get it working, but not now.

In an emergency, it may be doable, but not for full development or future work, as most of the clients I work with won’t pay for stuff that’s not fully functional for them – and this sadly isn’t.

I use the word ‘forbidden’ because they do not allow unsecure / plain FTP connetions: if attempt, the connecting IP is blocked for 24 hours.

@Kevin_Atkins … okay, so just use SFTP with an FTP app like Transmit or ForkLift.

… and is your RW set up to FTP or SFTP?

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Thanks Mathew, but that’s not acceptable for my clients.

Frankly I’d be the same if someone was trying to tell me RW is the answer to building and developing a site, but it couldn’t use it’s own internal FTP system!

@Kevin_Atkins Well hopefully RM can get you sorted out now that you’ve sent the logs.

I’ve had little problem publishing with RW, but do face problems if there’s too much “other stuff” going on with my computer. Sometimes seems to be caused by speed of internet connection. The RW FTP process is not as robust as Transmit or ForkLift.

On the other hand it’s not clear to me why SFTPing via another app is unacceptable to your clients. If you are building/maintaining the site then they don’t care. SFTP-ing is SFTP-ing. Do you mean to say you will create everything in RW and then hand over to the client? (I find what you are writing confusing: there seems to be some part of the story not fully conveyed.)

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Yes, fingers crossed. We’ve found that it often works perfectly for a few months, but then – as now – all hell breaks loose. Of course, we never know quite what server-side changes are made during maintenance, but it’s frustrating that other apps work without issue.

It used to be the case that dropping the number of connections helped, but that’s no longer the case.

I think they ask solely for secure FTP is because some hacks have come from unsecure FTP channels, so they lock them down in blanket fashion.

Aaron … just found something new. If I make a new folder within the root, and upload the site to that, it works.

I wonder if this is a permissions issue on the root folder? Monday morning, I’ll check the server again, and perhaps remove existing folder, and re-upload the entire lot.

Why on earth permissions would change, I have no idea!

it seems to me to be more of a server issue then a RW one.
I have been using RW forever, with only minor FTP issues…and not from 7 on…everything just works…
Now that everyone is going to SSL…it seems that the server people don’t really know what to do…

When you said earlier that pretty much any other FTP program connects did you actually upload test files to check the connection worked?

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Yes, tested and working. I often use them separately to deal with warehoused items.

I had a similar issue today. Presses the test button and all was good and then tried to publish and had the same error. The reason I think it is because Rapidweaver checks the server details which got the thumbs up but it was trying to upload to a sub folder which didn’t exist. Using fetch I created the destination folder and the Rapidweaver uploaded without any issue.

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