Problem Description
You have read or been told that you need to perform exhaustive troubleshooting with WordPress.
A quicker solution may be found in our article on reducing dynamic processing with WordPress. It highlights the most common performance issues that might help resolve your problem. If not, then continue on with the exhaustive search!
Resolving issues with Exhaustive Search
First, Create a Backup OR use a staging copy (or both): To proceed, you will need to deactivate parts of the site in order to troubleshoot the issue, and while this typically does not result in data loss, there are select cases where it can, and so we recommend backing up the site first. Alternatively (or alongside a backup), you can clone the site to a staging environment and then proceed with the troubleshooting steps on the staging copy of the site rather than the live site. This helps ensure your live site is not affected while you investigate the problem. Once you have identified the code which is causing the problem, you can then make the same changes that fixed the issue on the live site.
If you have a caching plugin active, it's best to either disable it during this testing (but do not forget to re-enable it after). If it's a high traffic site, it's best to use a staging copy to prevent visitors from overwhelming resources while you're testing things.
How to deactivate one or more plugins for testing
How to deactivate one or more plugins using 1-click web apps:
- Login to Plesk
- Choose 1-click web apps
- Click the Edit button beside the app you're having trouble with
- Choose the Plugins tab and, under the "Activated" column, uncheck one or more plugins (details on this process below)
- Choose Save All.
Alternative: you can also disable individual plugins by deleting the plugin folder using the Plesk File Manager. Though this is harder to restore when you need to, so it's a last-resort.
How to deactivate one or more plugins using the WordPress admin:
If you can access the WordPress admin, these steps will do the trick:
- Login to WordPress as an admin user
- Go to Plugins
- Under any given plugin choose "Deactivate" or select the plugins you wish to deactivate and click the Deactivate button at the top of the page.
Exhaustive Troubleshooting Methodologies
Exhaustive troubleshooting with one plugin at a time:
Deactivate the first plugin in the list then test the site to see if the issue is fixed. If it's not, re-activate the plugin then move on to the next one in the list. If it is, then you've found your problem: the last plugin you deactivated.
Exhaustive troubleshooting with all plugins at once (faster):
Deactivate all plugins then re-activate each one in sequence (excluding caching plugins), testing the site after each re-activation. When the issue returns you've found your culprit: the last plugin you activated. You can then re-enable all plugins you had previously been using and and request help from the developer of the plugin that you identified as causing the problem.
No plugin is to blame?
If you've tried deactivating all plugins and the issue still remains, the problem is likely either with your theme or in custom code that's part of the theme.
You will need to activate another theme (switch themes), even if just temporarily, to confirm that the theme code is to blame. If changing themes fixes the problem, then you should request help from the theme developer, or if you have had custom code written for the theme, talk to the developer that wrote that code.
If deactivating all plugins and switching your theme to the most recent WordPress default theme does not solve the issue, open a ticket to have us investigate, but if we don't see all plugins deactivated and the theme at default, we will ask you to do that before we proceed.
