A while ago, I wrote a post titled “Akeeba Math for beginners.” I guess I’ve got to take that class again. Today, I was trying to unpack a “big” site using Kickstart by Akeeba, but it kept failing. Initially, I kept looking in the wrong direction, until I remembered my own post.
I was suffering from the same problem! The sum of the Akeeba archive and the unpacked files was too big for the hosting package. Oh no! I was still determined to use Kickstart to install the site, though, because it simplifies your installation a lot. So I came up with a trick. Stuck in the same situation? Then do what I did!
Instructions
1. Remove the original archive and all the folders you’ve already unpacked. Deleting them is optional. I do this to avoid any and all confusion.
2. Download the Akeeba Extract Wizard and install.
3. Use the Extract Wizard to unpack your files to a folder.
4. Look for folders you can ‘remove’. In both my cases, I moved the Images folder. Don’t actually DELETE it, but move it somewhere.
5. Zip the remaining files.
6. Upload this significantly smaller zip file instead of your JPA archive. Use Kickstart as you’re used to, making sure you delete the archive at the end.
7. You’ll be succesful now, but you’ll be missing the files you left out. Upload them using FTP – if possible, as a .zip file. Since the archive is now gone, you’ll have enough place to upload all the files.
Tip: When choosing hosting, I use the following rule of thumb: Needed Disk space = Total of files x 2 . This should ensure that you’ve got enough room to (temporarely) store your Akeeba Backups.