Redirect Plugins Work without BPS

We use the WPtouch plugin on all of our sites and it works fine without any issues/problems. We have tested the WordPress Mobile Pack plugin and it also works fine without any issues/problems.

BPS is all or nothing – either something works or it is blocked until you whitelist whatever is being blocked. htaccess files are a server configuration file that instruct your server to do something – consistently and not intermittently. There are htaccess directives that allow you to do things with time, but BPS is not using any of those htaccess directives/code in any BPS files or code.

What you are describing sounds like something to do with cache or something that can change intermittently or change over time. If you have added additional custom .htaccess code or htaccess code from another plugin to BPS Custom Code then it could be the cause of the issue/problem. See the Custom Code troubleshooting info below.

Source: https://forum.ait-pro.com/forums/topic/read-me-first-free/#bps-free-general-troubleshooting

Custom Code Note: If you have isolated a problem to the root or wp-admin .htaccess file and you have added additional custom .htaccess code or additional .htaccess code from another plugin to BPS Custom Code then cut (not Copy) all of your additional custom .htaccess code out of all BPS Custom Code text boxes and save that custom .htaccess code to a Notepad or Notepad++ text file, Click the Save Root Custom Code button (or the wp-admin Custom Code button), click the AutoMagic buttons on the Security Modes page and activate BulletProof Modes. You can then further isolate which custom .htaccess code is the problem by adding only 1 block of additional custom code back to a BPS Custom Code text box at a time.

Post the name of the mobile plugin and we will test it.

– With bps enabled: Any time I make a change, whether it’s updating a page, post, or changing a plugin, the mobile redirect starts working for about 30 minutes then stops.
– When bps is disabled, every redirect plugin works regardless of admin posts or changes.

Right now I’m using “Equivalent Mobile Redirect” so I can custom redirect each page.

Maybe it’s a permissions issue in conjunction with bps? Can you tell me what they should be? I also recently changed hosts, maybe there’s a permissions issue there? Any information would be helpful.

Thank you,
ST

Are you saying you are activating Default Mode/Deactivating Root folder BulletProof Mode or are you saying you are deactivating the BPS plugin itself?

I have downloaded and installed the plugin and will post my test results after testing.

The Equivalent Mobile Redirect plugin has been tested with the BPS plugin activated and all BPS security features enabled and it works fine without any problems. Tested creating and updating additional posts and pages and the other things you mentioned and the plugin is still working correctly. I will wait 30 minutes and test again, but there is no code in BPS that does anything with time so the results will be the same – the Equivalent Mobile Redirect plugin will still work correctly. Will post those results in 30 minutes from now.

Deactivating the plugin itself.

I understand about BPS not doing anything with time. That’s why I feel its permission based. When i’m in as admin, and I make post changes, redirect starts working.

Ok then the issue/problem is something else entirely then. There must some other coding conflict with the BPS code and another plugin’s code or some functionality in that other plugin. ie Plugin X is actually causing the problem by conflicting with the BPS plugin code and the end result is the mobile plugin and probably the rest of your entire site is affected.

The best clue is that whichever Plugin X is the plugin causing the problem, that plugin does something at 30 minute intervals. So that would most likely either be a WP Cron or something to do with SESSION.

Or of course it could be your theme. Assuming your website is a Live Production site that you cannot afford to deactivate all plugins and switch your theme then the easiest way to isolate the problem would be to clone the site and create a Development copy of the site and then do the standard WordPress troubleshooting steps:
Deactivate all plugins or deactivate plugins one by one to isolate the problem plugin.
Switch your theme to one of the WordPress themes. ie 2015, 2014, etc.

Atleast I know it’s not theme related. I have the exact same issue on 2 websites using completely different themes.

Originally I followed the instructions for beefing up security on folders based on the permissions you described. That was before I moved both sites to a new server. So both sites are set up the same with permissions.

I don’t believe there is a timed event occurring which reverses the changes I make. I believe it’s because I’m logged in as admin and eventually the admin permissions expire.

I’m going to re-enable bps and see what results I get with “Default Mode/Deactivating Root folder”

I checked the Equivalent Mobile Redirect plugin’s support forum and found the exact same problem, but there is no confirmed solution. The plugin author is stating exactly what I originally thought was the problem a caching plugin, but I also see other possible conflicts that may or may not be fixed: the plugin has a known conflict with the Contact Form 7 plugin.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/it-was-working-not-anymore?replies=11

User issue/problem:
I installed your plugin and enabled the homepage redirect. It worked perfectly, then after a half hour, I looked at the site on my iphone again and the redirect no longer worked.

plugin author response:
the reason I ask about a caching plugin is because the mobile redirect plugin uses the function ismobile to detect mobile users, with a caching plugin it may be caching the desktop version of the site so it never reads the function when a mobile visitor hits the site. This is a known problem with caching and detecting mobile users.

I am going to make a logical guess here and I could be completely wrong, but I see the possibility that the EMR plugin may have some issues that need to be worked out/corrected. The origin/source of the problem may be with the EMR plugin itself. Looking at the code in this plugin it looks ok, but this code below could potentially be the source of the issue/problem. It is setting a COOKIE, which is fine, but makes me wonder how this interacts with the COOKIE that WordPress sets. Also this plugin will most likely not work correctly on a Network/Multisite site. I do not see any specific Network/Multisite code conditions and the only functions that are used are for a WordPress Single site installation and not the Network/Multisite function equivalents.

if(isset($get_cookie_check)){
				//strip the https://www from the domain
				$site_url =  site_url();
				$domain = parse_url($site_url, PHP_URL_HOST);
			if($get_cookie_check =='true'){
				//set the cookie
				setcookie("mobilethe_wp_full_site", 1, time()+86400, "/", $domain);
				$_COOKIE['mobilethe_wp_full_site'] = 1;
			}
			if($get_cookie_check =='false'){
				//set the cookie
				setcookie("mobilethe_wp_full_site", 0, time()-3600, "/", $domain);
				$_COOKIE['mobilethe_wp_full_site'] = 0;
			}
		}

The problem does not have anything to do with the BPS plugin functionality or any BPS security features.

“…eventually the admin permissions expire…”

Your statement above is confirming what I suspect is the root problem. The problem is probably with the COOKIE code in the EMR plugin itself. COOKIES expire after a certain amount of time, but usually that is many hours or days.

Ok 30+ minutes have passed and I retested the EMR plugin and it is still working correctly with the BPS plugin activated. So I am going to assume that the COOKIE code in EMR is fine and there is another plugin involved in the equation that is doing something like: messing up the cache, starting a SESSION or messing up a SESSION, resetting the EMR COOKIE or messing up the EMR COOKIE.

Or a chain reaction problem is occurring. ie Plugin X is directly interfering with BPS plugin code causing some sort of chain reaction/combination problem. The best clue is that the problem happens at time intervals/after a period of time so you would want to eliminate any plugins that do something at 30 minute intervals or with time.

BPS and EMR work fine together on my test site.

Ok, A bit of what you’re saying is going over my head. I’m still learning about fixing wordpress issues. I’ll try diagnosing, and let you know what I find. Thank you for your help…. Should I mark as resolved?

You can leave the thread open. I am curious which plugin is actually the root cause of the problem and would like to look into that plugin further. Deactivate the more likely plugins one by one first and test. Any plugin that is doing something at intervals or with time. ie doing X every Y minutes.

If you post a list of all the plugins installed on your site I can tell you which plugins are the more likely ones that could cause this problem and the ones to deactivate first.