• For some reason this has happened a few times on our site and again today. (over the course of a few different wordpress versions) Something causes all the comment_status fields on all the posts (over 15000) in the database to switch to “closed”. Similar issue to this one here but there was no solution: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/comments-disabled-on-posts?replies=8. Tried searching the forums and the web to no avail.

    I’m very familiar with the WordPress discussion settings in the dashboard and know how to switch them all back to “open” in the database but this isn’t good as we have posts/pages that need to have comments off.

    I have searched through the source code of all the plugins I have in use and none of them have anything matching with “closed” or “comments_status” that would cause the status to switch on all the posts at once.

    What could possibly be causing this and does anyone else have the issue?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
  • Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    you may try:

    -deactivating ALL plugins temporarily to narrow down and possibly fix the problem. If the problem goes away, activate them individually (one-by-one) to find the culprit.

    -if that does not solve the problem, try switching to the default theme (“twentyten”) for a moment by renaming your current theme’s folder in wp-content/themes. The idea is to force WordPress to fall back to the default theme to rule out any theme-specific issue.

    Have you tried:

    – deactivating all plugins to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).

    – switching to the Twenty Ten theme to rule out any theme-specific problems.

    resetting the plugins folder by FTP or PhpMyAdmin. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems.

    Thread Starter fusse

    (@fusse)

    Hey guys. I might need to try that (deactivating all the plugins) but it’s hard to say if it helps as there is no way of me reproducing the problem. It just happens randomly and not too often.

    I thought it would be enough to go through all the code in the plugins and my theme for any hits related to comments, comment_status, closed etc. and I can’t find anything that would really cause that to the database. Could it be something in the core files then or something causing that to happen with core files… uhh it’s a mystery.

    Also this has been happening over couple different versions of wordpress and on couple different themes. I just coded a new theme from scratch and it’s not the same at all as the previous one and the problem still exists.

    Thread Starter fusse

    (@fusse)

    Any more ideas?

    Thread Starter fusse

    (@fusse)

    Any help guys? I haven’t been able to hunt this one down. Just happened again. Couldn’t find a problem with a specific plugin.

    Alwyn Botha

    (@123milliseconds)

    >>>What could possibly be causing this and does anyone else have the issue?

    Some plugin closes them for some reason

    Search for the text

    closed

    in all your plugin files; there you will find the culprit

    Thread Starter fusse

    (@fusse)

    You obviously didn’t read my original post:
    “I have searched through the source code of all the plugins I have in use and none of them have anything matching with “closed” or “comment_status” that would cause the status to switch on all the posts at once.”

    Alwyn Botha

    (@123milliseconds)

    MySQL have no coding to close wp comments randomly.

    >>or something causing that to happen with core files… uhh it’s a mystery.

    Comment out core wp functions that close comments to see if it still gets set closed.

    It could be plugins or theme calling core wp functions to close comments

    Thread Starter fusse

    (@fusse)

    Yes I know MySQL has no such coding. I’m not a n00b when it comes to these things.

    I’ve actually also already searched through core functions to find a possible connection between a plugin and a core function but didn’t find it yet. Have to keep looking more, it’s not the easiest thing to track down.

    The most annoying part of this is that there is no way of reproducing the issue. It just happens randomly. (or that’s how it seems like)

    Thread Starter fusse

    (@fusse)

    Just happened again. no reason…

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    Fusse, if it’s happening on multiple sites, what are the commonalities?

    Check PHP and Apache versions, check the plugins. Get a list of everything that is the SAME on the sites and the servers.

    Thread Starter fusse

    (@fusse)

    I have already ruled out the plugins… none of them have any code to trigger comment_status to closed on all the database entries.
    Only have one site that this is happening on.

    Server OS Debian (dont know the version)
    SERVER_SOFTWARE Apache/2
    PHP 5.2.12

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    Just compare the plugins anyway. Seriously. It won’t break things to take the time to review.

    Thread Starter fusse

    (@fusse)

    Compare the plugins with what?

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    Check PHP and Apache versions, check the plugins. Get a list of everything that is the SAME on the sites and the servers.

    You said this is happening on multiple sites.

    For EACH site make a list of the PHP version, Apache version, and plugins. And themes.

    Hold ’em up next to each other and see if there’s anything the same. Yes, it’s a brute force data check, but it hurts nothing to do, except spending a bit of time.

    As you said here:

    Hey guys. I might need to try that (deactivating all the plugins) but it’s hard to say if it helps as there is no way of me reproducing the problem. It just happens randomly and not too often.

    I know you’ve said it’s NOT a plugin, but honestly, if it’s intermittent, you’re right, this is HELLA hard to tell, which means we should try and narrow down the possibilities. IF it’s a plugin, then in MUST be a plugin (or combination of plugins) that is on all your sites. So let’s sort out what’s the same on all sites and then we can attack it.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)
  • The topic ‘comments switched off itself… few times already’ is closed to new replies.