Meta/Edit Thumb/Rotate/Publish via Manage Galleries do not work

@kasia_codeword – If this issue is present across multiple sites with Twenty Fifteen and only NextGEN Gallery active, could there be a server side component to the problem? Are all of these sites on the same server? DO you see the same results for Server Settings under Gallery > Overview in all installations?

This is not a general issue with all installations of NextGEN Gallery which has me thinking there is something specific to your site(s) that is triggering the problem.

– Cais.

While you are correct that all of the sites I checked when I originally posted the issue yesterday are hosted on the same server, after receiving your reply, I tested it on another website which is hosted on a completely different server by a completely different hosting company and the issue still persists.

Hi again.

Since I posted this morning I was able to test the issue on some other sites on other servers besides mine. The plugin works as expected and the issue was not present on two of the servers I tested. The issue was present on two of the other servers I tested, my own and one other that is on a separate host.

Here are screenshots of the server settings from Gallery-> Overview for all four of my test cases:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzVHDGJeVssRZ05YTEhWQkYzNms/view?usp=sharing

Any insight you might have as to what the problem might be would be greatly appreciated, as I have no idea where to start here.

@kasia_codeword – The only item that stands out in that screenshot (thanks!) is the Apache version number (not displayed) but that would be a real stretch for it to be the base cause of the issues.

Are you testing with only a default WordPress Twenty series theme and NextGEN Gallery only as well across all test sites?

– Cais.

Hi Cais. I’m totally stumped here.

In my original test case, I had installed the plugin, noticed the glitch, then deactivated all other plugins and switched from the custom theme I was working on building to the default Twenty Fifteen theme to see whether it was a plugin or theme conflict causing the problem. The issue persisted. I then went a step further and created a brand new fresh WordPress install on the same server and installed and activated ONLY NextGEN Gallery, and the issue was not present — the plugin worked as intended.

One of my sites where the issue is present, also on the same server, was launched in March with NextGEN, and this issue was not present at that time, however it is now.

The only thing all of the affected sites have in common except the fresh install I mentioned above is that they run on custom themes with Bootstrap (including Bootstrap JS) as a base. However, the issue continued to persist even after deactivating the custom theme and activating Twenty Fifteen, and deactivating all other plugins.

So now that we have ruled out server configuration as a cause, I am wondering if perhaps there is some kind of database conflict, like freshly installed sites that install the latest version of NextGEN for the first time will work, but sites that upgrade from a previously running version are experiencing a conflict?

This issue is super frustrating for me, I’ve been a loyal NextGEN user for years on dozens of websites without a problem. I’ll be disappointed to have to switch to another solution if I can’t solve this issue.

@kasia_codeword – Our testing generally includes updating from various older versions of NextGEN Gallery (often times as old as NextGEN Legacy) and we are not seeing this issue ourselves.

Please send us a Bug Report (https://nextgen-gallery.com/report-bug/ … please reference this topic) so we can get a better look under the page at your site.

We may need temporary log in (and FTP) credentials for your WordPress installation (a non-working one), please consider those for your Bug Report, too.

Thanks!

– Cais.

I have filed a bug report on this issue. I have noticed as well that other people seem to be reporting the same thing over the last several weeks, so clearly I am not the only one.

@kasia – Thanks for the Bug Report (I have sent a response earlier today). Let’s keep the conversation there for the time being.

– Cais.

Posting an update to say I have solved this. There is a conflict between NextGEN Gallery and a feature of the Sucuri plugin that “hardens” the wp-content directory by creating an .htaccess file in the wp-content directory that contains the following code:

<Files *.php>
deny from all
</Files>

Removing this .htaccess file from the wp-content directory will solve this issue. It was not immediately obvious what was happening at first because deactivating/removing the Sucuri plugin does not automatically delete this file.

Sorry, one more update to add that recent versions of Sucuri use different code than posted above in wp-content/.htaccess to harden it, but the principle remains the same. Hardening wp-content with Sucuri will cause this feature of NextGEN to stop working. Deactivating Sucuri or deleting the plugin will not remove the .htaccess files created by Sucuri. They need to be removed manually or with the “revert hardening” for wp-content option within Sucuri Hardening settings. I am SOOOO glad I figured this out.

@kasia – Thank you very much for the update. I had noticed something with Sucuri myself when reviewing your site but I admit to missing the .htaccess file it created that was causing this issue.

Well done getting this sorted out!!

– Cais.