1054 Unknown column 'metakey' in 'field list'

[dartagnon]

Greetings,
I am helping out with a friend whose website has been somewhat neglected in terms of updates.
After getting Joomla up to date earlier this year and updating VirtueMart 3.0.4 -> 3.4.2, I am still getting some issues.

For example, now when I try to create a new 'artist' (manufacturer in VirtueMart) I get this error;

An error has occurred
1054 Unknown column 'metakey' in 'field list'

After a bit of search I got the impression that VirtueMart Tools / Tools & Migration / "Install or if necessary update tables" should fix it.

When I run the tool however, I get another error;

An error has occurred.
1118 Row size too large. The maximum row size for the used table type, not counting BLOBs, is 65535. This includes storage overhead, check the manual. You have to change some columns to TEXT or BLOBs

I do not have access to the shell, but only have cPanel access so I cannot find out exactly which tables are failing during the update script.
Has anyone encountered similar issues? Any pointers as to how to resolve the issue will be very much appreciated!

[StefanSTS]

Hello,

that problem might be the one from late 2016. Can you try to run the table updater multiple times, not just once, it might solve the problem.
Otherwise you might try to use 3.0.18 as a step inbetween, but I don't think that is necessary.

Regards
Stefan

[dartagnon]

Thanks Stefan for your suggestion.
We have run the update tool at least 10 times though, if not more...
Wondering if there are other logs I can look at in Joomla/Virtuemart?

[Jörgen]

Make a fresh new VM install and export the sql table descriptions to file.
Export the sql table descriptions from Your current install and compare the files.

Use a tool like beyondcompare or similar.

Then You might find which sql database file is in the wrong format.

Have You maybe done some customization of the database files ?

Hope it can help You.

Jörgen @ Kreativ Fotografi

[dartagnon]

Thank you Jörgen. That sounds like a very sensible way to debug. Will give that a go.

[Milbo]

An error has occurred.
1118 Row size too large. The maximum row size for the used table type, not counting BLOBs, is 65535. This includes storage overhead, check the manual. You have to change some columns to TEXT or BLOBs

Check any column with varchar higher than 2000. Just shrink them manually. I think the error should also show the table with the error. Then execute the table updater again.