BUG: WordPress page goes blank if more than 20 captions

(@acurran)

I think this is a bug in WordPress that has been around for awhile and hasn’t been resolved.

To reproduce:
Paste this into a new page and when you try to view it you will get a blank page.

[caption id="attachment_1" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 1"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_2" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 2"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_3" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 3"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_4" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 4"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_5" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 5"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_6" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 6"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_7" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 7"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_8" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 8"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_9" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 9"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_10" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 10"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_11" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 11"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_12" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 12"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_13" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 13"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_14" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 14"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_15" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 15"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_16" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 16"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_17" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 17"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_18" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 18"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_19" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 19"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_20" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 20"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_21" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 21"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_22" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 22"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_23" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 23"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_24" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 24"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_25" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 25"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_26" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 26"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_27" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 27"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_28" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 28"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_29" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Caption 29"]<img title="Test" src="http://wordpress.org/screenshots/2.5/ss-4.png" alt="Test" width="199" height="104" />[/caption]

Then remove a few lines and the content will display again. If the content filter is disabled there is no problem so looks like the bug is in the content filter code.

I posted this bug 5 months ago when on version 2.6.x but now on version 2.7.1 I see that this bug still exists. I noticed it when I was creating a page with a lot of photos and captions – after adding a few more photos and captions the page went blank. Then I remembered I had come across this issue before and had posted it here: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/218318

This also looks like the same issue:
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/176939

It got marked as ‘resolved’ there but the ‘resolution’ was to disable the content filter! Not exactly a proper fix.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)

1 2 →

choccokim
(@choccokim)

14 years, 11 months ago

I am having the same problem… have you found any fixes??

asechrest
(@asechrest)

14 years, 11 months ago

Did you try officially submitting it as a bug per the instructions here?

ahollier
(@ahollier)

14 years, 10 months ago

I’ve reproduced the bug, but not intentionally….
I’m having the exact same problem on my site. I’ve removed the captions, but I would prefer to have them since I have thumbnails as link to additional pages. I’m going to investigate further…

calil
(@calil)

14 years, 10 months ago

Hey you all, me and ahollier have been discussing the same problem here http://wordpress.org/support/topic/258188.

Notice the date when I started the topic… it’s awful.

Could we do something to ask for a help?

ahollier
(@ahollier)

14 years, 10 months ago

Hey calil, glad to see you found where I’ve been jumping around the forums. 🙂 I’ll post this here since it has more bodies for opinions.

As per asechrest’s advice, I’m looking into reporting this bug.
calil and I both (separately) tried installing the same versions of wordpress that we are experiencing issues with on different servers and still had the exact same issues. From what we can determine, it can’t be a database issue.

The site I am working on for a client has one page where I want to display 26 thumbnails that link to different pages (kelownaoffroadz.com/atv – the site is still under development). The built in captions “were” a nice feature until I could only make it to around 10 images before all content was gone (as acurran describes).

I decided to try removing the captions and insert the remaining pictures and voila, they all went in without a problem. I then even made my own little captions above each image with no problem.

I would deduce that this has nothing to do with the size of the page since I almost tripled the amount of content after removing the captions (exactly one picture before I would lose all data with captions) and no issue.

I think this is an issue with the [caption] shortcode. I’ve tried various fixes from all over the web and forums with no success.

I’ve searched the WordPress Trac database (http://core.trac.wordpress.org/) and did not find anything similar.
So I’m assuming the bug has not been reported yet.

I am volunteering to submit this bug. I will post back here once I have done so to give you the link, then you will be able to add anything that I’ve missed. If before I post back to say it has been submitted (it may take a little bit to get all the info I would like to get together for a good bug report) and you have any ideas of what I should include, etc. Please let me know on this thread or the thread that calil notes above.
ahollier
(@ahollier)

14 years, 10 months ago
Okay, so I’ve been doing some testing before I send in a report and I have some weird findings that I would like confirmed by someone else please.

I have been having difficulties when trying to insert thumbnails AS links AND I’m placing mine in a table.

I am trying to reproduce acurran’s problem with the code provided.

I have removed all of my plugins and I normally use the tinyMCE Advanced editor, but I even disabled that, so I’m using the default wordpress visual and html.

