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Common Issues & Fixes

A comprehensive guide to the most common problems and their solutions.

Installation Issuesโ€‹

Blank White Page After Installationโ€‹

Cause: Usually a file permissions issue.

Fix:

# Check the Laravel log
tail -50 storage/logs/laravel.log

# Fix permissions
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data storage bootstrap/cache

"Class Not Found" Errorsโ€‹

Cause: Composer dependencies not installed or autoloader not generated.

Fix:

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
php artisan config:clear

Installer Shows "Already Installed"โ€‹

Cause: The storage/installed.lock file exists.

Fix: If you need to re-run the installer:

rm storage/installed.lock

Then visit /install again.

CSS/JS Not Loading (Unstyled Page)โ€‹

Cause: Storage symlink missing or asset path issue.

Fix:

php artisan storage:link
php artisan config:clear
php artisan view:clear

Also check that your APP_URL in .env matches your actual domain (including https://).

Database Issuesโ€‹

"SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Connection Refused"โ€‹

Cause: MySQL is not running or wrong host.

Fix:

  • Check MySQL is running: sudo systemctl status mysql
  • Try 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost in .env
  • Verify port (default: 3306)

"SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access Denied"โ€‹

Cause: Wrong database credentials.

Fix:

  • Verify username/password in .env
  • Test connection: mysql -u your_user -p your_database
  • Re-grant permissions:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON feedbackpulse.* TO 'your_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Emojis Showing as ????โ€‹

Cause: Database charset is utf8 instead of utf8mb4.

Fix:

ALTER DATABASE feedbackpulse CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

Web Server Issuesโ€‹

All Routes Return 404โ€‹

Apache fix:

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Make sure AllowOverride All is set in your virtual host.

Nginx fix: Ensure your server block has:

location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}

502 Bad Gateway (Nginx)โ€‹

Cause: PHP-FPM not running or wrong socket path.

Fix:

sudo systemctl restart php8.2-fpm
# Check the socket path
ls /var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock

413 Request Entity Too Largeโ€‹

Cause: Upload size limit too low.

Fix (Nginx):

client_max_body_size 20M;

Fix (PHP):

upload_max_filesize = 20M
post_max_size = 25M

Authentication Issuesโ€‹

"CSRF Token Mismatch" (419 Error)โ€‹

Cause: Session expired or cookies issue.

Fix:

  • Clear browser cookies and try again
  • Check SESSION_DOMAIN in .env (set to .yourdomain.com for subdomains)
  • Ensure SESSION_SECURE_COOKIE=true only if using HTTPS

Can't Login After Password Resetโ€‹

Cause: Browser cached the old session.

Fix: Clear browser cookies or use incognito mode.

Social Login Returns Errorโ€‹

Cause: Callback URL mismatch.

Fix: Ensure the callback URL in Google/GitHub console exactly matches:

  • Google: https://yourdomain.com/auth/google/callback
  • GitHub: https://yourdomain.com/auth/github/callback

Payment Issuesโ€‹

See Payment Gateway Issues for detailed payment troubleshooting.

Email Issuesโ€‹

See Email Not Sending for detailed email troubleshooting.

Performance Issuesโ€‹

See Performance Optimization for optimization tips.

Cache Issuesโ€‹

When in doubt, clear all caches:

php artisan optimize:clear

This clears:

  • Config cache
  • Route cache
  • View cache
  • Application cache
  • Compiled class cache

Debug Mode (Temporary)โ€‹

To see detailed error messages:

  1. Edit .env:
APP_DEBUG=true
LOG_LEVEL=debug
  1. Reproduce the error
  2. Check the error page or storage/logs/laravel.log
  3. Immediately set APP_DEBUG=false when done!
warning

Never leave APP_DEBUG=true in production. It exposes sensitive information.

Getting Helpโ€‹

If none of the above fixes your issue:

  1. Check storage/logs/laravel.log for the full error trace
  2. Check your web server error log (/var/log/nginx/error.log or /var/log/apache2/error.log)
  3. Search the CodeCanyon item comments for similar issues
  4. Open a support ticket with:
    • Error message (from the log)
    • PHP version (php -v)
    • Laravel version
    • Server details (OS, web server, MySQL version)
    • Steps to reproduce