Title: Empty Needle Error
Last modified: August 22, 2016

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# Empty Needle Error

 *  Resolved [johnnymorriswp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnnymorriswp/)
 * (@johnnymorriswp)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-needle-error-1/)
 * I have a site that is giving the flowing error message –
 * Warning: strpos() [function.strpos]: Empty needle in /var/sites/f/[site name]/
   public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 658
 * However the error ONLY appears when I try to access dashboard > appearance, or
   any sub-item of that e.g. themes.
 * I only discovered this when I went to that part of the dashboard to update my
   theme, which I have done before with no problem.
 * The other items in the dashboard are all accessible and the front end of the 
   site and all its functionality is working fine.
 * Any thoughts very welcome.
 * Thanks

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Moderator [t-p](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t-p/)
 * (@t-p)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-needle-error-1/#post-5500452)
 * try a few basic troubleshooting steps:
    – Flushing any caching plugins you might
   be running, as well as server and/or browser caches. – deactivating ALL plugins
   temporarily to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate them
   individually (one-by-one) to find the problematic plugin(s). When you can’t get
   into your admin dashboard, try deactivating via [FTP or SFTP ](http://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients)
   or whatever file management application your host provides (also read [http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_Troubleshooting#How_to_deactivate_all_plugins_when_not_able_to_access_the_administrative_menus.3F](http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_Troubleshooting#How_to_deactivate_all_plugins_when_not_able_to_access_the_administrative_menus.3F)).
   Also remember to deactivate any plugins in the mu-plugins folder. The easiest
   way is to rename that folder to mu-plugins-old.
 *  Thread Starter [johnnymorriswp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/johnnymorriswp/)
 * (@johnnymorriswp)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-needle-error-1/#post-5500480)
 * Thanks Tara. I actually managed to resolve without going too much further. Details
   posted below for others to see if required.
 * I went back to the dashboard and generated the error message by going to appearance
   > themes in the menu for any more information that would help and as I scrolled
   down the repeated error messages I realised they occupied about the first thirty
   lines of my screen and below was the usual theme selection view. I changed theme
   to default twenty fourteen and the error message went. Then I changed back to
   my theme no problem and did the theme update, also no problem.
 *  Moderator [t-p](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t-p/)
 * (@t-p)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-needle-error-1/#post-5500489)
 * Glad you got it sorted 🙂

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Empty Needle Error’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [t-p](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t-p/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-needle-error-1/#post-5500489)
 * Status: resolved

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