Jetpack 3.7 Definitely Breaks WordPress 4.3.1

Bill Kochman
(@wordweaver777)

8 years, 7 months ago

Due to a totally unrelated issue, all of my websites have been offline since September 1st.

However, this morning, I finally found a temporary solution to my problem, and all of my sites are now back online.

Upon going to my self-hosted WP blog, I discovered that there were three plug-in updates available, one of them being Jetpack.

Being quite security-minded, I am very much on the ball when it comes to software updates, so without giving it much thought, I installed all three plug-in updates.

No sooner had I installed them when I was confronted with the blank white page, which so many of us have encountered for different reasons.

When I attempted to go to my dashboard . . . blank white page.

When I tried to make a new blog post . . . blank white page.

Thankfully, I host my own web server locally. Thus, it is very easy for me to manually replace an offending plug-in with a previous working version, without having to use FTP, SSH, etc.

So, following normal procedure, the very first plug-in I removed was Jetpack 3.7, and I replaced it with 3.6.1. Immediately upon doing so, the blank white page issue disappeared. Problem resolved.

As a rule, I always keep a backup of the current version of my WP plug-ins, as well as one or more older versions of the same plug-in, for situations such as this one where a new version immediately causes problems.

While I don’t know or understand the precise nature of the problem which exists between Jetpack 3.7 and WP 4.3.1, it is obvious to me that it does exist. I will leave it to the plug-in’s developers to figure it out.

I am mainly posting this message to confirm what others here have already clearly stated: There is a problem with the 3.7 release.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

Plugin Author Jeremy Herve
(@jeherve)

Jetpack Mechanic 🚀

8 years, 7 months ago

I’m sorry to hear you’ve run into issues.

Could you check your server error logs around the time when you experienced the issue, to find out more about the 500 error?

Let me know how it goes!

Thread Starter Bill Kochman
(@wordweaver777)

8 years, 7 months ago

Jeremy, I never said that there was a 500 error. I simply said that using 3.7 resulted in a blank white page.

I just checked that range of hours in my Apache error log for when the problem occurred. There are zero errors noted there, so it must be something else.

I also checked my PHP error log. However, I discovered that PHP error logging is disabled, so there is no record of anything.

I am sorry that I cannot help you more. For now, I have no choice but to stick with 3.6.1.

Plugin Author Jeremy Herve
(@jeherve)

Jetpack Mechanic 🚀

8 years, 7 months ago

I simply said that using 3.7 resulted in a blank white page.

That blank white page is also known as “white screen of death”:
https://codex.wordpress.org/Common_WordPress_Errors#The_White_Screen_of_Death

This is often a symptom of a Fatal error. Too bad PHP errors weren’t logged, it could have helped us understand the problem.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to reproduce the problem on my end. Could you tell me more about your site setup, your theme, as well as the different plugins you use on your site? It could help me reproduce.

Thanks!

Nigel Parry
(@nigelparrydotnet)

8 years, 7 months ago

I am having the same issue. I turned on debug and here’s what I got. Here’s the debug with Jetpack ACTIVATED:

in /hermes/bosnaweb04b/b1691/ipw.al-awdao/public_html/return/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3457 Notice: has_cap was called with an argument that is deprecated since version 2.0! Usage of user levels by plugins and themes is deprecated. Use roles and capabilities instead. in /hermes/bosnaweb04b/b1691/ipw.al-awdao/public_html/return/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3570 Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /hermes/bosnaweb04b/b1691/ipw.al-awdao/public_html/return/wp-includes/functions.php:3457) in /hermes/bosnaweb04b/b1691/ipw.al-awdao/public_html/return/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 1207 Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /hermes/bosnaweb04b/b1691/ipw.al-awdao/public_html/return/wp-includes/functions.php:3457) in /hermes/bosnaweb04b/b1691/ipw.al-awdao/public_html/return/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 1207

Here’s the debug with Jetpack DEACTIVATED:

in /hermes/bosnaweb04b/b1691/ipw.al-awdao/public_html/return/wp-includes/functions.php on line 3457 Notice: Undefined offset: 1 in /hermes/bosnaweb04b/b1691/ipw.al-awdao/public_html/return/wp-content/plugins/simple-social-icons/simple-social-icons.php on line 405

Plugin Author Jeremy Herve
(@jeherve)

Jetpack Mechanic 🚀

8 years, 7 months ago

Thank you, that’s helpful!

wp-includes/functions.php on line 3457 Notice: has_cap was called with an argument that is deprecated since version 2.0! Usage of user levels by plugins and themes is deprecated. Use roles and capabilities instead.

Jetpack itself doesn’t use has_cap. It uses current_user_can for all capability checks. It could be, however, that Jetpack conflicts with another plugin using has_cap, or setting up custom roles on your site.

Do you use any role management plugins on your site? If so, could you try to disable them and update Jetpack again?

If that doesn’t help, could you try to disable all other plugins, one at a time, until you find a plugin that conflicts with Jetpack?

Let me know what you find. If we can narrow things down a bit more, we’ll be able to run more tests and pinpoint the problem in Jetpack.

If you’d rather not do all these tests on your own, could you let me know what plugins are currently active on your site, so I can test things on my end?

Could you also let me know if you’re the only user on that site, or if there are other registered users? If so, what are their roles, and did some of them link their account with a WordPress.com account? You can find that out by going to Jetpack > My Jetpack in your dashboard.

Thanks!

Thread Starter Bill Kochman
(@wordweaver777)

8 years, 7 months ago

Jeremy, just so you know, the reason why I did not respond sooner to your last comment to me, is because I was taken back by the nature of your request.

Please step back a minute and ask yourself what you are asking us to do.

You are basically asking us to expose a sensitive part of the inner workings of our WP setup in a public forum, which can easily be read by potential hackers, spammers, unscrupulous people and other questionable characters.

Any security-minded web server admin, or blog admin, is going to hesitate before publicly providing a list of all of the plug-ins which he or she uses with their blog, or other sensitive information regarding the same.

Aside from that, like most people who run web servers, I keep rather busy here. I will tell you this: I have over two dozen plug-ins in my WP plug-ins folder. I honestly don’t have the time to disable them all, and test them one by one, and thus disrupt the traffic to my blog.

Nevertheless, I would like to help you. So, if you click on my name, you will find a link to my main website, where you will find a private way to contact me. I will be happy to provide you with a list of the WP plug-ins that I use, if you wish to conduct these tests yourself.

Thanks for understanding.

Plugin Author Jeremy Herve
(@jeherve)

Jetpack Mechanic 🚀

8 years, 7 months ago

Sorry, I should probably have mentioned our private contact form:
http://jetpack.me/contact-support/

I usually do mention that option, but forgot to do so this time around.

Thanks!

Thread Starter Bill Kochman
(@wordweaver777)

8 years, 7 months ago

Done! check your email.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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