Note: This article was originally published in 2013. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current Ubuntu documentation for the latest information.

Resolve: Your web-server does not have the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcrypt “Mcrypt”) module installed. Without it, encryption will be a lot slower.

(How to install mcrypt in an (http://www.ubuntu.com “Ubuntu (operating system)”))

I have installed UpdraftPlus in order to manage backups of the site. The downside is they seem to be moving towards having you buy addons for a lot of the functionality but for now it gets the job done and it is a very complete plugin. One of the big issues I am facing with it though is that the message “Your web-server does not have the mcrypt module installed. Without it, encryption will be a lot slower.” keeps popping up. I am sure I have installed and re-installed mcrypt several times but still no dice so I finally figured out what was wrong: The installation of mcrypt does not link the apache php (runtime?) to mcrypt. So follow this simple instructions to install mcrypt and make sure it is linked correctly:

  1. Install mcrypt by running the following command: (http://wiki.debian.org/Apt “Advanced Packaging Tool”) install (http://www.php.net “PHP”)-mcrypt
  2. Make sure the following file exists: /etc/php5/(http://https://httpd.apache.org/ “Apache HTTP Server”)/conf.d/mcrypt.ini
  3. If the file is missing, you can copy it from: /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/mcrypt.ini or**/etc/php5/conf.d/mcrypt.ini**
  4. If you need to re-install mcrypt you can do so with this command:apt-get —reinstall install php5-mcrypt
  5. Don’t forget to restart apache: sudo service apache2 restart

If for some reason you can’t find mcrypt.ini anywhere, you can create the file with the following text inside of it: ; configuration for php MCrypt module extension=mcrypt.so Consider also creating a symbolic link if you want to keep your settings in sync: ln -s **/etc/php5/conf.d/mcrypt.ini** **/etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/mcrypt.ini**

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