After plugin updates the website is broken

[17-May-2020 00:15:38 UTC] PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required ‘/home/user/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/vendor/wordfence/wf-waf/src/init.php’ (include_path=’.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/usr/share/pear’) in /home/user/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php on line 66

I’m having the same problem, popped up all of a sudden this afternoon. Got a 500 error, tried manually disabling all plugins, and Wordfence seemed to be the culprit. Got the 500 error again right after activating Wordfence with no other plugins activated. What’s strange is that it seems to have affected two out of the four sites where I have Wordfence installed.

This was the diagnostic that was just emailed from my site through WordPress’ error detection:

When seeking help with this issue, you may be asked for some of the following information:
WordPress version 5.4.1
Current theme: Iconic One Child (version 1.0.0)
Current plugin:  (version )
PHP version 7.2.27

Error Details
=============
An error of type E_COMPILE_ERROR was caused in line 76 of the file /home/b8arriyf48y8/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php. Error message: require_once(): Failed opening required '/home/b8arriyf48y8/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/lib/wordfenceConstants.php' (include_path='.:/opt/alt/php72/usr/share/pear')

I have had this happen before.

I am not sure it was even an update of Wordfence that caused the issue for me – but renaming the wordfence plugin folder got the website back up and running.

I deleted the now inactive wordfence and re-installed it.

This happened today after I updated four other plugins – I first tried renaming (to make inactive) those plugin folders. Website still was not up so I then decided to check Wordfence, which is a go to when sometimes things fail.

Hey @jouielovesyou,

The error you’re receiving is a PHP memory error. I’d suggest reaching out to your host to increase your PHP resources to see if it helps.

@crouchingbruin – If the site is functioning correctly it’s safe to dismiss this error. This can happen when an automatic update is happening and the site is receiving traffic. Regarding the 500 error, have you had a chance to check the PHP error logs? This might give us a clue as to what’s happening.

Thanks,

Gerroald

This is what I see at the end of the log:

[20-May-2020 04:13:17 UTC] PHP Deprecated: contextual_help is deprecated since version 3.3.0! Use get_current_screen()->add_help_tab(), get_current_screen()->remove_help_tab() instead. in /home/b8arriyf48y8/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5088
[20-May-2020 04:13:56 UTC] retrieving redirect rules

So even after I set the theme to Twenty Twenty and deactivate all plugins, and then activate just Wordfence, the site goes to 500.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by CrouchingBruin.

Hey @jouielovesyou,

Thanks for the update.

Can you please try completely reset Wordfence and let us know if it helps? You’ll want to use the manual method.

https://www.wordfence.com/help/advanced/remove-or-reset/#remove-or-reset

Thanks,

Gerroald

First off I don’t view this as being created by Wordfence as there has not been an update for four weeks. But deactivating Wordfence by changing the folder name fixes it.

Two more websites went down today that were recovered by changing the Wordfence plugin folder name. I can delete the plugin and reinstall without changing settings and all is OK – as I have done for all three websites.

While there has been many updates of other plugins before and since my first site crashed the only two that I see in common for my three websites crashing are Woocommerce, Autoptimize & Contact Form 7

I have Wordfence on a number of other websites, that don’t have Woocommerce but do have Autoptimize & Contact Form 7 – none of these sites have been affected – I have tried deactivating Woocommerce, Autoptimize & Contact Form 7 individually and all together – that did not solve the problem – deactivating Wordfence fixes it – reinstalling Wordfence fixes it.

I’m suspecting Woocommerce – but I don’t want to play around with my live sites anymore to test further while I now have them back up and running.

The latest upgrade to Wordfence 7.4.8 fixed my 500 error. Thanks very much!