Title: Broken RSS feeds and XML errors
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Broken RSS feeds and XML errors

 *  [Avenir](https://wordpress.org/support/users/avenir/)
 * (@avenir)
 * [21 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/)
 * [http://www.perfect-illusion.com/feed](http://www.perfect-illusion.com/feed)
 * When I load this I get:
 * `XML Parsing Error: xml processing instruction not at start of external entity
   
   Location: http://www.perfect-illusion.com/feed/ Line Number 5, Column 1:<?xml
   version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><!-- generator="wordpress/1.5" -->
 * I’ve looked through other posts about broken feeds with similar problems and 
   I’ve tried going through my `wp-rss2.php` file and deleting any whitespace before
   the processing instruction, but I can’t seem to fix this problem.
 * Also, it seems that the same blank five lines are being inserted at the top of
   every one of my files. This leads me to believe that the problem isn’t in `wp-
   rss2.php` but it’s somewhere else. But I have no idea where to look.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [21 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/#post-157485)
 * De-activate all active plugins and check it again.
 *  [Kafkaesqui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kafkaesqui/)
 * (@kafkaesqui)
 * [21 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/#post-157486)
 * Best I can offer on this problem:
    [http://wordpress.org/support/topic.php?id=24388#post-137563](http://wordpress.org/support/topic.php?id=24388#post-137563)
 *  Thread Starter [Avenir](https://wordpress.org/support/users/avenir/)
 * (@avenir)
 * [21 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/#post-157489)
 * Thank you so much macmanx and Kafkaesqui! I hadn’t thought of looking through
   my plugins but I did find many stray lines in them. Deleting them took some time,
   but now everything works. Thank you both!
 *  [meisenstadt](https://wordpress.org/support/users/meisenstadt/)
 * (@meisenstadt)
 * [20 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/#post-158187)
 * Cross-correlating/posting a few other threads in case it helps; I note that ALL
   are left at a dead end HELP!
 * [Broken RSS feeds and XML errors](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/25688)
 * [Tags do not update Technorati](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/48496)
 * [RSS feed still not working](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/55894)
 * [Yahoo RSS failure](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/55699)
 * [XML Parsing Error: xml processing instruction not](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/7713)
 *  [meisenstadt](https://wordpress.org/support/users/meisenstadt/)
 * (@meisenstadt)
 * [20 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/#post-158188)
 * I have a solution that worked for me, primarily involving some single-quote to
   double-quote conversion in the file wp-rss2.php, for which I have posted the 
   old/new file comparison [here on my blog](http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/marc/2006/05/03/wordpress-hack-gets-rss2-output-back/).
   I am cross-posting this to a total of 5 different threads here on the WordPress
   support forum, mainly out of a desire to help those whom I know must have also
   been going crazy with this or similar problems. Many thanks for sticking with
   it!
    -Marc
 *  [Jon Griffith](https://wordpress.org/support/users/arretx/)
 * (@arretx)
 * [19 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/#post-158216)
 * IMHO, this problem is stupid. It shouldn’t exist in the first place.
 *  [Jon Griffith](https://wordpress.org/support/users/arretx/)
 * (@arretx)
 * [19 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/#post-158217)
 * XML Parsing Error: mismatched tag. Expected: </description>.
    Location: [http://www.jongriffith.com/blog/?feed=rss2](http://www.jongriffith.com/blog/?feed=rss2)
   Line Number 133, Column 3:</script> –^
 * This is what I get…I don’t follow how to solve this problem. There’s more white-
   space in EVERY file than I know what do to with.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘Broken RSS feeds and XML errors’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 7 replies
 * 5 participants
 * Last reply from: [Jon Griffith](https://wordpress.org/support/users/arretx/)
 * Last activity: [19 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/broken-rss-feeds-and-xml-errors/#post-158217)
 * Status: not resolved

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