Julka Grodel

Hi E.

Thanks for letting us know about your issue.

It looks like your theme isn’t creating headers in the standard way on some template. For example, on this post I see addthis_widget.js being included on the page, but on the blog homepage I don’t.

Unfortunately, this plugin doesn’t currently have anything built in to work around this. I’d suggest trying the Smart Layers by AddThis plugin instead. In Advanced Settings you can play with combinations of header or footer in Script Location and disabling or enabling Asynchronous Loading. One of those 4 combinations usually works. If that still doesn’t work, that plugin includes an AddThis Script widget you can add onto a widget area, which will add addthis_widget.js with it. For most themes this widget won’t be visible on your site, but ultimately that depends on the styles in your theme.

Feel free to let us know if you have further issue.

Thanks,
Julka

Hi Evan.

Thanks for letting us know about your issue.

Your understanding is correct. The share buttons should not appear if they’ve been toggled off, however, caching plugins, themes that add share buttons onto the page themselves and other plugins that add share buttons would ignore those settings.

If you’d like to share a URL where you’re seeing the undesired behavior, I’d be happy to take a look and check for obvious issues. If you’d prefer to share privately please feel free to contact us at help@addthis.com.

Thanks,
Julka

Hi BlackDuckSoftware.

It sounds like the file permissions on your web server are so restricted that WordPress can’t update or write new files into the plugins folder.

Here’s a WordPress page about file permission: https://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions

There are plugins out there that attempt to fix these kinds of issues, but I don’t know any well enough to recommend them.

Thanks,
Julka

Hi Mark.

Thanks for letting us know about your issues.

I don’t see the addthis_widget.js JavaScript file on your site. None of the AddThis tools will work without it. The caching and optimization plugins are likely culprits. After enabling the Follow Buttons plugin, you’ll need to clear the cache in these plugins and potentially tell them not to concatenate/minify/optimize addthis_widget.js. I noticed two plugins in your list that could be doing this. There may be more.

First, WP Super Cache should have a clear cache button somewhere in its settings.

Second, JCH Optimize has a clear cache button in its settings as well.

Third, based on its description JCH Optimize could be removing addthis_widget.js and trying to put the contents in a concatenated and minified file. AddThis JavaScript can’t be concatenated and minified with the rest of your site’s JavaScript. I played with the free version of JCH Optimize and it has some options for excluding some files, but it didn’t actually seem to touch my JavaScript files at all so I don’t know the details on how to get it to exclude addthis_widget.js.

Lastly, I noticed that you’re site is using a content distribution network (many of the resources on the site are being included from netdna-cdn.com). You may also need to tell you CDN to clear its cache for your site before changes appear.

You don’t need the Website Tools plugin in addition to the Follow Buttons plugin unless you’d like to use some of the widgets or shortcodes for AddThis share button or recommended content tools. With just the Follow Buttons plugin installed you will only have shortcodes and widgets for the follow tools.

Please feel free to let us know if you continue to run into issues.

Thanks,
Julka

Hi Marcus.

Thanks for letting us know about your issue. I visited your site in Firefox and could see the sharing buttons. Were you perhaps testing in a Firefox Private Window? Our tools don’t appear in those by default. They will work in a private window if you click on the shield icon next to the address bar and disable tracking protection.

Thanks,
Julka