Thank you for reporting this.
Did this error occur after updating the plugin or did you just recently install it?
This problem has been reported once before, and it was found to be caused by an incompatibility with another plugin. Just to be clear: there is no code in Content Aware Sidebars to create posts or pages, only sidebars.
Would it be possible for you to provide a list of active plugins on your site? And the name of your theme.
Sure. I’m using GeneratePress, and lots of plugins – I’ll make a list, but meanwhile, can you tell me which plugin was incompatible? It might save some time…
The error occurred after the update.
Here are the active plugins on my site:
Advanced Custom Fields
Akismet Anti-Spam
AnyWhere Elementor Pro
Auto Post Thumbnail PRO
Category Posts Widget
CM Tooltip Glossary Ecommerce
Contact Form 7
Content Aware Sidebars
Elementor
Elementor Addon Elements
Elementor Pro
EventON
EventON – Event Lists
External Links
Forums – wpForo
GP Premium
H5P
H5P Mods
Hide Admin Bar From Non-admins
LearnDash & Paid Memberships Pro
LearnDash Course Grid
LearnDash LMS
LearnDash LMS – Notifications
LearnDash ProPanel
List Custom Taxonomy Widget
Maintenance
MimeTypes Link Icons
Page Templater For Elementor
Paid Memberships Pro
PDF Image Generator
Post Type Switcher
Post Types Order
Press Elements – Widgets for Elementor
Responsive Lightbox
Slimstat Analytics
TablePress Extension: Responsive Tables
Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit
UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore
WaspThemes – Yellow Pencil Pro
Wordfence Security
Thank you for the list. The only two plugins you have in common with the other user who reported this problem are Post Types Order and TablePress.
Can I ask you what led up to the 30.000 posts being created? Did you just update this plugin, and then it happened, or were you editing a post or sidebar, or something else?
I will then try to reproduce the problem as I really like to get to the bottom of this, so I can contact the developers of any incompatible plugin and work on a solution.
To be honest, I can’t remember what I had done just before, but I’m pretty sure the page creation occurred while I was checking the CAS settings.
A day or so after the update (I hadn’t worked on the site since), I noticed that none of the custom sidebars were displaying, and so I went back to see what had gone wrong. First strange problem: I couldn’t get the conditions dropdowns to stick on the “edit sidebar” page; they expanded and then rolled back up.
So I went to one of the pages where the sidebar should have appeared. While I was working on one of the pages – checking and unchecking the sidebar there – and then reloading the page to see if the changes had worked, the page seemed to get stuck in an infinite loop.
I tried a few times (generating a few thousand pages at a time without realizing it…!) then I got fed up and shut down the site for the evening. This morning I noticed the extra pages.
I’ve deleted the 30,000-some pages and reactivated the plugin; for the moment everything seems all right. Holding my breath…!
Thank you for all the details.
Did you update any other plugin while you updated Content Aware Sidebars? And did you update from version 3.5.2 or an older version?
Your scenario is very similar to what the other user reported, but it was resolved by itself (the user also deactivated some plugins), so I think that there might be a rare edge case that causes the incompatibility. I just went over the code in Content Aware Sidebars again, and there is simply nowhere I can see could create thousands of posts or pages.
That the sidebars weren’t being displayed properly and that you couldn’t update the conditions might be an unrelated problem. Do the sidebars work as expected now?
