Hi there, I am currently using DNN 4.5.3. i know it's not the latest version but at least it serves our purposes...since we are using a few third-party tools which do not work well in the latest version of DNN (seems like DB strucutre has been changed), therefore we are kinda stuck with this version of the framework.

until recently, suddenly we cannot create any child portal anymore. when we try to create child portal from the GUI's

Admin, it would generate error and -1 Pages under the page count. and when we try to do 'edit portal'

click on the link woudl get the following error:

Error: Site Settings is currently unavailable.
DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.ModuleLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at DotNetNuke.Entities.Portals.PortalSettings.GetSiteSettings(Int32 PortalId) at DotNetNuke.Modules.Admin.PortalManagement.SiteSettings.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in D:\inetpub\wwwroot\Helpdesk_Survey\Admin\Portal\SiteSettings.ascx.vb:line 278 --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

we wonder whether we can do from backend to see what's missing and add that back .pls note that we have over a dozen child portals and they are all working perfectly, so it seems like the framework is working well but just can't create any child portal anymore.  we checked on each potentially related tables (user, roles, tab, tabpermission and tabmodules tables, etc.)and make sure they are all having valid entry just like the other dozen child portals.

however, the page just doesn't load. wonder anything else maybe missing or what we can do (besides upgrading the framework as we are unsure whether that would work.

please kindly help. thank you.