503 Errors, Unable to Update Posts

  • Blue

    (@learningtreemarketing)


    1 year, 2 months ago

    Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experiencing 503 errors and maxed out server memory whenever hitting ‘update’ to edit posts in WordPress. I performed all the typical checks, like checking memory limit configurations, permalinks, optimization, and much more.

    When I couldn’t fix it, I got a website developer to take a look since it got so bad I that I was unable to edit any posts. They mentioned the only issue they could find had to do with WordFence.

    Here’s their comment:

    “When editing the page, the site triggered the code in WordFence, and since there are tables on WordFence’s database that are not readable by the system, it resulted in a 503 error.”

    —

    Everything seems to be working well with Wordfence disabled, but I would still like to use it. I also had errors in Chrome’s dev. tools that showed as wp-json/wp/v2/types/post?context=edit, api-fetch.min.js, Ajax errors, and invalid JSON errors before the web developer fixed it.

    Again, resources would be maxed out every single time (1GB/1GB) on the server, and the CPU was maxed at 100% every time I tried to update posts.

    Additional Context:

    • I was on the latest version (7.11.1) and tried learning mode, but that didn’t help.
    • I was on php 8.1
    • WordPress max memory limit was 512
    • WP memory was 256
    • Max memory limit on the server is 1024 (configured in cPanel)
    • I’m using shared hosting through Namecheap with Lightspeed enabled at the server level.
    • I’m using Cloudflare (free)

    —

    Any recommendations so I can safely re-enable Wordfence?

    • This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Blue.
    • This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Blue.
    • This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Blue.
Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Support wfpeter

    (@wfpeter)

    Hi @learningtreemarketing, thanks for getting in touch and detailing the issues you’ve been seeing.

    The initial issue sounded more like the firewall was blocking update requests in the background when you wanted to edit a post rather than accessibility of the database tables. I’m surprised to hear that Learning Mode wasn’t a solution in that case. Did you see entries on your Live Traffic page at the time 503s were experienced reflecting a block as the cause?

    When clicking any block line (or “eye” icon), it will state the reason in red text. In many cases, an “ADD PARAM TO FIREWALL ALLOWLIST” button appears in this section which you can click to allow these types of request in future.

    There are certain other considerations when using Cloudflare with Wordfence that I can’t see, but your other settings around memory look like they should allow Wordfence to run with the rest of your site comfortably. Having said that, there are no set amounts of RAM, CPU, etc. that Wordfence will definitely use as each site, number of installed plugins etc. will be different.

    We can certainly try taking a look into your site’s configuration just in case there’s anything that stands out.

    Can you can send us a diagnostic to wftest @ wordfence . com from the link at the top of the Wordfence > Tools > Diagnostics page? Click on “Send Report by Email”. Please add your forum username where indicated and respond here after you have sent it.

    NOTE: It should look as follows – Screenshot of Tools > Diagnostic > Send by Email

    Thanks,
    Peter.

    Thread Starter Blue

    (@learningtreemarketing)

    Hi Peter,

    I just reinstalled Wordfence and activated it. Also, I just sent the report via the diagnostics page.

    Let me know what you find. Thanks!

    Thread Starter Blue

    (@learningtreemarketing)

    Quick update. I had to deactivate Wordfence again because I was experiencing freezing pages in the WordPress editor. Whenever I would switch to a new tab in Chrome, the tab where I was editing my post would freeze.

    This stopped happening when I deactivated Wordfence. Hope this extra context is helpful. Thank you!

    Thread Starter Blue

    (@learningtreemarketing)

    Hi Peter! I was curious if there was any progress on uncovering what the issue might be here. I’d like to use Wordfence, if possible.

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