Is it possible to successfully restore a FreePBX backup via Backup and restore module on a completely offline server?
When I attempt this, I run into an issue with the Sound Languages (soundlang) module. During the restore process, it tries to download sound files from the internet, which fails in an offline environment. As a result, the restored system ends up without any sound prompts.
I also tried excluding the soundlang module from the backup, but during restore it still removes the default sound files that are normally present on a fresh FreePBX installation.
Is there any recommended way to perform a full restore on an offline system without losing the sound files?
You have to have internet after Restored from backup you need to Activate your FreePBX.. And for that Internet required.. My suggestion is After Restore and all upgrade/update License actications done then disconnect or change the network ip details or VLAN settings..
I did some additional testing and it seems the issue is not related to missing sound files themselves.
After restoring the backup on a permanently offline FreePBX system, I verified that all sound files are present in /var/lib/asterisk/sounds, including the .asterisk-core-sounds-* files (alaw, g722, etc., version 1.5).
Additionally, when I run:
asterisk -rx “core show sounds”
I can see the sound files listed, so Asterisk itself clearly recognizes and can use them.
However, in the FreePBX GUI (Sound Languages module), no languages are shown at all.
Because of this, it looks like the problem is not with the sound files, but rather that the GUI/module does not recognize or populate the available languages in an offline environment.
Do you know if there is a way to refresh or rebuild the Sound Languages module data without requiring internet access?
Offline restores on FreePBX can get messy fast, especially if your backup was made on a different version — module mismatches are the first thing to check. Best approach I’ve found is to manually copy the backup file to /var/spool/asterisk/backup/ and trigger the restore from the GUI rather than the CLI. Saves a lot of headache chasing permission errors.
Or, maybe the other way around ? This would let you use a PHP hack like TMPDIR for changing where the temporary directory is made (for unpacking the backup.)
During the installation process, you may also encounter issues related to the sipsettings module, as it appears to perform certain implicit operations.
Thank you for your valuable advice. As you mentioned, there are actually more issues than solutions in this case, so I’ve decided to completely abandon the idea of restoring the configuration offline.
It’s a bit of a shame that this thread can’t be marked as resolved, but unfortunately not everything has an elegant solution.
Once again, thank you for your advice, and I wish you all the best!