Title: Error Log Monitor
Author: Janis Elsts
Published: <strong>July 27, 2012</strong>
Last modified: October 1, 2025

---

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![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/error-log-monitor.svg)

# Error Log Monitor

 By [Janis Elsts](https://profiles.wordpress.org/whiteshadow/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/error-log-monitor.1.7.12.zip)

 * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/#installation)
 * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/)

## Description

This plugin adds a Dashboard widget that displays the latest messages from your 
PHP error log. It can also send you email notifications about newly logged errors.

**Features**

 * Automatically detects error log location.
 * Explains how to configure PHP error logging if it’s not enabled yet.
 * The number of displayed log entries is configurable.
 * Sends you email notifications about logged errors (optional).
 * Configurable email address and frequency.
 * You can easily clear the log file.
 * The dashboard widget is only visible to administrators.
 * Optimized to work well even with very large log files.

**Usage**

Once you’ve installed the plugin, go to the Dashboard and enable the “PHP Error 
Log” widget through the “Screen Options” panel. The widget should automatically 
display the last 20 lines from your PHP error log. If you see an error message like“
Error logging is disabled” instead, follow the displayed instructions to configure
error logging.

Email notifications are disabled by default. To enable them, click the “Configure”
link in the top-right corner of the widget and enter your email address in the “
Periodically email logged errors to:” box. If desired, you can also change email
frequency by selecting the minimum time interval between emails from the “How often
to send email” drop-down.

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * The “PHP Error Log” widget added by the plugin.
 * [[
 * Dashboard widget configuration screen.

## Installation

Follow these steps to install the plugin on your site:

 1. Download the .zip file to your computer.
 2. Go to _Plugins -> Add New_ and select the “Upload” option.
 3. Upload the .zip file.
 4. Activate the plugin through the *Plugins -> Installed Plugins” page.
 5. Go to the Dashboard and enable the “PHP Error Log” widget through the “Screen Options”
    panel.
 6. (Optional) Click the “Configure” link in the top-right of the widget to configure
    the plugin.

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c9af5d93d50a03fa957b380d87e6a528982f62989853eb26f45414fefbc2b23a?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Good enough](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/good-enough-66/)󠁿

 [martin94](https://profiles.wordpress.org/martin94/) December 17, 2024

Pretty good but why did you make it a widget ? It’s very unpractical

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6fe09657de790cc12e6518ce2324c63492bac2486a0565d68bcc5197af6269c8?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[need to update for wordpress 6.7](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/need-to-update-for-wordpress-6-7/)󠁿

 [Mark C](https://profiles.wordpress.org/markqc/) December 1, 2024

unable to find the admin list of the php error. quite confusing where to locate 
this. not sure if this related to the wordpress latest version

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/65a9ebabd067c17065316d98dbde144f26f652fe08902d5e9aeeda0c746d3e15?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Extracts valuable information from the morass of log messages](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/extracts-valuable-information-from-the-morass-of-log-messages/)󠁿

 [Barry Brunning](https://profiles.wordpress.org/datastream/) September 24, 2024

With powerful options like ignore or fixed to filter messages one can focus on what
needs attention. The PRO version summary is very helpful. A suggested enhancement
to make the monitor more readable has been delivered quickly.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f39fcc0fd904173b1404e4213adb5cf87338945822fff35cfa4a0653c057bccd?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Pro is a life saver](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pro-is-a-life-saver/)󠁿

 [enmatthias](https://profiles.wordpress.org/enmatthias/) July 4, 2024

Both Free and Pro and very helpful. Sometimes I struggled with server setups / access
rights – the plugin devs could improve the error messages in such cases – but when
it works it’s very helpful.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ae38f90c73c44908350c6c90dab65fc5d72a4d6ce384324e4179680db09a0b25?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Useful plugin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/useful-plugin-995/)󠁿

 [John Dorner](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jdorner/) November 30, 2023

Nice plugin! Makes it easy to keep up with errors.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9728d0a7927e9231da917527c77fce9e0d6fccd9fa2a34215b8704e396dbaa0e?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Gatekeeps disabling their plugin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/gatekeeps-disabling-their-plugin/)󠁿

 [happysolicitor](https://profiles.wordpress.org/happysolicitor/) May 10, 2023

Any plugin that blocks its own deactivation to force a feedback prompt gets an instant
bad review in my book.You want feedback? Do better!

