Page rendering issues since update

Final note: I had “Fix Page Editors” unchecked and once I was in the editor, nothing would display. I had to check this option to be able to see pages while in the editor.

Thank you, so that means it’s related to PHP Minify update.
However, that means the next time you update, those will be replaced again.

The fix editor option exists for that reason.
Frontend editors don’t play nice with merging and minification of css and js files.

Can you possibly zip a copy of your theme and plugins and send me via google drive / dropbox or whatever to info @ fastvelocity.com ?

I would like to try to reproduce this on my end.
Thanks

Yes. Give me a few days since I am retiring tomorrow and have a laundry list of things to do before leaving. I manage personal sites outside of work and one site uses your Fast Velocity plugin and the Fortuna Theme thats identical to slofostercare.com.

This is NOT resolved for me. I replaced all the files in the LIBS directory with the ones from the link shown. My website does not render at all and I can’t even get into WordPress! I have been working on this for 2 hours now. Please please help.

This is what is rendered when I try to access any page on my website and trying to access wordpress:

Fatal error: Can’t use function return value in write context in /home4/dlovely/public_html/manicnomads.com/wp-content/plugins/fast-velocity-minify/inc/functions.php on line 28

web address is: https://www.manicnomads.com

If you cannot log in to WP but have access to your backend web server, rename the plugin on the web server (or delete it) and you should be able to log back in.

I just did that and yes I got it so I can now enter WordPress. But my website is still down! Why is the website not back up. Did you happen to check my site to see the error? https://www.manicnomads.com. I also used Geopeeker.com and it is down all over the world. Any suggestions?!

Thanks!!!

I am able to see your home page and navigate around the site: Blog, Resources, Motorcycle Blog, Photography, About and Contact. None of these menu options fail with a Fatal Error. Have you tried purging browser cache? Are you using a CDN that needs to be flushed?

Thanks for the reply. I have tried to purge my cache. I am trying to flush my CDN but not sure how to do it so am struggling with that now. Anyway glad to hear you can see it. I’ll keep trying.

@davelovely sorry for the late reply, but it’s 02:00 AM here.

I can see your site clearly, so it’s probably some cache issue you have on your network or browser. I suggest you try another browser, such as opera or firefox just to make sure.

The behaviour you’re reporting, is usually related to the server hosting.
What happens is that they use a shared storage system, and then the server caches the php files to avoid being slow and making high latency requests all the time.

Usually, the server updates in a few minutes, but it can last 15 minutes or even 1+ hours. It depends on the server settings.

This means, that even when you delete the files physically, the server still has them in memory and it will continue to use them, as if they still exist.
It’s great for a production site, but impossible for development.

When there is an error, that will also be cached.
Unfortunately, that cache is not easily purged… it has to be the web hosting to do that or let it expire.
If you have access to restart services, you could restart apache/nginx and php, and it would probably clear the cache.

Furthermore, you deleted the files but the website was still down.
That’s evidence that the server is showing cached requests.
Also be advised, there are usually limits of how many times you can purge the cache… so if you don’t wait for the period (usually 5 minutes), it simply ignores you.
This happens on wpengine for example… it sucks.

The Fatal error you’re referring, is on v2.2.4 only, and although it doesn’t happen to me, it seems to happen in some hosting providers with php 5.6. Maybe it’s something version specific, not sure.

What is your hosting provider and the hosting plan you have?
If it’s godaddy, mediatemple, hostgator, bluehost, etc… then, you get what you pay for (sorry).

Version 2.2.5 should be working fine to you otherwise, so maybe later you can try again. Make sure you delete the plugin completely and install from scratch. Maybe that will force the server to update the cache.

Be advised that whenever possible, you should have backups and even a staging version to test all plugins and theme updates. Sometimes things like these happen, although I’ve seen situations where even when people restore the backup, it still shows a cached page.
I have even seen people completely deleting wordpress, and the frontend was still working, even with a cache purge from the hosting control panel directly.

Sorry for your trouble, but if possible, I would suggest moving to a better hosting.
Doesn’t need to be expensive, there are many options out there.

It is really, really nice of you to take the time and make the effort to write such a detailed explanation for me. I really appreciate it. I have been working on the cache issue but for the most part it seems to be rectifying itself (not 100% yet). I am not going to worry more about it now. Geopeeker.com shows it working everywhere. My biggest problem at first was I could not even access WordPress to deactivate the plugin. So while it sucked to have the site go down and it sucked to spend 3 hours trying to fix it on the positive side I learned some new things. ?? And really you were right on top of this. I used to code in the old days and had a commercial app so I know all about bugs and having to respond to them. So good job for being on top of it! Cheers.