These two serve as an introduction to your website content or else point out what your website is all about in quite a brief way. Usually, these are located within the top left position within your website but the position may vary depending on the theme you are using. Below is a sample:

In the above screenshot, our site title is “My Blog” and the Tagline is “My WordPress Blog”.

Both the site title and tagline are quite relevant especially when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s therefore important to have a strong and catchy title and tagline.

Within this article, we will explore some of the ways on how to go about altering these two items.

1. Changing from the General section

As for this option, you will need to first navigate to your website dashboard. By default, this is under the link yourdomain/wp-admin or yourdomain/wp-login.php if you have not altered the default WordPress end-points.

Here, you then need to navigate to the Settings > General section. Below is a screenshot on this:

Within the section, you will trace the fields “Site Title” and “Tagline”. It is here that you can now specify your own text. Within this article, we will have the site title set to “My Sample Title” and the Tagline set to “Another Tagline”, from the currently specified “My Blog” and “My WordPress Blog” respectively.

Once you have altered the text in place, click on the “Save Changes” button on the bottom of the page and visit your site URL to check if the changes are reflected. Below is a sample output:

2. Modification from the Customizer section

Within your WordPress dashboard, you will need to:

• Navigate to the Appearance>Theme section
• Click on the Customize button within your theme.

Once on the customizer screen, click on the Site Identity section and you should then have a view of the “Site Title” and “Tagline” sections.

You can then alter the text in place to that of your preference. In our case here we will alter the text in place and instead have the site title set to “My Sample Title” and the Tagline set to “Another Tagline” and publish the changes.

Once this is done, you can try accessing your website URL and it should render the changes on the front-end:

3. Changing from the Database.

Altering the values from the database can also serve as another approach in carrying out these changes. However, in very rare cases would you need to apply this method as the other methods are quite more convenient for such an action.

This article section assumes that you are using cPanel as your control panel. In case you are using another control panel provided by your host, you can consult them on how to navigate through the sections mentioned below.

Here I would recommend on following up on the steps below:

Identifying your database name: One of the ways to identify this is from your wp-config.php file, which is a file located within the root of your WordPress files.
Within it, you should have a line that would follow the format:

define('DB_NAME', 'newlinkc_wp121');

In this case, our database name is newlinkc_wp121. In your case, this will be a
different value.

Access your cPanel account, of which in most cases would be domainname/cpanel, and within the “Databases” section, click on phpMyAdmin.

This will then lead you to the phpMyAdmin section where you will now be in a position to view the database.

You can then click on the options table. In most cases, the table will be named as wp_options.

In our case here, there is a prefix in place, therefore, the table name reads as wpyd_options. Within the table, you should trace the fields “blogname” and “blogdescription”.

These two fields represent both the site title and tagline respectively.

Here you can then click on the “edit” link within the “blogname” and fill in your site title and on the “blogdescription” edit link section to fill in your tagline.

Once this is done, save your changes by clicking on the “Go” button.

You can then visit your website URL and see if the changes are reflected:

Conclusion

These are the different ways we can alter the tagline and site title in WordPress.

All the three options above are recommendable but the second option has fewer steps and you are in a position to preview the changes prior to having them published. It’s however up to you to determine the approach you would be comfortable with.

The post How to Change the WordPress Site Title and Tagline first appeared on HeroThemes.

Prior to renewal, a reminder will be sent to the registered account email, to advise the subscription for support and updates is set to renew. A purchase receipt will also be sent once the payment for the renewal is processed.

It’s possible to manage your Subscription(s) at any time from Your HeroThemes Account in the Subscriptions tab. This lists all the current and expired subscriptions in your account. In the Actions column you can view an invoice for the latest renewal, manually renew, or cancel the subscription. This will cancel the subscription and auto-renewal at the end of the current period – the subscription will lapse at the Renewal Date. Access to Support, Updates and Downloads will remain unaffected until the Renewal Date.

If your Subscription has lapsed, you will no longer be eligible for Support, Updates and Downloads. You will be required to re-purchase at the current sale price for the product to re-enable these service features.

The post Managing Support & Update Subscriptions first appeared on HeroThemes.

This, in turn, renders the WordPress dashboard inaccessible.

Within this article, we will discuss what causes it, the various ways on how to go about resolving the error as well as ways you can avoid the error.

