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How to Fix “Are you sure you want to do this?” Error in WordPress

Getting “Are you sure you want to do this” error in WordPress? You are in the right place as this article will reveal how to fix the issue with few simple steps.

Check Site Security

Most times, you get the error when you try to finalise an action that requires specific user permissions, but WordPress is unable to verify that you have access to do that. WordPress makes use of security tokens called nonces. If WordPress can’t verify these tokens, the error will display.

Generate new Security Keys

To fix this error, you can generate new security keys using the  WordPress Security Key Generator. What you need to do is to copy the whole output and paste it in your wp-config.php file.

Plugin or Theme Upload Error

If you get the error when trying to upload a plugin or theme, there may be a problem with the zip file. To fix the issue, take the following steps:

  1. Go to cPanel > File Manager
  2. Look for the public_html folder and open the wp-content folder.
  3. If you are uploading a plugin, go to the plugin folder. If you are uploading a theme, open the theme folder. Upload your plugin or theme zip file in there and unzip the file. After that, delete the zip file.
  4. Go to the wp-admin dashboard to activate the theme or plugin. That’s all!

Other Solutions

The other solutions you can try are popular actions like:

  • Increasing your PHP Memory Limit
  • Clearing caches and cookies
  • Deactivating theme and plugins
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Customizing WordPress with Elementor – How to Start

WordPress is an open-source PHP-based CMS with a series of great plugins and extensions which have been developed over the years to make it one of the best and most popular CMS platforms on the planet. Elementor is one of those groundbreaking WordPress builder plugins/tools. In this article, you will learn more about the Elementor plugin.

Why Elementor?

Elementor offers great and advanced tools to design and bring the life and beauty out of any WordPress website. With its extensions, the power of Elementor appears unmatched by other rivals. Some of the features that distinguishes Elementor include:

  • All-in-One Solution that controls every aspect of your web design workflow from one place.
  • Visual Design is simple, powerful, and flexible. It offers 100% visual design.
  • Faster Performance. You can build websites that load faster and speed up the building process.

What is the structure?

In this section, you will learn about the structures of the following on Pages, Posts, Templates with illustrative images on Elementor.

Pages

It is easy to build and design pages on Elementor with its thousands of extensions and user-friendly compatible plugins. See photo below.

Posts

Posting has also been made easy and more robust using this plugin. Elementor offers more capability for bloggers to post without adding plenty of third parties plugins as these are already embedded in the Elementor plugin. More features are available on the Pro version.

Themes

Just like other page builders, some WordPress themes are built with Elementor compatibility. When looking for themes to purchase online, be sure to also look out for themes built in this format as some themes may even come with ELEMENTOR pro in the purchase download. See a list of Elementor friendly themes from ThemeForest.

Also included is the theme builder feature that lets you customize anything on your website.

Extensions and Addons

As stated earlier, over 100s of thousands of extensions are available pre-built both with the follow-come plugin and external ones. These extensions are great, as they minimize the work of your website loading multiple plugins, thus optimizing your website speed and, ultimately, SEO. See a list of great extensions here.

Click here to see all features of Elementor categorized appropriately.

What does Elementor Pro offer?

Free vs Pro

Well, just like every other thing you buy on the planet. The PRO means more features and Premium services. Elementor Pro does not fail to impress. Every feature is worth it on the pro. See below an image illustration of features:

Click here to get started on the Elementor Pro.

Headers and footers

It is crucial to know how to build headers and footers using the Elementor pro. You can check out an easy walkthrough by Elementor here. You can also see this YouTube video for a visual guide.

Global Elements (Widget)

It gives you full control over a specific widget that is shown in multiple places on your site. Editing it in one place will update the others. Here Is a documentation on how this is done.

Conclusion

Elementor Pro offers you top-notch page building tools for all WordPress sites to give you that all-in-one package without compromising website speed and functionalities caused by multiple installed plugins. It is one of the best in the web industry today and every WordPress expert’s best friend.

