Old slideshows work, new one does not

Hi @marvmckay66

I don’t see the JS on this page being loaded. Can you check that “Print JS” is on under Advanced Settings, and if you have any minification JS plugins or cache plugins of any kind make sure to clear out their cache (or disable them for now).

If that’s on but still not working, try switching to FlexSlider. Also check the server logs for any PHP errors (might have to contact your hosting provider).

I clicked both the “Print JS” and “Print CSS” buttons to match the same settings on other working slideshows, and then clicked the “save” button, and get notification of the save, and they show as being still clicked. But if I navigate away from this slideshow and go anywhere else in the dashboard and then come back to the same slideshow and open the “advanced settings” again, those two items are no longer checked, even though I’ve checked and saved multiple times now.

This needs a server config update then. You’ll have to ask your host to increase max_input_vars to something high like 9999999. After that it should work.

Ok, thanks, I’ll check with the host now. I appreciate the quick replies and the help!!

GoDaddy said it wasn’t a server config issue on my Managed WordPress account and told me to increase the max_input_vars myself in either php.ini or user.ini, but neither they nor I could find either file within the FTP folders. So then it was suggested that I add “@ini_set( ‘max_input_vars’ , 4000 );” within my wp-config.php file and increase the 4000 to something higher (so I put in 999999) and after refreshing this file on the server, nothing changed.

Not sure if I just got a clueless GoDaddy support person or if this might still be another problem somewhere that I need to address?

They should be able to help you with this. Might be worth connecting again with another support staff. While you can do it yourself, I recommend contacting the host as they should have experience with this already.

I believe you can just create a php.ini file and it will override the global settings they have set.

Some more info: https://themezly.com/docs/how-to-increase-the-max-input-vars-limit/

Still struggling with this – for my own understanding and logic, if all of my other Metaslider slideshows are working perfectly without updating the max_input_vars, but just the new one isn’t working, then is it really an issue with max_input_vars?

I thought for curiosity’s sake I would try building another new slideshow today, this time with just 4 images (vs. the 160 in the last one that doesn’t work), and the images show up, but only show up as stacked static images, not as a slideshow.

Any thoughts based on these last two points? I appreciate your patience and help!

Hi @marvmckay66

The reason the slideshow settings disappear is because when you have a lot of slides, you have a lot of variables (each slide has around 50 variables). If you have 100 slides at 50 variables each then you have 5000 variables plus about 30 more for the settings. If your server cuts off at 5000 then those 30 at the end are not delivered to the database. Increasing the max_input_vars (i.e. maximum input variables) will fix this.

This is why your slideshows with fewer slides are saving properly.

Do you have a URL to a test page with the new slideshow? This is likely another issue but I can take a look. Usually you will see an error in the browser’s console in this situation.

Thanks for the explanation – 50 variables per slide definitely explains the problem when it comes to 160 slides!

Here’s the link to the test slideshow with only 4 images –
https://congenitalhi.org/highlights-from-the-2019-chi-chop-philadelphia-conference/

I used the advice you gave me from the link here (https://themezly.com/docs/how-to-increase-the-max-input-vars-limit/) and changed wp-config to this:

@ini_set( ‘max_input_vars’ , 99950 );

I made a test page and re-inserted the shortcode for the big slideshow, and it comes up blank here, although if I look at the source code, around line 252, I see the code generating the images:

https://congenitalhi.org/160-image-test/

Hi @marvmckay66

Are the settings saving properly now?

As for the slideshow with just 4 images, I still don’t see the JS on the page. If Print JS is on and it’s working from the preview area, and on old pages, then it sounds like a caching issue.

Maybe try switching it to FlexSlider and see if that works?

I just checked the slideshow settings for the 4 images, checked “autoplay” and “Print JS” and “Print CSS” and saved it, and it retained the settings and the slideshow now works perfectly.

I did the same for the big slideshow, but it won’t retain those check marks for any of those same 3 options, and the slideshow still shows up blank. I also tried saving it to FlexSlider and it doesn’t retain that change either.

If it didn’t save the settings then the max_input_vars setting is not set properly. I’d get back on chat with GoDaddy and push them to help you set this up.

You could try in your .htaccess file or otherwise create a php.ini file. I’m not sure which approach will work as I don’t know exactly how GoDaddy is set up (a setting in one place will override another). But once you have that set everything should be working.

In case anyone else is reading this, in addition to all of the great help that kbatdorf has given me, I also learned something about how GoDaddy is hiding the php.ini file here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16140917/how-to-access-the-php-ini-file-in-godaddy-shared-hosting-linux

So, using your advice, I went ahead and created my own php.ini file and added “max_input_vars =99900” and uploaded it to the server. The slideshow started working but had some PHP errors, so then I thought that maybe there was a conflict since I still had the max_input_vars changed in the wp-config file (which did nothing on its own), so I cleaned that up, and have the change made ONLY in my new php.ini file … and now it works!!

Thank you so much for your patience and persistence in helping me get this fixed!!!

Glad to hear it’s working now! If you have any more issues feel free to reach out.

By the way, if you’re enjoying MetaSlider please leave us a 5-star review. They really help us out and let others find our plugin more easily. If you don’t think we deserve the 5 stars please let us know how we can improve, too. Thanks!

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