Calling for help with the below issues. Been stuck for ages. I'm largely a front-end user, so any advice in layman terms is greatly appreciated!

Problem 1: Trying to set up a Development environment. But when I hit Restore from the Live site, this error pops up. I'm on Umbraco 8.1.5.

"The source environment has thrown a Umbraco.Deploy.Exceptions.RemoteApiException with message: The remote API has thrown an exception. It might have been caused by an inner System.NullReferenceException with message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

Problem 2: Unable to delete a particular item in Recycle Bin. This error pops up.

"Request error: The URL returned a 404 (not found): /umbraco/backoffice/UmbracoApi/Content/DeleteById"

Not sure if it helps pinpoint the issue but here's the full technical details to Problem 1:

EXCEPTION (proper exception traces at the end of this log) System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Umbraco.Deploy.Exceptions.RemoteApiException: The remote API has thrown an exception.

EXCEPTION:

Umbraco.Deploy.Exceptions.RemoteApiException: The remote API has thrown an exception. at Umbraco.Deploy.Environments.RemoteUmbracoEnvironment.

REMOTE: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

at Umbraco.Core.Persistence.Repositories.Implement.DocumentRepository.MapDtosToContent(List1 dtos, Boolean withCache, Boolean slim) at Umbraco.Core.Persistence.Repositories.Implement.DocumentRepository.<GetPage>b__41_0(List1 x) at Umbraco.Core.Persistence.Repositories.Implement.ContentRepositoryBase3.GetPage[TDto](IQuery1 query, Int64 pageIndex, Int32 pageSize, Int64& totalRecords, Func2 mapDtos, Sql1 filter, Ordering ordering) at Umbraco.Core.Persistence.Repositories.Implement.DocumentRepository.GetPage(IQuery1 query, Int64 pageIndex, Int32 pageSize, Int64& totalRecords, IQuery1 filter, Ordering ordering) at Umbraco.Core.Services.Implement.ContentService.GetPagedDescendantsLocked(String contentPath, Int64 pageIndex, Int32 pageSize, Int64& totalChildren, IQuery1 filter, Ordering ordering) at Umbraco.Core.Services.Implement.ContentService.GetPagedDescendants(Int32 id, Int64 pageIndex, Int32 pageSize, Int64& totalChildren, IQuery1 filter, Ordering ordering) at Umbraco.Deploy.Connectors.ServiceConnectors.ContentConnector.DocumentConnector.Explode(UdiRange range, List1 udis) at Umbraco.Deploy.Environments.CurrentEnvironment.CreateManifestAsync(Guid sessionId, IEnumerable1 ranges, IEnumerable1 exclude, CancellationToken token) at Umbraco.Deploy.Environments.EnvironmentController.<>c__DisplayClass18_0.<BeginCreateManifestForRanges>b__0() at Umbraco.Deploy.Work.WorkItems.SessionWorkItem.<>c__DisplayClass28_0.<ExecuteAction>b__0(CancellationToken token) at Umbraco.Deploy.Work.WorkItems.SessionWorkItem.<ExecuteAsync>d__24.MoveNext() --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- at Umbraco.Deploy.Work.WorkItems.SessionWorkItem.WaitIdle() at Umbraco.Deploy.Environments.EnvironmentController.WaitIdle(SessionActionModel model) at lambda_method(Closure , Object , Object[] ) at System.Web.Http.Controllers.ReflectedHttpActionDescriptor.ActionExecutor.<>c__DisplayClass6_2.<GetExecutor>b__2(Object instance, Object[] methodParameters) at System.Web.Http.Controllers.ReflectedHttpActionDescriptor.ActionExecutor.Execute(Object instance, Object[] arguments) at System.Web.Http.Controllers.ReflectedHttpActionDescriptor.ExecuteAsync(HttpControllerContext controllerContext, IDictionary2 arguments, CancellationToken cancellationToken) --- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown --- at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.ThrowForNonSuccess(Task task) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.TaskAwaiter.HandleNonSuccessAndDebuggerNotification(Task task) at System.Web.Http.Controllers.ApiControllerActionInvoker.