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Fixing Syntax Error in WordPress

A syntax error usually occurs when you make a mistake in your code. With this error, the compiler cannot process (parse) the file. Therefore, it fails to display your website. In this short piece, you will learn how to fix the syntax error.

Steps to take to Fix the Syntax Error

  1. Go to the cPanel.
  2. Click on File Manager and locate the corrupted file named in the error. Right-click the file and select Edit.
  3. Head to the line number specified in the error and check for errors like missing semicolons, punctuation, tags, and brackets.
  4. After correcting the error, click Save & Close. Then, reload your site and confirm the error no longer come up.

In some instances, you can fix syntax errors by deleting the line that caused the error and rewriting, if necessary. For example, if there is a comment missing escape characters and has been interpreted as code, deleting the line completely will fix the error. However, you need to be careful when you delete a line so as not to cause another issue. For instance, you cannot delete a line used for computing a variable’s value. If you do, you will need to re-write the correct version of the code.

Conclusion

While getting syntax or parse errors can be so frustrating, you can fix the errors by simply determining the corrupted file and modifying it. For more tutorials on fixing issues encountered in WordPress, check out our blog and resources at Testup.

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How to Fix WordPress White Screen of Death

The WordPress white screen of death is a pervasive error with WordPress sites. Getting this error can be frustrating, and you may not know the specific reason why it occurs. This article will show you different steps to take to fix this error.

Clear Browser Cache

Before you start probing the WordPress site, let’s confirm your browser is not the cause of the issue.

  • If you use Firefox, click the menu button; select Options; click Privacy & Security; under Cookies and Site Data, click Clear Data.
  • If you use Chrome, click the three dots at the top right corner; select More Tools; then, click Clear Browsing Data.

If the error still exists, consider the next step.

Test Your Plugins

First, think about the last action you took on your site before the error happened. It’s possible that you recently activated or updated a plugin. Plugins are common reasons behind the WordPress White Screen Death error. Try to deactivate the plugin and reload your site to see if everything comes back to normal. If not, you can test your plugins with Testup.

Switch to the Default Theme

If plugin troubleshooting does not fix the error, you can consider replacing your current theme with the default theme. To do this, access your admin area and go to Appearance > Themes in your WordPress dashboard. Locate and activate the default theme.

Not Lucky yet?

Other things you can do to fix WordPress White Screen Death error include the following:

  1. Check the memory limit; increase it if possible.
  2. Switch to WordPress debug mode to view your error log.
  3. Check for Failed Auto-Update Issues
  4. Restore to backup

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How to Fix the “Missing a Temporary Folder” Error in WordPress

When you get Missing a Temporary Folder error in WordPress, it can prevent you from uploading files and images as well as updating plugins and themes. In this article, you will find how you can solve this issue fast and get your WordPress up and running without much hassle. All you have to do is to follow the steps below.

Step 1: Login to Your CPanel

Step 2: Open the File Manager

In the file manager, navigate to the public.html folder where you will find the wp-config.php file.

Step 3: Right-Click the wp-config.php file to Select Edit

Add the code below in the file and click Save Changes

 define('WP_TEMP_DIR', dirname(__FILE__) . '/wp-content/temp/'); 

By doing this, you have defined the temporary folder. It’s now time to create it.

Step 4: Create a Temp Folder inside wp-content

To do this, open the wp-content directory inside the file manager.

Navigate to the +Folder link in the cPanel menu.

You will get a popup asking you to provide the name for the new folder. Name it temp and then click on Create New Folder. Refresh the page to see the new folder.

That’s all! You can now carry out the action you wanted to perform when you got the Missing a Temporary Folder error.

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Your WordPress Update failed – What can you do?

Keeping your WordPress website up to date can be quite a challenge. However, what is more so is getting an error after an update. This is a considerable problem faced by many. Let’s have a look at how we recover from errors.

What are the errors you can get while updating your site?

These are some of the main types of errors that can be caused by update failures. However, there can be many others.

No access to the Admin area

This is a somewhat rare error, however, it can be caused by a faulty update or plugin.

Follow these steps to deactivate a faulty plugin and restore your site:

  1. Manually deactivate the plugin via FTP.
    Once you connect to your WordPress website via FTP, navigate to the “httpdocs > wp-content > plugins” folder and find the plugin(s) that were recently installed or updated.
    Right-click on the folder(s) and rename them as “disabled.[pluginname]”. This will stop WordPress from accessing the plugin(s) and allow your website to work correctly. Once this is done, you will need to permanently remove the plugin if it continues to malfunction.
  2. Deactivate the plugin via phpMyAdmin
    Open your WordPress website’s database via phpMyAdmin. Now view the records in the “options” table.
    Edit the “active_plugins” record and remove any content related to the plugin(s) that is causing the error. This should restore the website.
  3. Restore the website to an earlier state. We’ll look at more details on how this can be done later in this article.

Design / Functionality breaks

Broken plugins can cause your website to look different or functionality to break. In the example below, the WooCommerce – PayPal plugin malfunctioned and displayed additional payment methods that were not configured.

Apply one of the following fixes to the broken plugin:

  1. Use WP-Rollback to revert the plugin(s) to a previous stable version
    WP-Rollback is a WordPress plugin that allows you to easily revert plugins and themes to older versions.
  2. If that doesn’t help, restore the entire website to an earlier state.

How to avoid these errors in the future

Prevention is always better than a cure, so let’s see how you can prevent such errors.

Backup your website regularly

The WordPress Plugin directory lists close to a thousand plugins related to backups. You can use almost any of them to back up your site and be ready for potential disasters. Consider one of the following plugins which are the top 3 plugins on the directory:

  1. UpdraftPlus (2.0 million+ installs | 4.8 out of 5 stars | 3,500+ reviews)

  2. BackWPup (600,000+ installs | 4.4 out of 5 stars | 950+ reviews)

  3. Jetpack (5.0 million+ installs | 3.9 out of 5 stars | 1,500+ reviews)

Use a Staging Server

You can verify updates by applying them to a similar server. Many WordPress hosting services offer a Staging server for free, or at a small fee. It is worth having a Staging server if you regularly update your website.

A Staging server will be identical to your production website in terms of specifications, WordPress, and plugins. So you will be able to foresee any potential errors before they happen on your website. You can update changes to your website once you have ensured that they are safe. You don’t need to worry about having to repeat your changes as many service providers allow you to quickly migrate changes from your staging site to production.

Those were some quick tips about how to recover from WordPress update errors and how to be prepared for them.

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Fixing Common SSL Issues in WordPress

Several errors can occur when trying to add SSL with your WordPress website. In this article, you will learn how you can fix these errors.

NET:ERR_CERT_INVALID Error

If you get this error, it means the SSL certificate may be expired or issued to a different domain or subdomain. Also, the browser may be facing issues trying to recognize its authority. To fix this error, you can reinstall the SSL certificate.

Mixed Content Errors

Mixed Content Errors are caused by the elements, like scripts or images, not being loaded via secured HTTP protocol. You can fix this in two ways; first is by using a plugin. The second way is by fixing the issue manually.

Fix Using a Plugin

Get the Really Simple SSL plugin from the WordPress repository. After installation and activation, go to Settings > SSL to review plugin settings. The plugin will automatically fix the errors.

Fix it Manually

First, make sure you are using the HTTPS protocol in your WordPress website settings. Go to the general settings of your website to change HTTP to HTTPS.

Once this is done, go through your website manually to check old HTTP URLs in your database and replace with the new HTTPS URLs. An easy and fast way of doing this is by installing the Better Search Replace plugin. Activate the plugin, go to Settings > Tools > Better Search Replace. Then, add the current HTTP website URL in the Search field. Afterwards, add the website URL with HTTPS in the Replace field.

