# Diagnosing Stuck or Stalled Backups — Start Here > SiteVault Pro backup stuck on 'in progress' or failed without a clear reason: work this 4-step diagnostic in order to reach a specific fix in under a minute. - Canonical: - HTML version: --- If a SiteVault Pro backup isn’t completing — stuck on “in progress”, marked “failed” without a clear reason, or just never finishing — work this 4-step triage in order. Most cases route to a specific fix doc in under 60 seconds. ### Step 1: Update SiteVault Pro to 1.7.31 or later first SiteVault 1.7.31 split the legacy “Backup in progress or failed” catch-all status into per-status display + surfaces the actual error reason on failed rows. Without 1.7.31, you’ll be debugging a generic message and triage takes much longer. Update **Plugins → Installed Plugins → SiteVault Pro → Update** first. ## Step 2: Read the Status Pill on the Failed Backup Row Open **SiteVault Pro → Backups**. Each backup row shows a colored status pill that tells you which failure mode you’re in. The triage path forks from here. Failed #### Red “Failed” pill The backup engine caught an error and aborted. Most informative path — the row will show the specific error reason below the pill on 1.7.31+. Continue to [Step 3](#read-error). In Progress #### Blue “In progress…” pill (stuck for over 30 minutes) The backup started, made progress, then stopped advancing. The async resumption hook (`rb_backup_resume`) is likely being silently dropped by your host’s WP-Cron filter. Go straight to [Backup Stuck on Shared Hosting](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/backup-stuck-on-shared-host/). Cancelled #### Gray “Cancelled” pill Either you manually cancelled the backup, OR a new backup was started while this one was still in progress (SiteVault auto-cancels the older in-flight backup to avoid running two at once). If it’s the auto-cancel case, the new backup row will be right above this one — check its status instead. If you see “Backup in progress or failed” (no specific pill) You’re on SiteVault Pro *before* 1.7.31. Update first — the new per-status display + error detail makes everything below much faster. The old catch-all message conflates In Progress, Failed, and Cancelled into one ambiguous string. ## Step 3: Match the Error Message to a Specific Fix Doc On a 1.7.31+ **Failed** row, the actual error message renders in a red-bordered monospace box below the pill. Match the message text to the row below. #### “Backup cannot start: cannot create backup/temp directory at /wp-content/uploads/sitevault/…” Pre-flight check failed. The web server is blocking PHP from creating directories under the SiteVault path. Common on CloudPanel, nginx, OpenLiteSpeed. → [**Backups Fail Silently on CloudPanel / nginx / OpenLiteSpeed**](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/backups-fail-on-cloudpanel-nginx/) (per-server fix) #### “Failed to copy → (Permission denied / Disk quota exceeded / …)” Mid-backup file copy failed. The named error explains why — permission denied means filesystem ownership issue, disk quota means you’re out of space. - **Permission denied:** SSH in, run `sudo chown -R $(stat -c '%U:%G' wp-config.php) wp-content/uploads/sitevault/` - **Disk quota exceeded:** Check disk usage with `du -sh wp-content/uploads/sitevault/backups/*` — delete old backups or upgrade your hosting plan’s disk allowance - **No space left on device:** Same as disk quota — you’re full #### “Backup limit reached. Free version allows N backups.” SiteVault Lite (free) limit hit. Pro removes the cap entirely. → Delete old backups OR [upgrade to SiteVault Pro](https://royalplugins.com/sitevault/pricing/) for unlimited backups + auto-rotation. #### “Cloud upload failed: ” The backup completed locally but the auto-upload to your cloud storage provider failed. The zip is still on disk — you haven’t lost it. - **Dropbox / Google Drive / OneDrive: “token expired” / 401 / “reconnect required”:** The OAuth refresh failed (revoked at the provider, or the customer changed their account password). Click **Connect** on the provider card in **SiteVault → Storage** to re-authorize — one-click OAuth, takes a few seconds. - **S3 / S3-compatible: SignatureDoesNotMatch:** Verify your access-key + secret are correct, and that the region matches - **FTP / SFTP: connection refused / timeout:** Verify host + port + credentials, check that your host allows outbound to the FTP server #### “Encryption failed” / “Encryption