Title: Parse error on activating
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# Parse error on activating

 *  Resolved [omega1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gavinwatson/)
 * (@gavinwatson)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/)
 * Hi,
 * I get this error when activating the plugin?
 * Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘[‘ in /public_html/wp-content/plugins/
   smtp-mailing-queue/smtp-mailing-queue.php on line 23
 * What could this be due to?
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/smtp-mailing-queue/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/smtp-mailing-queue/)

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Anonymous User 13300557
 * (@anonymized-13300557)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/#post-6183164)
 * Hi,
 * Seeing the error message I’m assuming you are using PHP 5.3 (or lower). This 
   plugin requires at least PHP 5.4.
 * Since PHP 5.3 was discontinued by the PHP development team on August 14, 2014,
   you should for security reasons ask your provider to update as soon as possible.
 * If you have a newer PHP version installed, please let me know your setup, so 
   that I can look into your issue further.
 *  Thread Starter [omega1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gavinwatson/)
 * (@gavinwatson)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/#post-6183187)
 * Hi there,
 * I upgraded to PHP 5.5 but I still get the same error:
 * `Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '[' in /home/sites/public_html/wp-content/
   plugins/smtp-mailing-queue/smtp-mailing-queue.php on line 23`
 * Not sure what further info you require?
 * It’s WordPress 4.2.2 running on a shared Linux hosting server, PHP 5.5.
 * Thanks.
 *  Thread Starter [omega1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gavinwatson/)
 * (@gavinwatson)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/#post-6183203)
 * For info, I also tried PHP 5.4, but it returned the same error
 *  Anonymous User 13300557
 * (@anonymized-13300557)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/#post-6183236)
 * That’s weird because the code part that throws the error uses a feature thats
   build in since PHP 5.4 (see [http://php.net/manual/en/migration54.new-features.php](http://php.net/manual/en/migration54.new-features.php))
   and as far as I know there is no way to disable the short array syntax.
 * I have the plugin running on multiple systems with various PHP builds and there
   never was an issue with this. Maybe it just took a while until your provider 
   really changed the PHP version after you started the upgrade?
 * If you still have issues could you please send me your phpinfo via email to [dennis@dennishildenbrand.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/dennis@dennishildenbrand.com?output_format=md).
   You can use [https://wordpress.org/plugins/debug-info/installation/ ](https://wordpress.org/plugins/debug-info/installation/)
   or [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-php-info/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-php-info/)
   to get this information. I can then look at your php modules and try to find 
   the cause of the problem.
 * Anyhow, I added a check for the PHP version and the plugin will show a warning
   if the version is lower than 5.4
 *  Thread Starter [omega1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gavinwatson/)
 * (@gavinwatson)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/#post-6183241)
 * Hi Dennis,
 * My sincere apologies for wasting your time on this one. The PHP version switching
   option on my hosting packages was not working and I did not manually check the
   version (assuming that it had indeed switched as indicated by the control panel).
 * I’ll feedback once this issue has been corrected.
 * I noticed the update and the error is indeed captured now in a warning advising
   to update PHP.
 * Thank you for your time.
 *  Thread Starter [omega1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gavinwatson/)
 * (@gavinwatson)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/#post-6183248)
 * Hi, this has fixed the issue, thank you.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Parse error on activating’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/smtp-mailing-queue.svg)
 * [SMTP Mailing Queue](https://wordpress.org/plugins/smtp-mailing-queue/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/smtp-mailing-queue/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smtp-mailing-queue/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smtp-mailing-queue/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smtp-mailing-queue/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/smtp-mailing-queue/reviews/)

 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [omega1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gavinwatson/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/parse-error-on-activating/#post-6183248)
 * Status: resolved