Hi @rogerosgood,
The most common reasons for this problem are as follows.
1.) Your IP address is being blocked by MailChimp. This is the most common reason for the error; MailChimp will block you (via a service called Akamai) if your IP address has been responsible for malicious things like spam. This happens the most in shared hosting environments where other websites share an IP address with you. It doesn’t mean that you were responsible for the malicious behavior but rather that someone else was using your current IP address and now it is compromised. To resolve this, get in touch with your server team and ask them to change you to a new IP address.
2.) Another likely reason is that you’ve changed hosts, changed API keys, or imported forms from another website with a different API key. Have you done any of these kind of migration/API key changes?
Let us know.
All the best,
Kevin.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the quick reply. We did change hosts a while ago, so I’m guessing that’s the issue. Can you tell me how to correct the issue or do I need to reach out to our new host?
Roger
Hi Roger,
Are you sure your API key is connected?
The more I think about the issue you’re having the more I think it’s your IP being blocked.
I would suggest reaching out to your host and ask them to see if your server can connect/talk to MailChimp’s API.
Thank you,
Kevin.
Would generating a new API in MailChimp correct the problem. I am not getting much help from our host site and we have a free Mailchimp account so I can’t get tech support from them.
Thanks,
Roger
Hey Roger,
If this issue is what I think it is, then creating a new API key won’t help.
If you’re willing to share your API key with us, can you send us an email at plugins [at] yikesinc [dot] com so we can test the API key? I am going to add your API key to one of my local sites to see if it’s working. This will let us know if the issue is with your server or with our plugin.
Thank you,
Kevin.
Hi Kevin,
It turns out that our MailChimp account was not connected to the website. I have now connected it but when I go to opt-in forms I still get this message under the form builder tab – “We’ve encountered an error. Reload the page and try again. If the error persists, please reach out to support.”
What’s next.
Thanks,
Roger
Are you able to create a new form?
No, I get the same message
I’m sorry Roger – I don’t know what’s going on. The error you’re seeing is almost always an issue where your server can’t communicate with MailChimp. However, the behavior that you’re seeing makes it seem like it’s an issue with the plugin… I will look through the code and see if I can find a logical explanation. Sorry about this!
Not sure if this will be at all helpful, but the last time I can verify that the plug in worked was in August 2018. I also know that it has not been working for at least the last 2 months.
Hey Roger,
I think our plugin’s data has been corrupted somehow and I don’t know how to fix it.
The only option I see left is completely deleting the plugin and re-installing it. (And for some reason I am still not convinced that will work for you.)
Kevin,
I turned on debugging. Here’s the error log from when I went in to “edit” a form and then went to the site and tried to add a subscriber to our email list.
Roger
Error Message Error Details
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Tags || Time: February 7, 2019 4:27 PM
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Interest Groups || Time: February 7, 2019 4:27 PM
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Merge Variables || Time: February 7, 2019 4:27 PM
User Role ‘viewer’ Cannot Access This Request. Page: process_form_submission_ajax.php || Type: New Subscriber || Time: February 7, 2019 4:27 PM
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Tags || Time: February 7, 2019 4:26 PM
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Interest Groups || Time: February 7, 2019 4:26 PM
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Merge Variables || Time: February 7, 2019 4:26 PM
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Tags || Time: February 7, 2019 4:26 PM
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Interest Groups || Time: February 7, 2019 4:26 PM
Forbidden Page: Edit Form Page || Type: Get Merge Variables || Time: February 7, 2019 4:26 PM
Our website designer is no longer available to talk to so I am trying to fill in with almost no WP (or website) experience so I want to make sure I don’t screw something up. Anything I should do before deleting the plugin?
Hey Roger,
You may want to remove the forms from your pages. While the plugin is not active on your site, your forms won’t render. And you’ll need to re-create those forms so the existing code would have to be updated.
You may also want to save your API key somewhere so you don’t need to log back into MailChimp to get it.
Roger,
Your site might also have code added to your child theme’s functions.php file which calls specific plugin functions. You can recognize such code because a function such as “add_filter” will contain a parameter that includes the string “yikes-mailchimp-“. For the sake of good housekeeping, this code should be removed.
The functions.php file is located in the …/wp-content/themes/<your active theme> directory. Make a backup copy of the file before making any changes. Here is an example of the sort of thing for which you might look:
add_filter( 'yikes-mailchimp-filter-before-submission', 'maybe_supply_FNAME_to_merge_field', 10, 1 );
function maybe_supply_FNAME_to_merge_field( $merge_fields ) {
<some lines of code that are specific to your site>
return $merge_fields;
}
In addition, you could possibly have some custom css styles defined that are used only with this plugin. There is no way to know in advance if that is the case, and every site is potentially different. Furthermore, the place where custom css styles are defined might be different, according to the theme you use. Again, it is good housekeeping to remove styles that you do not use.
If you have any of this stuff, you should delete it after deactivating and removing the plugin.
By the way, you should probably first change your pages however you wish to handle subscribing the the mailing list first. Then you should deactivate and delete the plugin. Otherwise, you risk seeing the plugin shortcode rendered on a page, rather than the subscription form.
Last but not least, your site might have different types of caching enabled. For example, you might have a different plugin installed that handles caching on the web server. If this is the case, you should refresh the cache for the pages where the plugin form(s) were displayed after you change the contents of those pages.
