Can’t Approve Comments! Please Help!

Do you have any error.log files in your wordpress directory? Probably the main folder, but check the wrp-admin folder too.

Hi,

I am having the same problem and I have checked my error_log file to find any problems with no luck as well.

At the moment the comments still come in, but when I try to bulk approve these comments, it takes me to a blank page. Or when I do press approve below each individual comment it shows it’s approved dynamically, but when I refresh the screen the comment is still in pending.

I have previously installed DISQUS and then uninstalled. This is when the problems started to occur. Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I came across the problem and eventually (after a great deal of poking around) found the error was being caused by the debian package for wordpress, in combination with php4. Debian uses a separately packaged copy of phpmailer, which is called if you have your wordpress set to email you when new comments are posted. The current version of phpmailer (2.1-1) in debian is no longer php4-compatible. Unfortunately without hard-coding extra error output, this happens totally silently, as the phpmailer require_once gives a parse error.

Basically there are two workarounds – either switch to using php5 (probably best if you can – php4’s dead, baby, php4’s dead), or replace the debian symlinked class-phpmailer.php and class-smtp.php files with ones from a vanilla wordpress package.

If you’re not using debian and php4, then I have no idea.

Matthew

Hi –

I’m having a similar problem – I can’t approve comments – I’m selecting the comment, choosing approve and hitting apply but they still do not appear on my website – am I doing something wrong? I’m not the hottest person on word press and I’d really appreciate some help,

Many thanks in advance

Jen

I’m experiencing the same issue. Yesterday, all was fine.

Today, when I receive a pending comment, I do not receive an email notification. My email account is working and I’ve rec’d other emails, just none that I normally receive when comments are left on my blog.

Also, pending comments cannot be approved. When I click on ‘approve’ for a given comment, the status notes that it’s approved. However, when the page is refreshed, it becomes pending once again. If I use the checkbox next to the pending comment and try a bulk action to approve, it takes me to a blank page. Comment remains pending.

I’m using v.2.7.1. I am uncertain of which PHP version I am using (how do I know?) but my hosting provider appears to use 5.2.9, so I assume this is ok.

Unfortunately, I’m traveling due to a family emergency and not able to research this fully. If there are any additional ideas, I would appreciate hearing them.

Site in question: https://www.eatingoutloud.com

Thanks!

Allen

I’ll go ahead and add my voice to this. Same issues as above (no plugin involved, though). Can’t approve comments. Thoughts? Anyone?

it looks as if matthewc gave a valid answer :/

Using CentOS, but checked PHP version. It was still set to 4. Thanks!

Hi All,
I had the exact same problem. It seems that any plugin that is related to email can cause this issue. In my case, it was the “ShiftThis.net | Swift SMTP 1.0 Send email via SMTP (Compatible with GMAIL) By Marcus Vanstone” plugin. As soon as I deactivated the plugin, my comments started to get approved and I also started to receive emails when comments were posted.

Hope it helps someone.

Guys, I have a fix, but its not a permanent one.
Edit the comment in question, then select “Approved” from the status menu.. and its approved> Obviously its not a final solution, but its a temporary one!

I just started getting this after my upgrade to 2.8. M.Hasaan’s answer works though.

thank you hassan its work for me

I had this same problem. I followed did like rpuakg said and uninstalled the gmail smtp plugin and it fixed me up.

Hi All,
I had the exact same problem. It seems that any plugin that is related to email can cause this issue. In my case, it was the “ShiftThis.net | Swift SMTP 1.0 Send email via SMTP (Compatible with GMAIL) By Marcus Vanstone” plugin. As soon as I deactivated the plugin, my comments started to get approved and I also started to receive emails when comments were posted.

Hope it helps someone.

Same problem here for one of my blogs.. tried matthewc’s suggestion of changing to PHP5, made no difference, uninstalled Ajax Comments but that made no difference, the only thing that has worked so far as clicking “edit” on the comment and approving that way, obviously that short term solution is not something I want to keep doing. Don’t have any send email plugins.. hope to find the solution soon.

I’m having the same issue – have ensured I’m using PHP5 but the issue still remains.

Approved comments revert to unapproved.
Comments will approve through the edit comment page.

Possibly related issue: When leaving a comment the page sometimes times out, but the comment goes through. Anyone else with the approving comments issue getting this as well?