Title: Finding PHP errors in Plugins?
Last modified: November 5, 2021

---

# Finding PHP errors in Plugins?

 *  [Benny](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordbob/)
 * (@wordbob)
 * [4 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/finding-php-errors-in-plugins/)
 * Upgraded a site from 5.3.9 to 5.8.1. Plug-ins in use have all been updated and
   are allegedly compatible. Re-checking those details. Meanwhile…
 * I got a couple PHP errors (below) from functions.php. I pulled up functions.php
   to try to figure out which plug-in was the issue. I ran into two issues doing
   that.
 * First, the lines that are referenced by the error message are the PHP lines that
   throw the error messages (the error routines), NOT the lines that actually generated
   the error. So referencing line numbers is relatively useless. (?). Code shown
   below.
 * Second, the specific code element that’s referenced in the error messages doesn’t
   seem to actually be in functions.php.
    —————————————————————————– **Details: 
   First error:
 * This message appeared at the top of the WordPress dashboard:
 * `Notice: WP_Scripts::localize was called incorrectly. The $l10n parameter must
   be an array. To pass arbitrary data to scripts, use the wp_add_inline_script()
   function instead. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This
   message was added in version 5.7.0.) in /home/masked/public_html/wp-includes/
   functions.php on line 5663`
 * Here’s a slice from functions.php around 5663. Clearly it’s the line # of the
   error handler:
 *     ```
       trigger_error(
       sprintf(
       /* translators: Developer debugging message. 1: PHP function name, 2: Explanatory message, 3: WordPress version number. */
       __( '%1$s was called <strong>incorrectly</strong>. %2$s %3$s' ),
       					$function,
       					$message,
       					$version
       ),
       E_USER_NOTICE <em>(note: this is line 5663)</em>
       );
       ```
   
 * —
    **Second Error: ** This message appeared embedded in pages at the site:
 * `Deprecated: wp_make_content_images_responsive is deprecated since version 5.5.0!
   Use wp_filter_content_tags() instead. in /home/masked/public_html/wp-includes/
   functions.php on line 5211`
 * Here’s a slice from functions.php around 5221. Clearly it’s also the line # of
   the error handler:
 *     ```
       trigger_error(
       sprintf(
       /* translators: 1: PHP function name, 2: Version number. */
       __( '%1$s is <strong>deprecated</strong> since version %2$s with no alternative available.' ),
       		$function,
       		$version
       		),
       	E_USER_DEPRECATED
       );
       ```
   

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Moderator [t-p](https://wordpress.org/support/users/t-p/)
 * (@t-p)
 * [4 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/finding-php-errors-in-plugins/#post-15041471)
 * Please review 5.8 [Master List](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/read-this-first-wordpress-master-list/?view=all)
   and attempt [troubleshooting](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/read-this-first-wordpress-master-list/?view=all#post-14157464)
   outlined therein.
 *  Thread Starter [Benny](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordbob/)
 * (@wordbob)
 * [4 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/finding-php-errors-in-plugins/#post-15041943)
 * Thanks, I will give some of that a shot.
 * But, is there an answer/solution to getting a hand on what code is actually throwing
   the error, per my post above? That would send me direct to a theme or plugin 
   without the somewhat backdoor hunt-n-peck method of “turn things on or off until
   you find it”.
 * As a former software developer, hunt-n-peck was always a last resort alternative.
 *  [Dion](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/)
 * (@diondesigns)
 * [4 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/finding-php-errors-in-plugins/#post-15042078)
 * You can add the following code just before the `trigger_error()` calls:
 *     ```
       ob_start();
       debug_print_backtrace();
       echo '<pre>' . ob_get_clean() . '</pre>';
       ```
   
 * A complete backtrace will then be generated and displayed, and it should provide
   you with the information you need to debug the issues. (I’m somewhat surprised
   this isn’t done within WordPress.)
 * Alternately, turning off `WP_DEBUG` and setting the PHP error level to its default
   will block both messages from appearing.
 *  Thread Starter [Benny](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordbob/)
 * (@wordbob)
 * [4 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/finding-php-errors-in-plugins/#post-15042172)
 * Thanks. I’ll give that a shot.
 * I was thinking that they could be suppressed y shutting that off, but it seems
   like a bad strategy overall 🙂

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Finding PHP errors in Plugins?’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Benny](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordbob/)
 * Last activity: [4 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/finding-php-errors-in-plugins/#post-15042172)
 * Status: not resolved

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