Now if you paste the code from acurran’s post into the HTML area of a new page and publish, you should have no page content displayed. However, if you then switch over to Visual mode and hit publish again, magically the images appear. ??? Also, you may notice at the bottom left of the editor area there is a word count. After you hit publish in the HTML area the word count = 202, but after publishing in the visual area the word count=203….
I noticed this when I was testing using images as links and in tables too. There seems to be a mysterious extra word somewhere.

I also tested using the same image repeatedly and also distinct images.

I did not test distinct images outside a table. I was running out of steam.

For images (distinct) as links in a table I had:
- a 5 column 6 row table
- inserted images with captions
- hit around 12 images and all data was gone from html and visual editors
For images (the same one over and over) as links in a table I had:
- a 5 column 6 row table
- inserted images with captions
- hit exactly 14 images and on the 15th image all data was gone from html and visual editors
In both of the tables above. I then removed the captions and they displayed (still as links). I added additional images and rows to the table up to where I had a 5 column 12 row table with no problems.

I then brought it back down to a 5 by 6 table, edited one image to have a caption and then all content disappeared.

Oddly, I tried to reproduce the issue with them not in a table and I had no problems. The only time I had a problem was when I pasted the code above.

This is a very weird problem… I’m trying to find some pattern. My tables definitely seem to have an issue with the caption shortcode.

How is everyone else putting their images into the pages?

[Addition: The images I use are in my Media Library, not an external website.]
whooami
(@whooami)

14 years, 10 months ago

php 5. you wont have this problem with php 4, AND its not just a wordpress issue.

ahollier
(@ahollier)

14 years, 10 months ago

Hmmm… If this is the case, that could be quite the problem.

Switching my servers to PHP 4 is not an option since my other websites rely on PHP 5.

whooami, I am not doubting your assessment of the cause of this problem, but could you possibly be able to tell me how/where you came across this information?

If it is an issue caused by the switch from PHP 4 to 5, then I think it is still an issue that the wordpress coders should look into since php 5 is becoming the new standard. (One of my host servers only offers PHP 5)

So if I can get some information regarding the affect of php 5 versus 4, it would help me with reporting the bug.
Thank you.

whooami
(@whooami)

14 years, 10 months ago

whooami, I am not doubting your assessment of the cause of this problem, but could you possibly be able to tell me how/where you came across this information?

what do you mean?

I came across it by taking the same content that had worked fine in php4 and migrating it to php5, obviously.

I also did my own homework reading through various bug reports on php.net, though I cant find that stuff right now.

ahollier
(@ahollier)

14 years, 10 months ago

Thank you whooami. That’s exactly what I meant. I was just wondering if you had tested it yourself or if you had found the information elsewhere, or both. I’m sorry, I should have been more specific. 🙂

calil
(@calil)

14 years, 10 months ago

@ahoolier: wow, you’ve been busy lately! Sorry for taking so long in answering, and sorry (in advance) for not being really useful.

I have 60< thumbnails with caption, and they aren’t links. They are placed in HTML tables (not the same table, actually).
I haven’t tried removing the caption and/or the tables.

To be honest, I don’t understand how it could be a problem with the table element. Something not right with [caption] is more reasonable to me.

I can try something, if you wish to. Is there anything special I could run to check out the behavior?

@whooami
thank you for your time, pal. I have checked in one of the servers where I’m having this issue, and, in fact, it’s running PHP 5.2.5.
Unfortunately, I’m not able to connect to the other right now.

When you discovered the error, just downgrading the PHP version corrected it?

I totally agree with ahollier when she says that, even if it is and issue with WP x PHP, WP coders should care to correct it ASAP.

mrmist
(@mrmist)

14 years, 10 months ago

Possibly relates to http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8553

whooami
(@whooami)

14 years, 10 months ago

ahollier,

Nope Ive seen it, and its not just a caption issue. Its a general content thing — too much, and it just doesnt display.

calil
(@calil)

14 years, 10 months ago

mrmist, thanks for the link!

ahollier, have you checked it? The author said it’s created by a setting new in PHP 5.2.0, what makes sense with whooami’s suggestion.

I’m talking with my hosting companies about it.

choccokim
(@choccokim)

14 years, 10 months ago

Hello All,

When I updated from php4 to php5 it fixed the problem. Apparently if you don’t have enough memory this can happen, ie you keep adding to more plugins etc. You can also try giving yourself more storage space. Unfortunately, I just threw out my notes on that so I don’t have specific directions, but if you know how to increase your storage space that worked for me.