Red Circle with X Blocking Pages

The problem is coming from the “Swipebox” feature of your SimpleMag theme, and I believe this has something to do with jQuery support. I’ve seen this reported here more times than I can count!

As SimpleMag is a commercial theme, there’s not much we can do to help you here directly, as we don’t have access to commercial products.

For starters, please update your theme and all bundled plugins, and let’s hope that will solve the problem.

If updating doesn’t solve the problem (or you don’t want to update), check your theme’s settings to see if you have the option to disable this “Swipebox” feature. You also want to contact your theme’s vendor so they can address the problem in the theme.

One final band-aid is to downgrade the version of jQuery your site uses with this jQuery plugin: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/enable-jquery-migrate-helper/

Hi George, thanks so much but I don’t believe I’m using the Simple Mag theme (it is loading in there but not in use). I will double-check though. I REALLY appreciate your help! Meg ??

Just checked, you’re right George – frikken Simple Mag! EISH as we say. Thanks again for your help ??

Hi George,
In an attempt to solve this in a more long term fashion, I just bought a theme for $60 and the red circle is still there!!! FML.
Any idea what the issue could be now? Thanks so much.

My issues is: for some reason, when I’m on my home page and I click on a post, a “pop up” blocks the screen where there’s a black X in the top right hand corner and a red circle with an X in it in the bottom right hand corner.

This was your original problem you reported, which I confirmed and traced to Swipebox (possibly an in-built feature or companion plugin of your theme, SimpleMag — but DEFINITELY related to your theme).

I can see you’re using a different theme now (Travelmatic), and the links on your site now work, from my end, with no popup at all.

the red circle is still there!!!

I don’t see any “red circle” anywhere on the site.

In an attempt to solve this in a more long term fashion, I just bought a theme for $60

My first suggestion was for you to simply update the theme to the latest version. Instead, you chose to purchase a new one. If you don’t keep updating this new theme, you can be sure, sooner or later, you’re going to run into another problem.

The red circle is coming from the “Universal Google Adsense and Ads Manager” plugin.

I didn’t see it earlier because I block all ads and trackers on my network’s firewall. I only saw it after opening the site on an unprotected lab computer.

While the red circle may be a nuisance, I hope you’ll agree with me that its impact is minuscule compared to the pop that prevented people from clicking any link on your site!

Hi George,
Thanks again for coming back to me.
So are we saying that there are 2 issues?
1) The pop up caused by Simple Mag blocking page loads?
2) This red circle caused by the Universal Google AdSense plugin?

I just want to get to the bottom of this so I know what to turn on and off to assist in things running well. Again, appreciate your input ??

PS My next course of action would be to remove the GA plugin but not sure if that will impact my revenue earnings.

1) The pop up caused by Simple Mag blocking page loads?

When I click on any link on your site now, the link opens and I can see the page.

Previously, clicking a link only opened a pop-up, preventing me from seeing the page I wanted to see.

So, yes, that problem is solved now.

2) This red circle caused by the Universal Google AdSense plugin?

Certainly. See screenshot below (click the image to see a larger one):

PS My next course of action would be to remove the GA plugin but not sure if that will impact my revenue earnings.

I just installed the “Universal Google AdSense And Ads Manager” plugin on a fresh WordPress installation to test this out for you.

If you check out my test WordPress site below, you’ll see the same “red circle” as you have on your site: https://s-qq83xwp3lhr7.eu1.wpsandbox.org/

This is coming from the “Sticky Footer Ads” feature of the plugin. It seems you have the feature enabled, but you did not configure any ads to be displayed in it.

In my test, disabling this “Sticky Footer Ads” feature eliminated the red dot. As you haven’t configured this specific feature to show any ads, disabling this specific feature (not the entire plugin!) should not have any impact on your revenue.

Wow George, you are impressive! Thank you so so much for your help. I have it automatically on assuming Google would automatically populate those locations – I guess I was wrong! Thank you so much again for your help. Have a great weekend.

I have it automatically on assuming Google would automatically populate those locations – I guess I was wrong!

If you want Google AdSense ads to display there, you’ll need to first select “Google AdSense” under the “Select Ad Type” drop-down menu. This will open a box for you to insert your Google AdSense code.

The default “Custom Ad” ad type expects you to upload a banner image, which you hadn’t.

Thank you so much again for your help. Have a great weekend.

I’m glad I could be of help. And now I know the reason for all these wonderful experiences this weekend: someone was rooting for me ??