module not available” The encryption stage failed. The unencrypted zip is still on disk; the encrypted version doesn’t exist. - Check **SiteVault → Settings → Encryption**: an encryption key must be set - Confirm PHP’s OpenSSL extension is installed and enabled (almost always present, but some minimal stacks omit it) - If encryption is enabled but you don’t need it, disable it — the unencrypted zip already completed ## Step 4: Read the Log File (When the In-App Error Isn’t Enough) If the on-row error message is too generic OR you’re still on pre-1.7.31, the full log file has more detail. SSH or use cPanel File Manager: ``` cd wp-content/uploads/sitevault/logs/ tail -50 sitevault-$(date +%Y-%m-%d).log ``` The last 50 lines almost always contain the actual root cause. Look for lines containing `[ERROR]` (every error-level entry tags itself that way after the timestamp) or the literal phrase `Backup failed` (the catch-block fatal). ### Common log patterns and where they route #### Log shows `Async backup started` followed by silence (no further entries) WP-Cron isn’t firing the resumption hook. Go to [Backup Stuck on Shared Hosting](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/backup-stuck-on-shared-host/) for the system-cron fix. #### Log shows `Backup pre-flight failed` with a path Filesystem permission or server-rule issue at the path named. Go to [Backups Fail on CloudPanel / nginx / OpenLiteSpeed](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/backups-fail-on-cloudpanel-nginx/). #### Log shows `FAILED to schedule next resumption — backup will stall` WordPress’s `wp_schedule_single_event()` returned false. Usually means another plugin is filtering `pre_get_ready_cron_jobs` or you have a stuck cron-table row. From SSH: `wp cron event list | grep rb_` — if you see orphaned events, delete them with `wp cron event delete ` and retry. #### Log shows database export errors mid-backup Usually a MySQL connection limit / timeout, especially on shared hosts. Check whether other plugins are also reporting DB issues (a host-side issue) or whether it’s SiteVault-specific (might be a backup-specific table corruption). Email priority support with the log if it persists. ## Related Fix Docs - [Backups Fail Silently on CloudPanel / nginx / OpenLiteSpeed](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/backups-fail-on-cloudpanel-nginx/) — server-block rule fix - [Backup Stuck on Shared Hosting](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/backup-stuck-on-shared-host/) — system-cron fix for the resumption hook - [“Cloud Not Configured” Banner Won’t Go Away](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/cloud-not-configured-banner-stuck/) — default-provider fix - [Disaster Recovery](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/disaster-recovery/) — restoring when nothing else works - [Migration Issues](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/migration-issues/) — push/pull and migration package troubleshooting - [Staging Issues](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/staging-issues/) — staging environment creation and sync ## Worked Through Everything? Email Priority Support If you’ve updated to 1.7.31+, identified your status pill, read the error message, and worked through the matching fix doc — and your backups still aren’t completing — email **[support@royalplugins.com](mailto:support@royalplugins.com)** with the diagnostic info below. Priority email support is included with your SiteVault Pro license — typical response time is within 24 hours. #### Information We’ll Need - **SiteVault Pro version** - **Status pill** on the most recent failed backup (Failed, In progress, Cancelled) AND the on-row error message if any - **Last 50 lines** of `wp-content/uploads/sitevault/logs/sitevault-YYYY-MM-DD.log` - **Hosting provider** + control panel + web server (CloudPanel + nginx, Bluehost shared, WPEngine, Kinsta, etc.) - **WP-CLI output** of `wp cron event list | grep rb_` if you have shell access - **Output of** `wp plugin list --status=active` — sometimes a third-party plugin is filtering cron or blocking SiteVault - **Approximate site size** (database MB, uploads GB, total wp-content GB) — helps us know whether your backup should take 2 minutes or 2 hours [Back to SiteVault Support](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/) [CloudPanel / nginx Backup Fix](https://royalplugins.com/support/sitevault/backups-fail-on-cloudpanel-nginx/)