Unable to edit theme in editor after WordPress 4.9 Update

Please install the health check plugin and report back its findings: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/health-check/

Thanks Steven for the help.

However, I installed this plugin and whenever I click on “Health Check” link (of course, after installing), it just keeps loading and eventually ends with 504 Gateway Timeout error.

Is this a known error?

the timeout for checking loopback request is too high, so it does not properly report when your site is unable to make loopback requests to itself.

This is the reason why theme/plugin editors arent working, you may have WP_CRON problems as well.

Do you use any contact form plugins? try disabling them first and checking again.
Maybe this can be other plugins as well. Please report your plugin list and your findings when you disable them one-by-one and checking with health-check again.

Hi Yui and Steve,

First, thanks for the response.

Second, I deactivated just one plugin. That’s Short Pixel Image Optimizer.

As soon as I de-activated it, I’m able to edit the file in the editor now.

In fact, the Health Check plugin is also working now.

However, the Health Check plugin is giving me the following error:
Some files are not writable by WordPress:
wp-settings.php
wp-cron.php
wp-comments-post.php
wp-activate.php
wp-admin/link-parse-opml.php
wp-admin/js/editor.js
wp-admin/js/user-profile.min.js
wp-admin/js/word-count.min.js
wp-admin/js/tags-suggest.js
wp-admin/js/tags-box.js
wp-admin/js/theme-plugin-editor.js
wp-admin/js/image-edit.js
wp-admin/js/updates.min.js
wp-admin/js/postbox.min.js
wp-admin/js/nav-menu.min.js
wp-admin/js/theme.min.js
wp-admin/js/custom-header.js
wp-admin/js/media-upload.js
wp-admin/js/color-picker.js
wp-admin/js/iris.min.js
…

Do I still need to worry about this message?

P.S: I haven’t checked if reactivating the deactivated plugin will bring back the error so I’ll go ahead, test it and update over here.

Thanks.

Ok. Here’s the update.

Just to update that above wasn’t fluke, I reactivated the Shortpixel Image Optimizer plugin and again, I wasn’t able to edit the php file from the editor.

So I guess, in my case Shortpixel Image Optimizer is the problematic plugin.

Regards,
Saad.

We’ve found unconditional calling of session_start() from plugin/theme code as the source of frozen death problem with wp_remote_get() to site itself, Shortpixel plugin does call session_start() unconditionally

Actually many plugins do that, so i’m not yet aware what the solution could be, but finding the source of the problem is the most important step.

Could you please try also with the latest version of ShortPixel plugin (4.8.4)? It’s intended to fix this problem.

@fierevere, what do you mean by calling session_start() unconditionally? It currently is called only when no session is active (session_id() false). What other condition would be advisable?
Thanks,

what do you mean by calling session_start() unconditionally?

meant – calling on every page, even when its not needed.
/wp-admin/ definitely does not need a session from image olugin.
Another example – https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/contact-form-plugin/
it does create session for every visitor as well. even for /wp-admin/
Good example – https://ru.www.ads-software.com/plugins/si-contact-form/
This plugin calls session_start() only on page with contact form to load captcha

WordPress itself does not use sessions.

ShortPixel Image Optimizer v 4.8.4
Its broken

script_filename = /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-admin/index.php
[0xb6c19810] session_start() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-content/plugins/shortpixel-image-optimiser/class/wp-short-pixel.php:23
[0xb6c197a0] __construct() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-content/plugins/shortpixel-image-optimiser/wp-shortpixel.php:80
[0xb6c196d0] shortpixelInit() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php:286
[0xb6c19610] apply_filters() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php:310
[0xb6c195c0] do_action() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-includes/plugin.php:453
[0xb6c194e0] do_action() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-settings.php:450
[0xb6c19360] [INCLUDE_OR_EVAL]() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-config.php:166
[0xb6c19300] [INCLUDE_OR_EVAL]() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-load.php:37
[0xb6c19280] [INCLUDE_OR_EVAL]() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-admin/admin.php:31
[0xb6c190f0] [INCLUDE_OR_EVAL]() /sandbox/sandbox3/wp-admin/index.php:10

Hi, I have the same problem. Can’t edit theme files in the editor. When I deactivate the plugin “USP Pro” (which creates contact files) it works again. All this is since I updated to WP 4.9. What can I do?

Hi @soncha7,

Deactivate the plugin, which you’ve already done.

Inform the plugin developer.

Create a new thread so that proper log of that plugin is kept.

Let the plugin developer know about that thread.

Thank you.

Update

I updated to the newest version of the Shortpixel Image Optimizer and its working now.

I can edit my files with the in the file editor now.

So the error is resolved now.

I have this problem too, and was able to isolate it to the Pods Framework plugin on my site. I left notes on their support forum and blog notifying them of this WP4.9 incompatibility–hopefully they’ll release an update soon.

@w2owebmaster Please see the note from the moderator above:

Deactivate the plugin, which you’ve already done.

Inform the plugin developer.

Create a new thread so that proper log of that plugin is kept.

Let the plugin developer know about that thread.

We received your ticket on our pods.io/forum/ but I think they were advising that the thread should be on the www.ads-software.com forum.

I hate to tell you this, but we’ve worked with several people who had this issue and every single time, it had to do with either their theme code or with their hosting environment. The HealthCheck plugin (and the WP Editor change) isn’t giving enough informative details for anyone to actually track down the problem. It’s just pointing at plugin authors as the problem, which is not a solution.

One of our plugin contributing developers even provided a fix to the WP Editor to at least provide back the error to the user instead of just saying ‘we can’t edit your theme files’. Here’s that ticket from 12 days ago:
https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/ticket/42773

We’re happy to help you try to figure out where in your theme or hosting environment the problem might be, but we are a free plugin with free support and extremely limited resources. The issue continues to be not providing enough of an error message to actually identify the problem.

You’re welcome to jump on our Slack Chat at https://pods.io/chat/ though it is after hours so I won’t be able to help you until tomorrow morning.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Jim True.