Blank page when trying to edit Woocommerce product category information

Hello @abbeycrombie and thanks for reaching out!

Are you able to see any blocks in Tools > Live Traffic?

You could try Learning Mode to see if this resolves the issue. From the Wordfence Dashboard click on Manage WAF. Then you will see Basic Firewall Options > Web Application Firewall Status. Change the option to Learning Mode. Now perform the actions that were causing issues. This will help Wordfence learn that these actions are normal and it will allow them in the future. After you have finished performing the actions, switch the WAF from Learning Mode back to Enabled and Protecting. Now test to see if these actions work correctly.

https://www.wordfence.com/help/firewall/learning-mode/ is an amazing resource for learning more about the WAF and learning mode.

Let me know how it goes!

Thanks!

Hello!

There aren’t any blocks in Live Traffic. Also, since it is a fresh install it is still in Learning Mode.

After playing around a little more, I think I may have found the issue. I believe there is a conflict between Yoast SEO and Wordfence. Disabling Yoast SEO allowed me to make the product category edits.

Strange that while the WAF is in Learning Mode, that this issue was still occurring. I haven’t seen any recent compatibility issues with Yoast SEO.

If you could, can you send a diagnostic report to wftest @ wordfence . com? You can find the link to do so at the top of the Wordfence Tools > Diagnostics page. Then click on “Send Report by Email”. Please add your forum username where indicated and respond here after you have sent it.

Thanks!

No problem! I have sent it over.

Thanks for sending that over. I am not able to see what else might be causing that issue. It could possibly be a theme conflict as well.

At least you have a workaround for now. If Yoast is active and Wordfence is disabled, are you still able to edit in Woocommerce? Trying to figure out if its Yoast causing the conflict.

Thanks!

You’re welcome!

When both are active I get the blank page.
When only Yoast SEO is active, it works.
When only WF is active, it works.

It seems like I have to choose between one or the other to avoid the blank page.

I hope this helps!

I thought I should update this as well. Today I wanted to edit product listings and with Yoast SEO off, I got a blank page. After disabling WF, I was able to see the product details and make my edits.

If you could test something for me and switch your WAF into “Enabled and Protected”. Refresh the page and then switch it into Learning Mode again. Then see if the pages are still showing up blank for you.

Let me know what you find!

Thanks!

Hello!

Both Yoast and WF are enabled at this time.

Just to go through my steps:

1. I switched to “Enabled and Protected” and clicked on Save Changes
2. Refreshed my admin page
3. Switched back to Learning Mode and clicked on Save Changes
4. Went to Products > Categories > chose a category to Edit
5. Received a blank page
6. Hit the back button and went to Product > All Products > chose a product to Edit

• I was able to successfully go into a product’s details to edit and saved my changes. Went to another product and received blank white page – at this point I am receiving blank pages for all products after clicking on “Edit” including the one that worked the first time

7. Disabled Yoast plugin and repeated steps 4 and 6.

• This time I was able to edit and save my Product Categories without a problem. I am still receiving a blank page for product edits, but it seems sporadic. Sometimes it works but probably 99.9% of the time I receive a blank page. I don’t think there is any rhyme or reason as to which products it allows me to edit and going back to the product that did work would now be blank.

8. I disabled WF. Now, both Yoast and WF are deactivated.

• Editing categories are still working. Editing products is now consistently working as well.

9. For the sake of thoroughness, I enabled Yoast and kept WF disabled.

• I> am able to edit product categories consistently. I am also able to edit products consistently.

I’m sorry if this is confusing but this is actually what is happening!

Thanks for providing all the steps you took!

We could try to reinstall, just in case something wasn’t installed completely.

Additionally, you can backup your Wordfence settings via the Export option. Navigate to Wordfence > Tools > Import/Export Options and click Export. You can also take note of the current Whitelisted URLs you have in Wordfence > Firewall > All Firewall Options > Whitelisted URLs as these are NOT included in the Import/Export, and will be lost during the re-install.
Here is what is exported: https://www.wordfence.com/help/tools/import-export/
During the export, you will be given a long string of text. Keep this safe, you’ll need it in a few minutes.

After that, enable the option to Delete Wordfence tables and data on deactivation in All Options > General Wordfence Options. You will want to remember to disable this after you reinstall Wordfence again.

After you enable that option, you can deactivate Wordfence from the Plugins area of your site, then delete it. Next, from the plugins area, search for and re-install Wordfence like normal.

It will be like setting Wordfence up for the first time. You will need to enter an email address, and then go into Tools > Import/Export Options and paste that string of text into the Import Wordfence Options field and click the button there.

The firewall will be in Learning Mode by default for 7 days. I would recommend switching this to Enabled and Protected as soon as we can get this issue working. Once you have completed the reinstall, attempt to do your woocommerce edits again.

Let me know how it goes!

Thanks!