Title: Sudden fatal PHP errors
Last modified: May 20, 2025

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# Sudden fatal PHP errors

 *  Resolved [partiallypro](https://wordpress.org/support/users/partiallypro/)
 * (@partiallypro)
 * [1 year ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sudden-fatal-php-errors/)
 * I’m now getting fatal errors from the plugin, I’m not sure why. This just started
   today. I noticed I could no longer upload media as it said the server was too
   busy. But if I disabled that plugin that stopped. I then checked the error log
   and see this
 *     ```wp-block-code
       PHP Fatal error: Uncaught RuntimeException: Encryption failed. in /nas/content/live/wp-content/plugins/auto-alt-text/src/App/Utilities/Encryption.php:77#012Stack trace:#012#0 /nas/content/live/wp-content/plugins/auto-alt-text/src/App/Admin/PluginOptions.php(222): AATXT\App\Utilities\Encryption->decrypt('bqYtn0ZuAPOO+GO...')#012#1 /nas/content/live/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(324): AATXT\App\Admin\PluginOptions::optionsMainPage('')#012#2 /nas/content/live/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(348): WP_Hook->apply_filters('', Array)#012#3 /nas/content/live/wp-includes/plugin.php(517): WP_Hook->do_action(Array)#012#4 /nas/content/live/wp-admin/admin.php(259): do_action('toplevel_page_a...')#012#5 {main}#012 thrown in /nas/content/live/wp-content/plugins/auto-alt-text/src/App/Utilities/Encryption.php on line 77
       ```
   

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Valerio Monti](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valeriomonti/)
 * (@valeriomonti)
 * [1 year ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sudden-fatal-php-errors/#post-18481971)
 * Hi,
   thank you for reporting the error and sharing the log. I’ll try to reproduce
   the issue in a test environment to understand what might be causing it, and I’ll
   let you know as soon as I have an update.
 * Best regards,
   Valerio
 *  Thread Starter [partiallypro](https://wordpress.org/support/users/partiallypro/)
 * (@partiallypro)
 * [1 year ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sudden-fatal-php-errors/#post-18500362)
 * It’s strange, it is only effecting one of my sites, but the others the plugin
   works fine. I’ve tried changing the theme to an out of the box WordPress theme,
   disabling all plugins and it still has this error.
 *  Plugin Author [Valerio Monti](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valeriomonti/)
 * (@valeriomonti)
 * [12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sudden-fatal-php-errors/#post-18503358)
 * I figured out the cause of the error and know how to fix it. I will release a
   new version of the plugin with the fix soon.
 *  Plugin Author [Valerio Monti](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valeriomonti/)
 * (@valeriomonti)
 * [11 months, 4 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sudden-fatal-php-errors/#post-18511128)
 * Hi,
   I just released version 2.3.4 of the plugin.After updating the plugin, from
   the wp-admin panel you will notice the following message, “Auto Alt Text: A problem
   occurred with the API key encoding for generating alt text. Please re-enter the
   key and save.”
 * So just go into the plugin options and re-enter your OpenAi Api Key in the appropriate
   field and your problem should resolve for good.
 * The problem was caused by the way your Api Key was encrypted before it was saved
   to the database. In fact, the plugin uses the WordPress salt keys set in the 
   wp-config.php for encryption. Probably recently the keys on your site were changed
   and the plugin was no longer able to decrypt the saved data due to a bug.
   In 
   the next release I’m working on, to work around similar problems, I will make
   it so that the user can enter additional keys in the wp-config.php so that they
   will no longer encounter the problem if the standard WordPress salts change.
 * Anyway, it should be fixed now.
   Let me know if you continue to have problems.
 * Valerio
 *  Plugin Author [Valerio Monti](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valeriomonti/)
 * (@valeriomonti)
 * [11 months, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sudden-fatal-php-errors/#post-18532311)
 * Hi, I haven’t heard back. I will set the support request as resolved. If you 
   have any further problems please let me know.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Sudden fatal PHP errors’ is closed to new replies.

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## Tags

 * [fatal error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/fatal-error/)
 * [php-error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php-error/)

 * 5 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Valerio Monti](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valeriomonti/)
 * Last activity: [11 months, 2 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sudden-fatal-php-errors/#post-18532311)
 * Status: resolved