Sitemap is different when logged in and logged out, and the latter is incorrect

  • Resolved Paddy Landau

    (@paddy-landau)


    2 months, 1 week ago

    Thank you for your plugin. I’ve installed it today for the first time on my staging site to test it.

    I’m having a bizarre situation where the sitemap being shown on my site is different depending on whether I’m logged in or logged out.

    I make changes in the Settings > XML Sitemap, and save the changes. I’ve also manually excluded some pages with the “Exclude this post from the XML sitemap” option.

    I go to “View the current XML sitemap index”, and the changes are correctly shown — the pages that should be excluded are excluded.

    But when I go to a Guest profile to check, the changes aren’t implemented. It still shows the pages that are supposed to be excluded.

    What I’ve tried:

    • In the Guest profile, the sitemap is incorrect. I open a new tab and log in to my website. Go back to the sitemap and refresh, and it’s correct. Return to the second tab, log out. Go back to the sitemap and refresh, and it’s incorrect again! I can repeat this multiple times, and it’s always the same — when logged in, the sitemap is correct, and when logged out, the sitemap still shows the excluded pages.
    • I’ve repeated this in my normal profile, and the same happens.
    • I’ve repeated this in yet another profile, and again it happens.
    • I’ve tried this in Chrome and in Firefox on Linux, and in Edge on Windows 11.
    • I have cleared every cache there is to clear: The WordPress cache plugin; the theme’s cache; memcache; server cache; the CDN (and even disabled it); the browser’s data; and finally closing and reopening the browser. Nothing solves the problem.
    • I’ve ensured that I’m typing the correct URL by using cut-and-paste, and more simply by just refreshing the page rather than re-entering the URL.
    • The sitemap is https://[mydomain]/wp-sitemap-posts-page-1.xml (it’s only a small website with few pages and no posts).

    I’m at my wits end. How can I solve this problem, please?

    More information:

    • WordPress version 6.6.2
    • WP Sitemaps Config version 2.2.2

    Thank you

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Author Kybernetik Services

    (@kybernetikservices)

    Hello @paddy-landau .

    Thank you for contacting us. The sitemap is generated by WordPress. WP Sitemap Config supports you with some settings that are missing in WordPress core.

    What you describe makes me think of a caching plugin that could be causing the error.

    To make sure nothing else is interfering with the sitemap configuration, please disable all plugins except WP Sitemap Config and switch to a WordPress default theme.

    Thread Starter Paddy Landau

    (@paddy-landau)

    Thank you for your reply and suggestion, @kybernetikservices .

    I have done as you suggested, and identified the culprit: Ultimate Membership Pro (UMP). When I disable UMP, the sitemap works correctly.

    Unfortunately, I need UMP for the website.

    What can you suggest that I do next, please? I am keen to use your plugin, but I can’t get rid of UMP.

    Thank you

    Plugin Author Kybernetik Services

    (@kybernetikservices)

    As you have found out, Ultimate Membership Pro is responsible for the problem. As I wrote, WordPress core generates the sitemap, not WP Sitemap Config. So, I would guess Ultimate Membership Pro is not compatible with the sitemap generator from WordPress. I would recommand to contact the plugin support of Ultimate Membership Pro to discuss the issue.

    Thread Starter Paddy Landau

    (@paddy-landau)

    Thank you for your advice. I’ll contact them.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Tags