Site Doesn't Load on 1st Try, but loads when resubmitted

Anyone?

Have a look in your error logs in the cPanel. There may be some clues there.

Hi Barnez, How do you view that?

I found an old post and tried the site with a /cpanel at the end, but that didn’t work.

Actually I just went to my hosting panel and I can see that there’s an Error Log page, but it’s saying “Logs not available”. It says the following:

Error Logs
Enabling error logs on your Linux hosting plan starts the collection of error log data for a seven-day period. After seven days, collection stops and your error logs are deleted. If you start a new collection during an existing one, your error logs are deleted and collection starts again.

To start error log data collection, click Update. To view error logs, click the Error Logs link.

Do I need to do that?

The cPanel is the application you use to access and manage your database, site files, details, about your storage and bandwidth usage, etc. It should come as part of your hosting package (unless you are hosted on wordpress.com) and is not accessed through your WordPress dashboard but through a url to your server (username and password required). Check your signup info from your hosting company.

https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/stats-logging/how-to-view-cpanel-error-logs

Great you’ve located it.

Yes, I would try to view the error logs. If they are empty, start a new collection, go back into your dashboard and recreate the issue a few times, and then go back and check the logs.

Also worth troubleshooting to rule out a plugin or theme issue. Try:

1. Switching to a wordpress default theme and see if this resolved the issue (if so then it is theme related).

2, Try renaming your plugins folder in wp-content folder to plugins.hold. If this resolves your issue then it is plugin related. You can then rename the folder back to its original plugins name, and reactivate the plugins one by one until you can identify the problem one.

I found that I have 4 error log files. I do have some error messages. One type appears to me to be generated when an IP address we blocked through a security program is repeatedly trying to access the program, so I would guess that this one’s not the problem.

There are other error messages, but I don’t know what they mean or what to do about them. I’d appreciate any help you could give. Here’s the messages from the first folder:

[Sun May 25 07:42:05 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 79.116.31.245:62832] AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use ‘LimitInternalRecursion’ to increase the limit if necessary. Use ‘LogLevel debug’ to get a backtrace.
[Sun May 25 22:54:27 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 208.93.104.8:55408] AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use ‘LimitInternalRecursion’ to increase the limit if necessary. Use ‘LogLevel debug’ to get a backtrace.
[Sun May 25 22:54:32 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 208.93.104.8:55484] AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use ‘LimitInternalRecursion’ to increase the limit if necessary. Use ‘LogLevel debug’ to get a backtrace.
[Mon May 26 06:11:50 2014] [11966940] [fcgid:warn] [client 23.236.154.197:52516] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 120 seconds
[Mon May 26 06:11:50 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 23.236.154.197:52516] End of script output before headers: index.php
[Mon May 26 16:13:08 2014] [11966940] [fcgid:warn] [client 23.236.154.197:39037] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 120 seconds
[Mon May 26 16:13:08 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 23.236.154.197:39037] End of script output before headers: index.php
[Tue May 27 03:05:42 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 174.129.228.67:55467] AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use ‘LimitInternalRecursion’ to increase the limit if necessary. Use ‘LogLevel debug’ to get a backtrace.

Here’s the second folder:

[Sun May 25 08:11:51 2014] [11966940] [fcgid:warn] [client 91.211.117.224:47065] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 120 seconds, referer https://ballmediainnovations.com/
[Sun May 25 08:11:51 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 91.211.117.224:47065] End of script output before headers: index.php, referer https://ballmediainnovations.com/
[Sun May 25 08:17:36 2014] [11966940] [fcgid:warn] [client 178.33.213.48:53376] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 120 seconds, referer https://ballmediainnovations.com/
[Sun May 25 08:17:36 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 178.33.213.48:53376] End of script output before headers: index.php, referer https://ballmediainnovations.com/
[Sun May 25 13:27:46 2014] [11966940] [fcgid:warn] [client 46.105.79.109:62608] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 120 seconds
[Sun May 25 13:27:46 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 46.105.79.109:62608] End of script output before headers: index.php
[Sun May 25 13:46:01 2014] [11966940] [fcgid:warn] [client 46.105.79.109:58473] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 120 seconds
[Sun May 25 13:46:01 2014] [11966940] [core:error] [client 46.105.79.109:58473] End of script output before headers: index.php

I know that’s a lot of code. There are two more folders. Let me know if you need the code from them as well.

Thanks for your help!

What security program are you using on the site? It may be causing the conflict

I would try resetting your plugins.

1. In the cPanel, open the file manager and navigate to: public_html/wp-content. In this folder you will see a plugins folder. This is where all your plugins are saved.

2. Click on it once to highlight it, and then select rename from the menu and rename it plugins.hold. This will disable all your plugins.

3. If you can now load your site and get into your WordPress dashboard, rename the folder back to plugins in cPanel. This will reload your plugins folder in the WordPress dashboard, but they will all be disabled.

4. Then try activating them one by one until you identify the problem plugin.

Hi Barnez,

My concern is that I can’t always make the problem happen. During the weekend I couldn’t make it happen once, but then this morning it did happen. Without the plugins, the site will be a mess, and even if I add the plugins back one at a time, I may not be able to reproduce the problem.

It’s just like taking your car into the shop and they tell you since they can’t reproduce the problem, they can’t help you! That’s happened to me several times.

I guess I can try this late at night so the site will be looking ok during business hours, but with the intermittent nature of the problem, I’m wondering if there’s any other way to handle this.

Also, will the plugins lose their settings if I do this?

Thanks!

try to clear your cache and reload your site

pavandj, could you please tell me how to do that?

@Angietops
You won’t lose you setting of any of your plugins if you disable them and then re-enable them again. As your error logs don’t point to any plugin in particular, it’s difficult to say if one is the problem, and if so which one, without disabling them.

What is your security plugin? Wordfence? Bulletproof Security? Better WordPress Security (iThemes Security)?

I have two security plugins – Wordfence and iThemes Security.

I really like the country blocking on Wordfence, and ithemes seems to do some things that Wordfence doesn’t do. I’ve wondered if having two is ok.

Ahh. I didn’t realise it was in intermittent fault.

I know that iThemes has been experiencing some issues since they re-branded (check the support forums), and there is a possibility that the two security plugins have compatibility issues.

If you can live without the functionality of iThemes for a while, try disabling it as Wordfence seems to be the more stable at present.

I use Wordfence and the NinjaFirewall and have found this to be a dream combination. Wordfence for scans and country blocking etc, and the Ninja Firewall for strong brute force firewall protection.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/ninjafirewall/