I occasionally get the following error: ‘MYSQL server has gone away’. This happens at random times and there seems to be no way to predict when it will happen. Several users on my site have been complaining to me bitterly about problems with their data ‘going missing’, sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently.
What can I do to prevent this from happening?
Can you provide error logs and or screenshots?
If your scripts exceed the limits in place of free accounts you will get gone away errors when the server is under stress for your website requests; I can only advise of disabling unrequired plugins or using smaller operations with the database or upgrade.
How do I access the error logs?
Within the directory of public_html or wp-admin do you see any error_log file? Download it via FTP and open it in notepad.
public_html only has the files I put in it and a file called .htaccess
Maybe there are no errors being logged so it must be a case of just too much stress/scripts.
How do I fix that/prevent it from happening?
Disable any plugins you don’t use/ don’t need.
Make sure there are no scripts running you don’t need.
What kind of data is "going missing’ ?
I created a homework site that reports the marks directly to the teacher. It stores the answers in a database so that the teacher can view it and the answers remain from session to session. Occasionally students will lose their previous data, which is a headache for obvious reasons.
I am not running any scripts other than the website itself, and I didn’t turn on any plugins, and can’t figure out how to turn off any that are by default on.
Okay if you’ve got a site you’ve created yourself I can’t really advise as you know the script more than I do - may be worthwhile giving premium a go for a month for 1 cent - http://hosting24.com
When I refer to plugins I aim that at WordPress users sorry.