What Causes the Error

First and foremost, seeing this error is quite normal.

Usually, the error is rendered when you are updating your plugins, themes or even WordPress itself. In these instances, WordPress places your site under maintenance mode, hence rendering the notice.

The message may not be displayed for a long period of time, depending on the number of updates being carried out.

Once the update is complete, then the notice is no longer displayed and you will now be in a position to access your dashboard and Website once again.

In some instances, however, an update may fail or else there may be an interruption to the update process.

In most cases, such scenarios may be attributed to memory issues as well as server timeouts, whereby the update script does not get enough execution time to complete the update process and take your site out of the Maintenance mode.

It is now at this point the “Briefly Unavailable For Scheduled Maintenance. Check Back In a Minute Error.” notice becomes an error and actually lasts quite long until it is fixed.

How to Fix the Error

There are three quick ways on how to go about resolving the error:

• Via FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
• Via cPanel
• Using wp-activate.php

The first two methods will involve deleting the .maintenance file. This is a file within the root of your WordPress files, that is added by WordPress automatically once you trigger an update within your website environment.

This is also the file responsible for displaying the error message. Usually, if an update is complete, the file is removed but in cases where the update is incomplete, the file remains and you would need to delete it.

1. Via FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

Here, you would need to use an FTP program such as Filezilla or WinSCP.

In this article, we will have the illustrations using FileZilla.

You will first need to:

• Login to your website via Filezilla. You can consult your host to provide you with your FTP details in case you currently don’t have these in place.
• Access the root of your WordPress files and search for the .maintenance file. In case you are not in a position to trace it, please ensure that you enable the visibility of hidden files within Filezilla. To do so, navigate to the “Server” menu and click on the “Force Showing Hidden Files” option.
• Once you have a trace of the file, you can go ahead and delete it.

2. Via cPanel

This is more similar to method 1 above and easier in case you use the control panel provided by your host to manage your site.

What you would need to do here is access the cPanel for your site and use your credentials to log in to it. You can consult your host for these credentials in case you don’t have them.

Once logged in, you need to access the File Manager section:

From here, navigate to the root of your website files (public_html) folder and search for the .maintenance file

If you are not in a position to view the file, ensure that you enable the visibility of hidden files from the “Settings” section. Below is a screenshot on this:

You can then proceed to highlight and delete the file.

3. Using wp-activate.php

Here, you would again need to access the root of your WordPress files via FTP or cPanel and search for the wp-activate.php file.

Download the file to your local computer and open it with an editor of your choice such as sublime text. Around line 9 of the file, you will find this line of code:

define( 'WP_INSTALLING', true );

Alter the code to:

define( 'WP_INSTALLING', false );

You can then save your changes and upload the file back to the root of your WordPress files and replace the file currently in place.

Once this is done, refresh your website and check whether the error is resolved.

How to avoid the error in future

Some of the ways you can avoid running into this error would include:

• Avoid carrying out multiple updates to plugins and themes at a go. I would recommend updating your plugins or themes one at a time.
• Do not terminate your browser session while carrying out the updates. Ensure that your browser tab is open until the update process is complete and the “briefly not available” notice is not displayed.
• Upgrading your hosting plan. This would enhance the hosting performance especially in terms of allocation of resources.

Conclusion

In any case, the methods above do not work out for you, or else you would not wish to carry out these changes yourself, I would recommend on consulting your hosting provider on this so that they can assist you on this.

The post How To Fix: “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance. Check Back in a Minute Error.” first appeared on HeroThemes.

Analyzing the Error

By default, a new WordPress install will have an allocation of 64M, but this is not always enough.

In most cases, once you install a new theme or plugin that requires a higher server memory limit, of which is not allocated within your WordPress environment, then you are likely to encounter this error within your browser, once you try accessing your website.

A sample format of the error would be rendered as:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33455443 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2211214 bytes) in C:\wamp64\www\wp-includes\functions.php on line 5231

Note that you will only be in a position to have a view of the error if you have enabled debugging within your WordPress environment. Otherwise, a “White Screen” would be rendered. Enabling debugging within your WordPress environment can be accomplished from the wp-config.php file.