 [ Read all 49 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Error Log Monitor” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Janis Elsts ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/whiteshadow/)

“Error Log Monitor” has been translated into 8 locales. Thank you to [the translators](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/error-log-monitor/contributors)
for their contributions.

[Translate “Error Log Monitor” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/error-log-monitor)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/error-log-monitor/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/error-log-monitor/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/error-log-monitor/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/error-log-monitor/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.7.12

 * Fixed a fatal error when trying to clear a log file that is not writable.
 * Updated the Freemius SDK to version 2.12.2.
 * Tested up to WP 6.8.3 and WP 6.9-alpha.

#### 1.7.11

 * Fixed potential PHP deprecation warnings like “Creation of dynamic property ClassName::
   $file is deprecated in …/AdminPage.php”. While this plugin doesn’t trigger warnings
   like that on its own, it could cause them indirectly if it was used together 
   with another plugin that also uses the scbFramework framework.
 * Updated the Freemius SDK to the latest version.
 * Tested up to WP 6.7.1.

#### 1.7.10

 * Fix likely crash due to some Freemius SDK files being missing.

#### 1.7.9

 * Made the “Stack Trace” section collapsible. By default, it will always be expanded
   if available. You can change that in the widget configuration, in the new “Context”
   section. The plugin will also remember the state of recently collapsed/expanded“
   Stack Trace” sections (per unique log message).
 * Updated the Freemius SDK to version 2.9.0.
 * Tested up to WP 6.6.2.

#### 1.7.8

 * Added a “Download Log” button. It downloads the PHP error log as a ZIP file. 
   The button will only appear if the log is not empty and the server meets a number
   of additional requirements (PHP 8.1+, 64-bit PHP version, zlib and mbstring extensions).
 * Increased the minimum required PHP version to 7.4.
 * Updated the Freemius SDK to the latest version.
 * Tested up to WP 6.6-alpha.

#### 1.7.7

 * Updated the Freemius SDK to the latest version.
 * Tested with WP 6.3-beta.

#### 1.7.6

 * Updated the Freemius SDK to version 2.5.8.
 * Tested with WP 6.2.2 and 6.3-alpha.

#### 1.7.5

 * Fixed a visual bug where the log size limit field was too narrow in the most 
   recent WP version.
 * Tested with WP 6.2.

#### 1.7.4

 * Updated the Freemius SDK to version 2.5.3 in the hopes of fixing a couple of 
   PHP 8.1 deprecation notices that appear to be triggered by the SDK.

#### 1.7.3

 * Fixed a number of PHP 8 deprecation warnings and compatibility issues.
 * Tested with WP 6.1.

#### 1.7.2

 * Added an “Ignored regular expressions” setting. Enter one or more regex patterns
   in the box and the plugin will hide log entries that match any of those patterns.

#### 1.7.1

 * Added a “Clear Fixed Messages” button.
 * Fixed a scheduling bug where, in certain configurations, the plugin would send
   some email notifications too late.
 * Fixed a security issue.
 * Tested with WP 5.9.1 and 6.0-alpha (briefly).

#### 1.7

 * Added a “mark as fixed” option. Like the “ignore” option, “mark as fixed” hides
   all existing copies of a specific error. However, if the same error happens again
   in the future, the plugin will make it visible again.
 * Added a “Clear Ignored Messages” button. It un-ignores all previously ignored
   messages.
 * Fixed a couple of PHP 8 deprecation warnings about a required parameter following
   an optional parameter.
 * Tested with WP 5.6.1 and 5.7-beta.

#### 1.6.13

 * Fixed “Deprecated: contextual_help is deprecated since version 3.3.0”. While 
   this plugin doesn’t use the “contextual_help” filter, it includes a copy of scbFramework
   that can also be used by other active plugins. Some of those plugins could run
   code in scbFramework that used “contextual_help”. This deprecated code has now
   been removed.
 * Tested with WP 5.5.3.

#### 1.6.12

 * Fixed recoverable fatal errors being incorrectly presented as an unknown error
   type.
 * Added text domain to a UI message that was missing it.
 * Updated the Freemius SDK to version 2.4.1.
 * Tested with WP 5.5.1 and 5.6-beta.

#### 1.6.11

 * Changed the minimum required PHP version to 5.6.
 * Tested up to WP 5.5.

#### 1.6.10

 * Fixed a bug where the plugin could freeze or crash while trying to parse extremely
   long log entries (e.g. more than a million characters long).
 * Updated the Freemius SDK to version 2.3.2.
 * Tested up to WP 5.4.1.

#### 1.6.9

 * Fixed the erorr “call to undefined function get_blog_list()” when trying to access
   the network admin on a non-Multisite site.

#### 1.6.8

 * Fixed a conflict with WP-PageNavi, again. The fix included in the previous version
   was not fully effective.

#### 1.6.7

 * Fixed a conflict with WP-PageNavi that could cause a fatal error.
 * Updated Freemius SDK to the latest version, which may fix some Freemius-related
   issues.
 * Tested up to WP 5.3.

#### 1.6.6

 * Improved the way the plugin displays truncated stack traces. Now it should no
   longer display the last entry as a very tall and narrow block of text.
 * Added a workaround for conflicts with plugins that use old versions of scbFramework.
 * Tested up to WP 5.2.

#### 1.6.5

 * Fixed a bug where it wasn’t possible to filter out log entries that didn’t match
   any of the standard severity levels (notice, warning, error, etc). Now you can
   hide uncategorized log entries by unchecking the “Other” option in filter settings.
 * Fixed a security issue.
 * Tested with the final WP 5.1 release.

#### 1.6.4

 * Changed plugin configuration permissions. Now you need to have the “install_plugins”
   capability to change the configuration. Previous versions used the “update_core”
   capability.
 * Fixed a bug where users who couldn’t change plugin configuration were still shown
   a useless “Submit” button.
 * Tested with WP 5.1-alpha.

#### 1.6.3

 * Added a workaround for a conflict with “Go Fetch Jobs (for WP Job Manager)” 1.4.6.
 * Tested with the final WP 5.0 release.

#### 1.6.2

 * Added a setup wizard that helps new users create a log file and enable error 
   logging. You can still do it manually you prefer. The setup notice will automatically
   disappear if logging is already configured.
 * Fixed a bug where activating the plugin on individual sites in a Multisite network
   could, in some cases, trigger a fatal error.
 * Additional testing with WP 5.0-alpha.

#### 1.6.1

 * Fixed the “upgrade” link being broken in certain configurations.

#### 1.6

 * Added a colored dot showing the severity level to each error message. Fatal errors
   are red, warnings are orange, notices and strict-standards messages are grey,
   and custom or unrecognized messages are blue.
 * Added a new setting for email notifications: “how often to check the log for 
   new messages”.
 * Added a notice explaining how to configure WordPress to log all types of errors(
   including PHP notices) instead of just fatal errors and warnings.
 * Added Freemius integration.
 * Added a link to the Pro version to bottom of the widget.
 * Improved parsing of multi-line log entries. Now the plugin will show all of the
   lines as part of the same message instead of treating every line as an entirely
   separate error.
 * Improved stack trace formatting.
 * In Multisite, the dashboard widget now also shows up in the network admin dashboard.
 * Changed permissions so that only Super Admins can change plugin settings or clear
   the log file. Regular administrators can still see the widget.

#### 1.5.7

 * The widget now displays log timestamps in local time instead of UTC.
 * Fixed a runtime exception “Backtrack buffer overflow” that was thrown when trying
   to parse very long log entries.

#### 1.5.6

 * The dashboard widget now shows the log file size and the “Clear Log” button even
   when all entries are filtered out.
 * Tested with WP 4.9 and WP 5.0-alpha.

#### 1.5.5

 * Fixed two PHP notices: “Undefined index: schedule in […]Cron.php on line 69” 
   and “Undefined index: time in […]Cron.php on line 76”.
 * Added “error_reporting(E_ALL)” to the example code to log all errors and notices.
 * Tested up to WP 4.9-beta2.

#### 1.5.4

 * Fixed the error “can’t use method return value in write context”. It was a compatibility
   issue that only affected PHP versions below 5.5.

#### 1.5.3

 * You can send email notifications to multiple addresses. Just enter a comma-separated
   list of emails.
 * Made sure that email notifications are sent no more often than the configured
   frequency even when WordPress is unreliable and triggers cron events too frequently.
 * Tested up to WP 4.9-alpha-40871.

#### 1.5.2

 * Fixed a fatal error caused by a missing directory. Apparently, SVN externals 
   don’t work properly in the wordpress.org plugin repository.

#### 1.5.1

 * Added an option to ignore specific error messages. Ignored messages don’t show
   up in the dashboard widget and don’t generate email notifications, but they stay
   in the log file.
 * Added limited support for parsing stack traces generated by PHP 7.
 * Made the log output more compact.
 * Improved log parsing performance.
 * Fixed an “invalid argument supplied for foreach” warning in scbCron.

#### 1.5

 * Added a severity filter. For example, you could use this feature to make the 
   plugin send notifications about fatal errors but not warnings or notices.
 * Added limited support for XDebug stack traces. The stack trace will show up as
   part of the error message instead of as a bunch of separate entries. Also, stack
   trace items no longer count towards the line limit.

#### 1.4.2

 * Hotfix for a parse error that was introduced in version 1.4.1.

#### 1.4.1

 * Fixed a PHP compatibility issue that caused a parse error in Plugin.php on sites
   using an old version of PHP.

#### 1.4

 * Added an option to send an email notification when the log file size exceeds 
   the specified threshold.
 * Fixed a minor translation bug.
 * The widget now shows the full path of the WP root directory along with setup 
   instructions. This should make it easier to figure out the absolute path of the
   log file.
 * Tested with WP 4.6-beta3.

#### 1.3.3

 * Added i18n support.
 * Added an `elm_show_dashboard_widget` filter that lets other plugins show or hide
   the error log widget.
 * Tested with WP 4.5.1 and WP 4.6-alpha.

#### 1.3.2

 * Tested up to WP 4.5 (release candidate).

#### 1.3.1

 * Added support for Windows and Mac style line endings.

#### 1.3

 * Added an option to display log entries in reverse order (newest to oldest).
 * Added a different error message for the case when the log file exists but is 
   not accessible.
 * Only load the plugin in the admin panel and when running cron jobs.
 * Fixed the error log sometimes extending outside the widget.
 * Tested up to WP 4.4 (alpha version).

#### 1.2.4

 * Tested up to WP 4.2 (final release).
 * Added file-based exclusive locking to prevent the plugin occasionally sending
   duplicate email notifications.

#### 1.2.3

 * Tested up to WP 4.2-alpha.
 * Refreshing the page after clearing the log will no longer make the plugin to 
   clear the log again.

#### 1.2.2

 * Updated Scb Framework to the latest revision.
 * Tested up to WordPress 4.0 beta.

## Meta

 *  Version **1.7.12**
 *  Last updated **7 months ago**
 *  Active installations **20,000+**
 *  WordPress version ** 4.5 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.8.5**
 *  PHP version ** 7.4 or higher **
 *  Languages
 * [Chinese (Taiwan)](https://tw.wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/), [Dutch](https://nl.wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/),
   [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/), [Japanese](https://ja.wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/),
   [Korean](https://ko.wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/), [Russian](https://ru.wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/),
   [Spanish (Mexico)](https://es-mx.wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/), [Spanish (Spain)](https://es.wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/),
   and [Spanish (Venezuela)](https://ve.wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/).
 *  [Translate into your language](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/error-log-monitor)
 * Tags
 * [admin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/admin/)[administration](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/administration/)
   [dashboard widget](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/dashboard-widget/)[error reporting](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/error-reporting/)
   [php](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/php/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/error-log-monitor/advanced/)

## Ratings

 4.3 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  37 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  1 4-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  4 3-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  1 2-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  5 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/reviews/?filter=1)

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Janis Elsts ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/whiteshadow/)

## Support

Issues resolved in last two months:

     0 out of 1

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/error-log-monitor/)