Plugin Support
Saransh
(@saranshwpm)
Hi,
That’s unusual behavior; the restore.log file should only be generated during an active restore process and shouldn’t continue growing on its own.
Could you please check and confirm:
- Have there been any restore attempts in the past (even if unsuccessful)?
- Does the file continue to grow even after deleting it once?
- Are there any errors or notices repeatedly logged inside the file (feel free to share a snippet, hiding any sensitive info)?
In the meantime, you can safely delete the file from wp-content/uploads/backwpup-restore/, and we’ll monitor if it regenerates.
Let me know once done or if anything specific is being logged inside.
I have exactly the same problem. The php log is constantly appended to the end of the file. Even if I delete the file, it is recreated. The file has grown so large that I got a warning about the size limit from cpanel. And I found out this file has become more than 6 GB.
There is no log related to the backwpup plugin inside the restore.log
I had never run a restore process on my site.
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This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by
Amin.
Hi,
Sorry for the delay in responding.
- Have there been any restore attempts in the past (even if unsuccessful)?
No, I have never attempted a restore in the past, ever.
- Does the file continue to grow even after deleting it once?
Yes, it gets created and continues to grow. Since the last deletion it has grown to 173MB in month
- Are there any errors or notices repeatedly logged inside the file (feel free to share a snippet, hiding any sensitive info)?
Yes! There are only WARNINGs being logged. Almost all (with one exception) are for “Creation of dynamic property XYZ is deprecated”. And almost all of them are generated by the “SUMO WooCommerce Payment Plans” plugin, for example:
restore.WARNING: [8192] Creation of dynamic property SUMO_PP_Payment_Schedule_Email::$subject_paid is deprecated …
Plugin Support
Saransh
(@saranshwpm)
Hi,
From what you describe, it looks like the PHP error logging is being redirected into wp-content/uploads/backwpup-restore/restore.log. This file should only be used during an active restore, so if it keeps growing outside of that, something in your setup is pointing logs there.
Please check with your hosting provider or look inside your wp-config.php to confirm if WP_DEBUG_LOG is set to this path. As a quick test, you can also add in wp-config.php:
define('WP_DEBUG', false);
and then delete the file to see if it stops growing.
In any case, it seems your environment is redirecting PHP errors to the restore log, so it would be best to ask your hosting provider to configure a dedicated error log file instead. That way, general PHP warnings will not be mixed into BackWPup’s restore area.
Best regards,
It’s kind of weird. Why logging php warnings in this particular path?! Why backwpup-restor folder?! I can’t understand. I’m going to add this line to wp-config.php to see what will happen:
//Enable error logging.
@ini_set('log_errors', 'On');
@ini_set('error_log', '/home/HOST-USERNAME/wp-php-errors.log');
//Don't show errors to site visitors.
@ini_set('display_errors', 'Off');
if ( !defined('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY') ) {
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);}
Edit: This solved the issue and the logging file changed to my custom path. But we can turn of debugging and turn it on when necessary.
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This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by Amin.
Hi @saranshwpm,
WP_DEBUG is already FALSE in my case.
I already have this in my wp-config.php:
define('WP_DEBUG', false);
My PHP version is 8.2.29
All the log messages are formatted as such:
[2025-09-02T20:06:43.127340+00:00] restore.WARNING: [8192] Creation of dynamic property SUMO_PP_Payment_Cancelled_Email::$mail_to_admin is deprecated (/path/to/wordpress/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sumopaymentplans/includes/abstracts/abstract-sumo-pp-email.php on Line 36) | PHP 8.2.29 (Linux) [] []
Plugin Support
Saransh
(@saranshwpm)
Hi,
Thank you for your reply.
As another user has confirmed, applying the same fix on your side should help as well. From what you’ve described, it looks like your hosting setup is redirecting PHP error logs into the BackWPup restore log. This behavior isn’t related to BackWPup itself.
You can try adding the following code to your wp-config.php file (adjusting the path as needed). This will redirect PHP errors into a dedicated log file and stop them from filling up the restore log:
// Enable error logging
@ini_set('log_errors', 'On');
@ini_set('error_log', '/{your-path-to-wordpress-folder}/wp-php-errors.log');
// Don't show errors to site visitors
@ini_set('display_errors', 'Off');
if ( !defined('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY') ) {
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
}
This way, the restore log remains clean while errors are safely captured in a separate file.
Let me know how it goes.
Best Regards,
Hi,
I can certainly try to apply the same fix and it will probably work, however redirecting the logfile is a workaround and not a solution. This problem should not occur on a site that is using the default wordpress configuration where WP_DEBUG is disabled.
I do not believe the hosting setup can cause BackWPUp to write these warnings to the restore.log file – there must be something in how the Logger is initialized in BackWPUp that is causing it to pick up these warning messages.
I have another site that I manage that entries in restore.log file. This issue will most certainly affect other users – they probably haven’t noticed yet. The right thing to do would be to find the root cause and eliminate it so that other users of you otherwise wonderful plugin are not adversely affected.
Thanks and regards,
Audrey
I agree with @stresslessweb
I contacted the host provider, no problem or clue on their side. This issue should be resolved at the plugin side. I disabled backwpup and logging stoped.
Plugin Support
Saransh
(@saranshwpm)
Hi,
Thank you for your reply.
I completely understand your concern. I tried replicating this on my end with the latest PHP version and error logging enabled, but I wasn’t able to reproduce it. For example, on my setup the restore log stayed clean (screenshot: https://shottr.cc/s/1gg8/SCR-20250904-m4g.png). I also tested on a personal site with standard hosting, and it worked normally there as well.
Because of this, it doesn’t look like a general issue with BackWPUp but rather something specific to certain environments. In some cases, another plugin or a server configuration might be redirecting PHP logs into the restore file. You could try a quick troubleshooting step by temporarily disabling other plugins to confirm if one of them is redirecting logs.
That said, I’ll still share your case internally so we can review it.
Thank you again for bringing this to our attention, and please don’t hesitate to open a new thread if you need further assistance.
Hi,
In some cases, another plugin or a server configuration might be redirecting PHP logs into the restore file.
If other plugins can inject text into a logfile that is being managed BackWPUp then this is a security issue and should be looked into even more urgently.
Also, when trying to replicate the issue please disable logging – i.e. set WP_DEBUG to false and do not enable any logfile – that is when the WARNINGs are being logged into restore.log.
If the restore functionality is not being used, then restore.log should be completely empty regardless of other plugins and regardless of debug levels. The restore.log file should not even be initialized unless the restore functionality has been invoked. I think this would be the expectation of anyone using the BackWPUp plugin. I only found out of this logfile growth because it became so large that we got a warning from our hosting provider about exceeding the storage limits.
