All in One SEO plugin conflict with Wordfence

Hi @bright7,

Thanks for reaching out! Sometimes, WordPress plugins or themes may exhibit behavior that resembles known attack patterns, which results in the Wordfence Firewall blocking something that is not malicious. This can be resolved by switching the firewall to Learning Mode to eliminate the false positives.

From the Wordfence Dashboard click on Manage WAF. Then you will see Basic Firewall Options > Web Application Firewall Status. Change the option to Learning Mode. Now proceed to edit the properties that were throwing an error. This will help Wordfence learn that these actions are normal and it will allow them in the future. After you have finished editing the properties, switch the WAF from Learning Mode back to Enabled and Protecting then test to see that you can edit without getting the same errors.

https://www.wordfence.com/help/firewall/learning-mode/ is an amazing resource for learning more about the WAF and learning mode.

Let me know how it goes!

Thanks,
Margaret

Hi Olga,

Can you try loading the page while keeping a Browser Console open to see if you can detect any JavaScript errors or files that fail to load? If you see any red text in the console, please take a screenshot of it and send it to me and I will help you interpret the errors.

If you would rather not post a screenshot to the forum, please feel free to email it to me at wftest @ wordfence . com. Include your forum username in the subject and let me know here once you’ve sent it.

It might also be worthwhile to check the browser console while Wordfence’s firewall is disabled. Please let me know if you see a different response when the firewall is disabled.

Thanks,
Margaret

Hi @bright7,

Thank you for letting me know! In the browser console, if you check the Network tab and then refresh Pages in your dashboard (where AIOSEO is stuck loading), do you see any file names in the list with statuses other than 200 or 302? Normally they’ll be marked in red. If so, please send me a screenshot of those, and let me know here once you’ve sent them.

Can you also send a diagnostic report to wftest @ wordfence . com? You can find the link to do so at the top of the Wordfence > Tools > Diagnostics page. Then click on “Send Report by Email”. Please add your forum username where indicated and respond here after you have sent it.

NOTE: It should look as follows – Screenshot of Tools > Diagnostic > Send by Email

Thanks,
Margaret

Hey Olga,

Thanks for checking for any errors for me. I really appreciate your patience.

Since there aren’t any clear errors in the browser console, please try deactivating and then reactivating Wordfence several times while monitoring AIOSEO on the Properties page. I want to rule out any chance that it stopped working when Wordfence was deactivated by coincidence. If AIOSEO consistently works only once Wordfence is deactivated, that will help confirm this is related to Wordfence.

If so, please disable both options under Monitor background requests from an administrator’s web browser for false positives in Wordfence > All Options > Firewall Options > Allowlisted URLs. Then, try checking the Properties page again, and let me know what you see. If you notice any changes in the Browser Console, please send me updated screenshots as well.

Thanks,
Margaret

Hi Olga,

Thank you again for your email! I’d like to rule out one more setting. In Wordfence > Firewall > Manage WAF > Brute Force Protection, please disable the option Prevent discovery of usernames through ‘/?author=N’ scans, the oEmbed API, the WordPress REST API, and WordPress XML Sitemaps and check the AIOSEO output again.

If that doesn’t help, it might be best if you could enable WordPress Debugging, so we can see the exact errors your site is receiving. Debugging PHP code is part of any project, but WordPress comes with specific debug systems designed to simplify the process as well as standardize code across the core, plugins, and themes. This page describes the various debugging tools in WordPress and how to be more productive in your coding as well as increasing the overall quality and interoperativity of your code.

For non-programmers or general users, these options can be used to show detailed information about errors.

https://wordpress.org/support/article/debugging-in-wordpress/ can walk you through enabling the error logs on your site. Once you have this enabled, your site will generate error logs, which will help us figure out what might be causing your issue.

Once enabled, view the Properties page several times to ensure any errors are generated. You can then download a copy of those error logs in Wordfence > Diagnostics > Log Files. Please email those to wftest @ wordfence . com, using your forum username as the subject, and let me know here once you’ve sent that.

Thanks again,
Margaret

Hey Olga,

Thanks for checking that. In the Diagnostics, I see that debugging is enabled, but debug logging is still disabled. Please enable that by adding the following to wp-config.php:

define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);

This will start logging any errors into a debug log file. Make sure to take any actions that haven’t been working normally to generate entries in the file. That file will then be downloadable on the Diagnostics page under Log Files. You should see a file listed there with a Download link. Please download and email me a copy of that at wftest @ wordfence . com. Please let me know here once you’ve sent it!

Thanks,
Margaret

Hey Olga,

Thanks for sending that! The site is running out of memory when loading AIOSEO. Please set WP_MEMORY_LIMIT to 512M in wp-config.php. Your PHP memory_limit value should be set to the same or higher to accommodate this change otherwise there won’t be enough room for WordPress to use the higher value it requests.

Let me know how it goes!

Thanks,
Margaret