Plesk Install not recongnised as a fresh install

[ShamirP]

Hi, I've run into a problem which I urgently need help with and am out of ideas.

We have a client who had an install of a wordpress and installed the multi site setup up, however there were some issues with the install as the site wasn't working correctly using the multi site set up. It seems like the setup wasn't working correctly with IIS,

When choosing the multi point set up you have two options:
subdomain : http://site1.example.com
sub-directories : http://example.com/site1/

The client needed sub-directories. however in this case there was a small issue with the sub-directories. IE if
Some sub-directories sites would load and some wouldn't the CSS wouldn't always load, getting page can not be found errors.

The client got fed up and tried to reinstall the wordpress, as the site was empty, they totally deleting the original installation using the app centre "remove" and re-installed using the app centre too.

However once the install had taken place it seem something is making wordpress to think its using and old installation and when the client would try to set up the multi point site they would see this message.

Because your install is not new, the sites in your WordPress network must use sub-domains. The main site in a sub-directory install will need to use a modified permalink structure, potentially breaking existing links.

I recommended they install wordpress manually by downloading the files and create the database, then follow the instructions. This seems to have worked fine, however we would have the same problems as before with the multi point site.

I was thinking there must be something wrong with the account, so I removed the account and re added it and installed wordpress I saw the fallowing message again.

Because your install is not new, the sites in your WordPress network must use sub-domains.The main site in a sub-directory install will need to use a modified permalink structure, potentially breaking existing links.

I tried to dive in the msql database and see if there is anything that is referring to the old set up but its like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Does anyone have any ideas? or any think I could try


Thanks in advance

 

[cepesh84]

@ShamirP, we will investigate your issue and reply in a few days

 

[cepesh84]

@ShamirP,

These issues hasn't any relation to Plesk. It is just a WordPress issues.

The source client's issue was reproduced by me on test environment. This comes from incorrect content which WordPress asks to replace in web.config for IIS server. If these rewrite rules are applied that there is an error with CSS/JS files.
The config from this topic
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-on-iis
fixed issue in my case.

The second issue with new install of WordPress and message "Because your install is not new, the sites in your WordPress network must use sub-domains. The main site in a sub-directory install will need to use a modified permalink structure, potentially breaking existing links." was reproduced by me too and in my case it comes from internal WordPress check about ability to use certain method of multisite network. If you have at least one post in status 'publish' in 'posts' table (it could be post or some page) than you should use subdomains. So, you should change status 'publish' from every post (page) which has it and then you'll be able to install network using a subdirectories.