Theme Editor files won’t save…

  • dsb0328

    (@dsb0328)


    6 years ago

    When I try to make a change to my child theme’s style.css, header.php or functions.php files, WordPress won’t let the changes save. I get an error message that says:

    Unable to communicate back with site to check for fatal errors, so the PHP change was reverted. You will need to upload your PHP file change by some other means, such as by using SFTP.

    I know I can just change the file and re-upload using FTP, but I don’t want to have to do that every time since this should work like it has for years. Not sure if it helps, but the site I am working on is on a GoDaddy server. Could it be a permissions thing?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    ww.wp.xz.cn Admin

    6 years ago

    Godaddy… Windows or Linux hosting? I haven’t used them in a while, but back in the day they used to offer both.

    You should use their Linux hosting, FYI. Not the Windows one.

    Thread Starter dsb0328

    (@dsb0328)

    6 years ago

    Pretty sure the site is on a Linux plan. I’ve seen a similar thing happen to another site I’ve worked on as well, but that message was:

    Something went wrong. Your change may not have been saved. Please try again. There is also a chance that you may need to manually fix and upload the file over FTP.

    The 2 sites are developed totally different, so it’s not anything with a certain plugin or theme as they both have completely different themes and plugins, for the most part. Seems to be happening on newly updated sites, but can’t be sure if it’s a WordPress thing or a server thing. Of course, GoDaddy says it’s not on their end.

    • This reply was modified 6 years ago by dsb0328.
    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    ww.wp.xz.cn Admin

    6 years ago

    Well, obvious thing to check first: Are the two URLs in Settings->General correctly set?

    Non-obvious thing: Does any code in the theme or any of the plugins contain the phrase session_start in any way? Note that if it takes about 10 seconds to fail when you save, then this is more likely to be the problem.

    Thread Starter dsb0328

    (@dsb0328)

    6 years ago

    Looks like the URLs are correct.

    Not sure how to find that phrase in the plugins since they are straight from the ww.wp.xz.cn library, but I didn’t find that phrase in any code that has been written for the theme it uses.

    Honestly, I’ve worked on the site for a few years now and have not seen this problem until recently. Not saying it can only be the updates because I know the owner of the site frequently gets in and changes things himself without my knowledge of what those changes are. He says he never touches the theme editor code and I think I believe him.

    As for timing of when the error message comes up, the Unable to communicate… message usually takes a little while to show up after the circle spins for about 20-30 seconds. The Something went wrong… message comes up right away.

    Moderator Samuel Wood (Otto)

    (@otto42)

    ww.wp.xz.cn Admin

    6 years ago

    Not sure how to find that phrase in the plugins since they are straight from the ww.wp.xz.cn library

    Plugins can still have that in them and be in the org library.

    As for timing of when the error message comes up, the Unable to communicate… message usually takes a little while to show up after the circle spins for about 20-30 seconds.

    Yeah, that indicates it being a plugin causing it.

    Disable all your plugins and then see if the editor works. Then re-enable the plugins one by one until you find which one is causing the problem.

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

The topic ‘Theme Editor files won’t save…’ is closed to new replies.