Fixing the Too Many Redirects Errors

To fix this error, access the wp-config.php file and put the following code.

define(‘FORCE_SSL_ADMIN’, true);

However, in some cases, this setting can actually lead to many more redirect errors. In such case, add the following code to your wp-config.php file:

define(‘FORCE_SSL_ADMIN’, true);
//in some setups HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO might contain
//a comma-separated list e.g. http,https
//so check for https existence
if (strpos($_SERVER[‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO’], ‘https’) !== false)
$_SERVER[‘HTTPS’]=’on’;

Fix HTTP to HTTPS Redirect

You can fix this error can accessing your .htaccess file and adding the code to it.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
</IfModule>

Conclusion

Try the solutions discussed above and you see your WordPress website up and running, again.

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Ultimate Guide to WP-Staging

Websites today are increasingly complex in design. Because of the volume of code and the numerous technologies packed into a single website, an apparently simple change in code can cause an unpredictable outcome in the performance of the site. Making code revisions or other changes directly to a live website creates unacceptable risk, especially when downtime can result in loss of revenue to an Ecommerce enterprise. For this primary reason, a modern website is first developed on a staging site. Then, after testing shows that no new bugs arose from code changes, the staging site is deployed to the live site, also called “production.” WP-Staging is a plugin for WordPress sites which greatly facilitates and simplifies the creation and operation of a staging environment for WordPress sites. 

Benefits of Staging WordPress Sites

Why use a staging environment? Even a modest WordPress site often contains half a million lines of code in PHP, MySQL, jQuery, Angular, React, and much more. The backbone of WordPress sites also contains all the code libraries of the WordPress Codex, a vast resource of functions. The number of potential bugs and performance issues which can arise from a seemingly simple code revision is unlimited and represents an extraordinary risk to production of Ecommerce enterprise. WP-Staging empowers us to sandbox development risk by first revising code on a WordPress staging site. Then, only after QA has tested and verified the new version as bug-free, WP-Staging automates deployment of the new version to live production. The benefits of WP-Staging are truly persuasive:

  • Automatic cloning of existing site to staging site environment
  • Translation of live site paths to staging site paths in code
  • Detection of files which have changed
  • Automatic deployment of new app version to live site
  • Automatic rollback to previous version of code
  • Authentication provides security on staging site

How to Use WP-Staging

The first step in setting up a staging site is to clone the live or production site. In this step, WP-Staging creates a replica of your website on your server in a new location which you designate. In the setup stage, you can choose to copy the production MySQL database and include or exclude tables as required. Or, you can use the live version of your MySQL db with the staging site. As WP-Staging copies files according to your settings, it automatically revises paths in code files to point correctly to the new locations. Cloning is very fast and does not affect the performance of the live site while in progress. Several important options which you can configure for cloning include:

  • Duplicate the MySQL database for use with staging
  • Optionally use live site version of MySQL
  • Exclude specified tables in your MySQL database
  • Designate specific user access and roles

Intuitive Features of WP-Staging 

WP-Staging is a WordPress plug-in which accomoplishes an amazing set of tasks. One of the great developer-oriented features, WP-Staging color codes the new staging site WordPress dashboard to quickly and obviously distinguish it from the production site Admin dashboard. When you first sign in to the staging site and the new Admin Dashboard is bright orange, you know right away this is the staging admin panel, and there is no way to accidentally make design changes to the production site. That’s just one of many awesome intuitive features of WP-Staging.is a WordPress plug-in which accomoplishes an amazing set of tasks.

Another important feature is the automation of tedious tasks. Many WordPress users choose WordPress content management system (CMS) because it reduces the technical overhead significantly. WP-Staging amplifies this by automating many of the complex tasks of manually creating a staging site.

WP-Staging is an ALL-In-One Solution

WP-Staging features both a free version and a paid version. Only the basic function of cloning a website for the purpose of creating a staging site is provided in the free version. All the more advanced features such as migrating a site to multiple domains, and pushing an entire site to production, require the paid version. The pro version is very affordable and under €100 at the time of writing.

The daily workflow of coding changes to a WordPress site is significantly more efficient when using WP-Staging to roll out new versions of your site. WP-Staging eliminates the risk of doing so, while providing a convenient method to roll back to previous versions when needed. Using WP-Staging is very much like having a continuous integration – continuous delivery (CI/CD) engineer on staff for the low cost of a Wp plugin. WP-Staging is a great all-in-one solution for companies in need of low overhead technology and developer solutions!

