Title: XML Parssing Error
Last modified: February 10, 2019

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# XML Parssing Error

 *  Resolved [Alan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanwhiteman/)
 * (@alanwhiteman)
 * [7 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/xml-parssing-error/)
 * Hi,
 * I’m using version 5.0.7 of XML Sitemap & Google News. When trying to view the
   sitemap, there is a blank page. Upon refresh, the following message appears:
 *     ```
       XML Parsing Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity
       Location: https://publicspeakinglosangeles.net/sitemap.xml
       Line Number 2, Column 1:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
       ^
       ```
   
 * Inspecting the page source, the sitemap is there, but there is a blank line at
   the start of the file:
 *     ```
       [[First line is empty here.]] 
       <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
       <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="https://publicspeakinglosangeles.net/wp-content/plugins/xml-sitemap-feed/views/styles/sitemap-index.xsl?ver=5.0.7"?>
       <!-- generated-on="2019-02-10T21:09:37+00:00" -->
       <!-- generator="XML & Google News Sitemap Feed plugin for WordPress" -->
       <!-- generator-url="https://status301.net/wordpress-plugins/xml-sitemap-feed/" -->
       <!-- generator-version="5.0.7" -->
       <sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
       	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9
       		http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/siteindex.xsd">
       	<sitemap>
       		<loc>https://publicspeakinglosangeles.net/sitemap-home.xml</loc>
       		<lastmod>2016-01-20T22:41:43+00:00</lastmod>
       	</sitemap>
       	<sitemap>
       		<loc>https://publicspeakinglosangeles.net/sitemap-posttype-post.2016.xml</loc>
       		<lastmod>2016-01-21T04:12:52+00:00</lastmod>
       	</sitemap>
       	<sitemap>
       		<loc>https://publicspeakinglosangeles.net/sitemap-posttype-post.2015.xml</loc>
       		<lastmod>2017-09-01T16:34:37+00:00</lastmod>
       	</sitemap>
       	<sitemap>
       		<loc>https://publicspeakinglosangeles.net/sitemap-posttype-post.2014.xml</loc>
       		<lastmod>2014-12-30T06:35:14+00:00</lastmod>
       	</sitemap>
       	<sitemap>
       		<loc>https://publicspeakinglosangeles.net/sitemap-posttype-page.xml</loc>
       		<lastmod>2018-03-14T23:11:38+00:00</lastmod>
       	</sitemap>
       </sitemapindex>
       ```
   
 * I’ve already checked wp-config.php and functions.php for extraneous white space.
   Also, I have the Yoast plugin activated, but with the sitemap feature off.
 * Any insight into fixing this will be greatly appreciated.
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fxml-parssing-error%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Rolf Allard van Hagen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ravanh/)
 * (@ravanh)
 * [7 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/xml-parssing-error/#post-11315353)
 * Hi, sorry for the late response. I did not get notified of this thread for some
   reason… It looks like you solved the issue by switching to another plugin which
   is perfectly fine of course 🙂
 * White lines can also be caused by a plugin or other theme files (includes) so
   it might be very difficult to find out where it is coming from unless you would
   be willing to switch off all other plugins and switch to the default theme temporarily.
   Then switching back one by one should tell you when the issue re-occurs.
 * But it’ll be easier staying with the other sitemap plugin that does not have 
   a problem with that blank line 😉

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘XML Parssing Error’ is closed to new replies.

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## Tags

 * [sitemap](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/sitemap/)
 * [XML parsing error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/xml-parsing-error/)

 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Rolf Allard van Hagen](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ravanh/)
 * Last activity: [7 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/xml-parssing-error/#post-11315353)
 * Status: resolved