Broke my site all of the time – support was not helpful

  • I was an Astra Pro customer and relied on Spectra for my site. Approximately every 24 hours, elements on my site would break, ruining the layout.

    I had extensive communication with the Astra Pro support team, repeatedly explaining that clicking “Regenerate Assets” in the backend would temporarily fix the layout. I provided a staging site, access to my site, and shared browser console errors, as there were no relevant server log errors. I did everything I could to give the support team all the information they needed.

    In the end, the support team concluded that the issue was specific to my site and offered no help. It was a disappointment.

    During a political election, my candidate was running for “mayor” of a city with 50,000 inhabitants. It was crucial for the website to be functional, but it was repeatedly defaced due to Spectra issues. Despite these setbacks, my candidate won the election, but it could have easily gone the other way. Spectra, by causing daily disruptions, was a real obstacle to our campaign’s success. I regret relying on this plugin to build the layout in Gutenberg.

    This experience negatively impacted our entire campaign. I repeatedly brought the issue to Astra/Spectra Pro support’s attention, but they failed to provide a viable solution over several weeks. I even suggested running a cron job to automatically “Regenerate Assets” every few minutes as a temporary fix. However, the button didn’t have a CSS ID, which would have enabled me to automate this process with a bot, and the support team did not offer any helpful advice.

    After many unproductive conversations, I received the unhelpful response that the issue was specific to my site, and there was no further help.

    As an admin for approximately 50 WordPress sites and having managed hundreds over the past 15 years, I’m a pro customer of the Astra Theme. I’ve never experienced such a detrimental effect from a single plugin that acted like a virus.

    I’m extremely disappointed as an Astra Pro customer and would advise anyone experiencing similar issues with Spectra to avoid using it. This experience has even shaken my trust in Astra overall.

    My customer service experience as a Premium License Holder was unbelievably poor. The responses I received were unhelpful and unsatisfactory. It was a truly disruptive experience.

    I have now removed Spectra from the site entirely.

    Having been involved in WordPress, server logs, and ambitious projects since 2008, I can confidently say that I’m not a rookie. I have never experienced such a disastrous issue with a single plugin ruining an entire website project, coupled with pseudo-assistance from support.

    I rarely leave negative reviews, but this situation warrants one. I’m absolutely upset, and this is probably the most negative review I’ve ever written for any product on the Internet – with good reason.

    • This topic was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by jodeleit.
    • This topic was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by jodeleit.
    • This topic was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by jodeleit.
    • This topic was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by jodeleit.
    • This topic was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by jodeleit.
Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • Wow @jodeleit here we are to confirm that you’re not the only one. We have EXACT same issue!

    Same problems here. Sometimes Spectra block styles are broken on home page and the page needs to be saved again.

    Plugin Support Rajkiran Bagal

    (@rajkiranb)

    Hey @jodeleit,

    We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to you and other users who are facing this issue. We understand that it can be frustrating when things don’t work as expected.

    We have received reports about this issue from a few users and are actively working to reproduce and debug it. However, as it is not easily reproducible and there is not an exact case to replicate it, it is taking time to find a solution.

    Regarding your request for a temporary solution using a CRON, we apologize for not providing it earlier. Our focus has been on reproducing, debugging, and fixing the issue on the staging site provided by the affected users.

    We agree that we should have provided a temporary solution and we will be happy to offer it to you or any other user who requires it.

    We want to assure you that we are continuously trying to reproduce and debug the issue on our end and on staging sites where the issue is reproduced. We are working hard to fix the issue, and once we have a solution, we will release an update.

    Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience caused and assure you that we will do our best to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

    So what is that temporary solution you say you have?

    Plugin Support Rajkiran Bagal

    (@rajkiranb)

    Hey @rklis,

    As the issue is not easily reproducible and there is not an exact case to replicate it, it is taking time to find a solution.

    For now, a temporary solution is to use a CRON to regenerate assets automatically every hour. Below code will help you

    add_filter( 'cron_schedules', 'spectra_custom_add_custom_cron_interval' );
function spectra_custom_add_custom_cron_interval( $schedules ) { 

$schedules['every_hours'] = array(

        'interval' => HOUR_IN_SECONDS,

        'display'  => esc_html__( 'Every Hour' ), );

    return $schedules;
}
if ( ! wp_next_scheduled( 'spectra_custom__update_asset_on_cron_hook' ) ) {

wp_schedule_event( time(), 'every_hours', 'spectra_custom__update_asset_on_cron_hook' );
}
add_action( 'spectra_custom__update_asset_on_cron_hook', 'spectra_custom__function_to_execute_code_on_cron' );
function spectra_custom__function_to_execute_code_on_cron() { 
     update_option( '__uagb_asset_version', time() );
}

    Note – Please place above code in theme or child theme functions.php

    Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience caused and assure you that we will do our best to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

    So any update to this?

    Plugin Support Rajkiran Bagal

    (@rajkiranb)

    Hey! @rklis,

    I am pleased to inform you that we have successfully addressed the issue you reported in our version 2.6.2 of the Spectra plugin.

    During the development phase, we took proactive measures by distributing development ZIP files to individuals who had submitted support tickets through our website. They graciously agreed to test the fix and provided positive feedback, confirming that the issue has been resolved.

    In light of this progress, we kindly request that you update the Spectra plugin on your website to the most recent version available. By doing so, you will be able to ascertain whether the reported issue has indeed been rectified.

    Thank you for your continuous support, and we eagerly await your response regarding the resolution of this matter.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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