Troubleshooting Cs-Cart - Try Using "file Changes Detector" First

I was getting our older store ready for migration/updates and wanted to do a tiny bit of clean-up first. So, I went to "Clear cache" (Administration->Storage->Clear cache), and immediately after, our store was acting a little funky, the admin backend would just spin on the Statistics sales chart area on the dashboard and I couldn't "x" out of any notifications and also could not select on the different stores. The front end cart still worked and processed orders, but I knew something was definitely wrong somewhere. I checked all modified files on the server within the past day (really just looking for the last hour) to see what may have changed, and no real luck there. So then I looked at the admin "File changes detector" area and found core.js completely missing from that directory - It is an older cart that will be getting upgraded soon and I did have a new cart version (mostly mirrored and completely upgraded) open in another tab as a completely different store and URL, so I'm maybe wondering if there was any cross-cookie contamination or anything like that going on between the two versions of the store or if it was just a super fluke situation when I cleared the cache. I found a relatively recent version of the older core.js file that would match the older store and uploaded that to the server - bingo, everything worked as intended again.

Long story short, if you need to troubleshoot some things in CS-Cart, it might be a good idea to go to the "File changes detector" area (Administration->File changes detector) first! :) It sure saved the day for me this time around and I hope it helps you too...

Also, backup everything (server files and the database) with some regularity as you never know what could happen in the future before it's too late! If you have access to cPanel, there is an easy-peasy "Backup Wizard" where you get a compressed and downloadable version of both the server files and database together (Full Backup) or separately (Partial Backup (Home Directory) & (MySQL Databases)). Happy troubleshooting...