Title: Illegal string offset 'total_users' Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # Illegal string offset 'total_users' * Resolved [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/) * see [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total-users?replies=5#post-2889483](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total-users?replies=5#post-2889483) * Direct after upgrading to 3.4 I noticed Illegal string offset ‘total_users’ in update.php on line 75. * On line 55 it requests * `$user_count = get_user_count( );` * I echo this value and it is an integer (2) so not an array * on line 73 however it requests * `$user_count['total_users'],` * (so an array….. ) this is where it fails on my WP multisite install. * So im thinking what could be wrong since my get_user_count() does not return an array but just “2” (so an integer) * (but obviously this should be an array since it has been an array for always) Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/page/2/?output_format=md) * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813063) * Where are you getting the error? On the list users page in the network dash or…? * Thread Starter [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813075) * not on any of the normal blog admin pages but on all network admin pages. * I echo “$user_count” and it returns 2 * so the only thing i can think of is that there is somewhere a (new) filter on site_option_user_count that changes the value from an array to an integer. * so… im downloading (now) the complete site and plugins to my local disk to serach for something that could do that * im not sure though * Thread Starter [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813090) * However…. * ms-functions does : * ``` $count = $wpdb->get_var( $wpdb->prepare("SELECT COUNT(ID) as c FROM $wpdb->users WHERE spam = '0' AND deleted = '0'") ); update_site_option( 'user_count', $count ); ``` * and get_site_option in option.php called by get_user_count in ms-function.php all treat $user_count as an integer * So … where DOES it get converted to an array so that in update.php it can actually request $user_count[‘total_users’], * ????? * (for non multisite it gets to be an array in count_users in user.php) * Thread Starter [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813138) * Im stuck 🙁 will sleep over it * see also [http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/55175/when-does-output-of-get-user-count-turns-into-an-array](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/55175/when-does-output-of-get-user-count-turns-into-an-array) * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813154) * > I echo “$user_count” and it returns 2 * Yeah, that’s where you’re losing me 😉 * Where/why/how are you doing that? * > not on any of the normal blog admin pages but on all network admin pages. * Do you mean on every single network admin page, you get that error? * Thread Starter [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813181) * a. yes on every single network admin page b. open “\wp-includes\update.php c. look at line 55 (3.4) it reads “$user_count = get_user_count( );” d. so… $user_count is an integer e.g. 2 e. now look at line 73 it reads “$user_count[‘total_users’]” f. how can that be? requesting an array value “total users” from an integer? * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813188) * I’m ignoring b through f for a reason, so bear with me. 🙂 * The error: * > Warning: Illegal string offset ‘total_users’ in /opt/htdocs/html/wp-includes/ > update.php on line 75 * There’s no reason for you to be mucking around in core, and since WP works just fine, no errors, for pretty much everyone else with this, it’s something you ‘ did’ 🙂 * The update.php file is for “Check WordPress version against the newest version.” You can really totally ignore that. I know that’s what the error says, it’s not what it means. * So. Manually reinstall 3.4 before we go anywhere else. * Thread Starter [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813331) * “no errors, for pretty much everyone else with this,” * are you sure about that? What happens when you turn “show errors” on with * ``` ini_set('display_errors',1); error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_STRICT); ``` * ? Do you now see it? * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813351) * Nope. * But if that was the only way you were able to produce those errors, we have a new track to run down. * What version of PHP are you using? (5.3.13 for me right now, soon to be .14) * Thread Starter [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813357) * 5.4.3. … ah… you want me to upgrade to 5.4.4. ? Let me try that. Im also creating a second (clean) multisite on the same (Amazon Linux) server to test, takes some time. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813358) * I don’t think that 5.4.4 eould really matter, honestly, but it very well could be a PHP issue. * Have you done a manual reinstall of WP yet? * Thread Starter [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813359) * ‘Have you done a manual reinstall of WP yet? ‘ * yep i did a svn export [http://core.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/](http://core.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/)–- force . in the root of the site and the first thing i see after logging in is * *Warning: Illegal string offset ‘total_users’ in /opt/htdocs/html/wp-includes/ update.php on line 73* 🙂 * hey… the file was edited its now 2 lines higher up 🙂 * (and 5.4.4 @ ./configure –prefix=/opt/php –with-config-file-path=P/opt/php/etc– with-config-file-scan-dir=/opt/php/etc/php.d –enable-fpm –with-curl –with-mysql =mysqlnd –with-mysqli=mysqlnd –with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd –with-zlib –with-openssl– with-mcrypt –enable-mbstring –enable-mbregex –with-gd –with-jpeg-dir –with-png- dir –with-xmlrpc -disable-cgi) * p.s. running nginx and phpfpm also * [Eric Mann](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericmann/) * (@ericmann) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813361) * I just checked the logic, and it does look (at least from here) like you’ve found an issue. * The call to `get_user_count()` on a Multisite installation does in fact return an integer. The return of this function is assumed to be an array (stored in ` $user_count`) and is referenced as such farther down in the update script. * A couple of us are looking in to what exactly changed and whether or not this is actually a bug … * Thread Starter [cogmios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cogmios/) * (@cogmios) * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813364) * Thanks [http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/users/46/eamann](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/users/46/eamann) 🙂 * for reference: i checked back some versions but it seems to be there for some time, even when it was * `$url = "http://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/1.6/?version=$wp_version& php=$php_version&locale=$locale&mysql=$mysql_version&local_package=$local_package& blogs=$num_blogs&users={$user_count['total_users']}&multisite_enabled=$multisite_enabled";` * instead. So I would expect that WordPress.org would have noticed on the other end that when during a year all requests from multisite installations would be bad concerning user_count someone would notice….? * That is why i am / was doubting. * But if it is really a bug it is good to know that really nothing is done with all that data *GRIN* * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [13 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/#post-2813366) * [http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2012-June/043295.html](http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-hackers/2012-June/043295.html) * > When the variables are set. In multisite, we use get_user_count() (a cached > > array), while in single site, we call count_users() (a direct count). * Not sure it is a bug, if that’s related. Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘Illegal string offset 'total_users'’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/) * 23 replies * 4 participants * Last reply from: [o6asan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/o6asan/) * Last activity: [13 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/illegal-string-offset-total_users/page/2/#post-2813551) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics