Fatal Memory Issue

WordPress on its own can function under 32 MB, so something else is using it up.

Try deactivating all plugins. If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the Twenty Fifteen theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue (theme functions can interfere like plugins).

James,

I’ve tried this before. the error happens randomly on different plugins each time. That makes it hard to debug. Also, for the website to function, multiple plugins must be activated at the same time…

So, perhaps it’s those plugins then?

When you tried with all plugins deactivated, did you try with literally *all* plugins deactivated?

Yes, I did.

Here is the a few lines of log for errors in last couple of hours.

Do you know anyway that we can monitor real-time memory usage in wordpress, e.g. any plugins or cpanel software etc?

[29-Jul-2015 22:09:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 41680896) (tried to allocate 12160 bytes) in /home/fsuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/sharedaddy/sharing.php on line 359
[29-Jul-2015 22:09:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 14942208) (tried to allocate 49152 bytes) in /home/fsuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/class.jetpack.php on line 2732
[29-Jul-2015 22:09:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 20971520) (tried to allocate 1280 bytes) in /home/fsuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce-subscriptions/classes/class-wc-subscriptions-upgrader.php on line 40
[29-Jul-2015 22:09:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 37486592) (tried to allocate 3072 bytes) in /home/fsuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-job-manager-wc-paid-listings/includes/class-wc-paid-listings-admin.php on line 16
[29-Jul-2015 22:09:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 13631488) (tried to allocate 12288 bytes) in /home/fsuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins/contact-form-7/includes/contact-form.php on line 442
[29-Jul-2015 22:09:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 25690112) (tried to allocate 3072 bytes) in /home/fsuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php on line 23
[29-Jul-2015 22:09:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 30932992) (tried to allocate 3072 bytes) in /home/fsuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-job-manager-field-editor/classes/fields.php on line 642
[29-Jul-2015 22:09:15 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 21233664) (tried to allocate 12288 bytes) in /home/fsuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce-subscriptions/classes/class-wc-subscriptions-upgrader.php on line 55

So, judging by this, I think the problem is that the server is actually out of memory itself.

Note, “(allocated 21233664) (tried to allocate 12288 bytes)”

So, 21233664 bytes are allocated, and the plugin tripping the error tried to use only 12288 bytes but couldn’t.

Perhaps there’s another site on the server hogging all of the physical resources.

I recommend contacting your hosting provider about this.

thanks James. I’ll keep you posted .

You’re welcome!

Yeah, since the allocated values are all different, doesn’t sound like a PHP memory limit as set by memory_limit = 128M or whatever the value is in the PHP.INI.

MarkRH,

using TPC Memory Usage plugins, it shows:

WordPress Memory Limit: 256M
PHP Memory Limit: 512M

any idea why it is not picking it up?

Because there’s no memory left to allocate in the server probably.

When you’re on a shared server, you’re sharing hardware with at least a thousand sites. Imagine if all of them set their allocation to at least 128 MB, now imagine if ten of then were incredibly popular or doing something memory-intensive. Pretty soon, there’s no physical RAM left.

In particular, “(allocated 21233664) (tried to allocate 12288 bytes)” translates as “(allocated 21.234 MB) (tried to allocate 0.012 MB)”. Sure seems pretty dire, so it will be interesting to see what your hosting provider says.

Just an update on response from hosting provide:

I talked to them and they confirmed that all 512M is fully assigned to the site and is not shared with any other site on the WHM.

Also, the guy pointed to the fact that for the log entries happening on the same time/date, the total amount of memory is the sum of all consecutive calls which exceed the 128M. I am not sure though about his opinion but couldn’t find a source on the net to confirm it and like to hear your points.

And finally, I stopped Wordfence & Scheduled back up since writing this post and hasn’t seen any error. Memory usage is showing 59M in its max reach.

Also this is another link talking about the same issue and recommending disabling GC. any thoughts?

Hm, he could be right about all of those little bits bursting the memory at the same time and hitting the limit.

Are you saying you aren’t having the problem now?

Nothing for last 10 hours. But definitely I need to set the scheduled backup & wordfence back up and see if the issue returns.

Excellent, fingers crossed that it was only a temporary issue.

I added the following to my theme’s functions.php file:

###########################################################################################
function memory_stats()
{ // BEGIN function memory_stats
   if ($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == HOME_IP) {
      echo '<p style="clear: both;">Memory used: '. number_format(memory_get_usage(true)). ' bytes.<br />';
      echo 'Peak Memory used: '. number_format(memory_get_peak_usage(true)).' bytes.</p>';
   }

} // END function memory_stats

add_action('in_admin_footer', 'memory_stats');

You can also call memory_stats() at the bottom of the theme’s footer.php file.

It’ll tell you what it’s thinking anyway. Oh, I define HOME_IP at the top of my theme’s functions.php. You can get rid of the if statement if needed.