References

Image captures:

https://athemes.com/tutorials/how-to-setup-a-wordpress-staging-site/

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Fixing WordPress Not Sending Email Issue

Have you faced an issue with WordPress not sending emails properly or at all? You are in the right place at the right time, as this article will show you how you get email up and running on your WordPress website.

Test Email on your Server

First, run a test on your WordPress site with a free Email Check plugin provided by WordPress itself. By running this test, you will know if your WordPress installation and the server can send emails. After installing the plugin, go the Tools menu under your WordPress dashboard and click Check Email. Enter an email address and click Send test email.

Check your email to see if you get the test the email. The subject of the email will be “Test email from https://yourdomain.com.” You should also check your junk or spam mail folder. If you find the email, then the issue of emails not sent in the past is probably due to misconfiguration or an incompatibility. You can check your WordPress mail settings or contact your plugin developer for help.

Use SMTP to Send your Emails

Here is another way to resolve the email issue in WordPress. There are several SMTP providers that you can choose from; they include Gmail, Mailgun, SendGrid, WPforms, etc. All you need to do is to download the SMTP plugin of any of these providers from the WordPress repository.

To install the plugin, go to Add New Plugin, click the upload tab, browse for the plugin file, click Install Now and hit the activate button.

Using Gmail SMTP

For Gmail SMTP, you need to authorize your WordPress installation to use Google’s servers. To do this, you have to create a set of secure credentials. Visit console.developers.google.com, log in to your Gmail account, Click My Project, and click the Add (+)to create a new project. In the dashboard of the new project, click Enable APIs and Services.

Click on Gmail API under G Suite APIs. On the next screen, click Enable.

Next, click on Credentials on the left-hand side and under Create credentials, choose OAuth client ID. Then, click Configure consent screen.

Afterwards, input your email address, a product name, and a privacy policy URL. On the next screen, choose web application. Enter a name, paste the Authorized JavaScript origins URL, and the Authorized redirect URIs from the Gmail SMTP wizard on WordPress. Then click Save.

Once you do this, you will get your client ID and client secret. Copy and paste them into the fields on the Gmail SMTP wizard in on WordPress. Click Next and then, Finish. That’s all.

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How to Fix the WordPress Login Redirect Loop

On some occasions, you or your users may experience WordPress login redirect loop in which you are redirected back to the login screen after logging in. This prevents you from accessing the admin panel of your website. Therefore, you are unable to manage your site or create new content. Testup is here with three methods you can use to fix this issue.

Clear Browser Cache and Cookies

If your browser’s cache and cookies hold onto to outdated information and use old WordPress files, it can lead to WordPress login redirect loop. To clear your browser caches and cookies, take the following steps:

  • On Google Chrome, click the three dots at the top-right corner. Select More tools and click Clear browsing data.
  • On Mozilla Firefox, click the three horizontal lines at the top-right corner. Go to Preferences, click Privacy and Security. Navigate to Cookies and Site Data and select Clear Data. Mark the options Cookies and Site Data as well as Cached Web Content; then, click Clear.
  • On Safari, go to Preferences, click on Privacy. Then, select Remove All Website Data and click Remove Now.
  • On Microsoft Edge, click the three dots at the top right corner and select History. Select Clear History; tick the options Cached data and files as well as Cookies and saved website data. After that, click Clear.

Restore Default .htaccess file

If you still see the login redirect loop after clearing browser cache and cookies, then you can restore the default .htaccess file. To do this, access the WordPress root folder through an FTP or a File Manager. Locate the .htaccess file and delete it.

Deactivate Themes and Plugins

WordPress login redirect loop can also be caused by conflicting or corrupt plugins or themes. To deactivate your WordPress plugins, access the websites’ wp-content directory through an FTP or a file manager. Then, rename the plugin folder to deactivate all plugins. To deactivate a theme, find the themes’ folder in your wp-content directory and rename the folder.