You can access the wp-config.php file within the root of your WordPress install. As per the sample error above, of which is within a local install, the file will be within the directory path C:\wamp64\www\

If your website is already uploaded, you can access the file using an FTP client software such as Filezilla or WinSCP. Connecting to your website via FTP requires a specific set of credentials. You can consult your host on the required FTP login details if you are not in a position to trace these on your end.

As an alternative, you can also access the file via the control panel provided by your web hosting and navigate to the /public_html/ folder where you will find the file in place.

Once you are in a position to replicate the error, then you can proceed to determine a way on how to go about fixing the error.

Fixing the Error

There are a couple of ways on how to go about resolving this error. These include:

• Editing the wp-config.php file
• Editing the php.ini file
• Editing the .htaccess file

In these three methods, the first step would be in analyzing the amount of additional memory required. This would be different across different installs.

Let’s cover each of these methods:

1. Editing the wp-config.php file

Here you will need to edit the wp-config.php file. Prior to this, I would recommend creating a backup of this file by downloading it your local computer or else saving it to your desktop if your website is within a local install. This would serve as a safety precaution in case you would wish to restore to an earlier state.

With this accomplished, you can then add the code below just prior to the line that says “That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging”

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

The M means megabytes. A 256M memory allocation would be appropriate for most installs. You can, however, have the value raised higher to 512M, depending on the extra memory allocated needed.

Once this is done, save your changes and try accessing your website URL to see if the error is resolved. If so, you should have a view of your site content or else the accessed URL content.

In some instances, this method may not work. This happens in instances whereby you are on a shared hosting and the hosting provider does not allow such a change. In such a situation you may need to consult your hosting provider on this issue.

2. Editing the php.ini file

The php.ini file is a configuration file that is read once a PHP script is executed or else when PHP starts.

You can use this file to control resource limits such as the required memory in our case here.

On a live install, the file can be accessed within the root of your install, that is within the /public_html/ folder. Note that the file is not installed by WordPress but in most cases set up by your host. If you are using CPanel as your control panel, for example, make sure the checkbox for “Show Hidden Files” is checked and then click Go. You may check into this article on how to go about editing the file.

Before editing the file, kindly preserve a backup to it by downloading it to your computer.

Once this is done, open the file, add or edit the following line:

memory_limit 512M

After, press save and close.

As for local installs, the location of the file will depend on the Local server in use. In our sample here using WAMP, you will need to:

• Start WAMP server and wait for the WAMP icon in the taskbar to turn green.
• Left click on the icon.
• Select PHP > php settings > memory limit.
• Change the value to 256.

This will by default change the setting in php.ini.

3. Editing the .htaccess file

The .htaccess file is a file located within the root of your WordPress files.

Again we would advise you to carry out a backup of this file.

If the alteration to the php.ini file did not work, you can choose to edit this file.

You will need to add or edit the following code to the bottom of the file:

php_value memory_limit 256M

With this done, you can then save your changes and check if the error is resolved.

Conclusion

In any case, the methods above do not work out for you, or else you would not wish to carry out these changes yourself, I would recommend on consulting your hosting provider on this so that they can have the limit increased from their end.

The post How to Fix WordPress Fatal Error Allowed Memory Size first appeared on HeroThemes.

This guide has been distilled from thousands of customer interactions with the HeroThemes support team. It is the same one we use internally, rewritten to help you get to the bottom of the most troublesome WordPress SNAFUs.

Conflicts with third party plugins

Issue:

With over 56,000 plugins on the public directory at the time of writing and thousands more premium plugins, conflicts are are a common issue for WordPress sites. While some conflicts result in obvious issues on a site, others can be more subtle and difficult to detect and isolate.

Fix:

Identify the conflicting plugin and report to the plugin developer or find an alternative plugin for the

Disable all the 3rd party plugins temporarily, except the one you are testing against (eg. all non-HeroThemes plugins). If the issue disappears when you do this, there is a plugin conflict. Re-activate and test each plugin in turn to identify problematic plugins.

Tips:

Some themes such as KnowAll include packaged plugins, that can not be disabled while the theme is active. To disable such plugins, switch to a default theme, such as Twenty Nineteen or Twenty Seventeen, which should be available as a pre-installed WordPress theme.

If you have a large number of plugins that you are testing, tools such as Plugin Detective can automate the process of isolating troublesome plugins

Custom code

Issue:

Customizations and code snippets are typically used in child themes to change the behaviour or appearance of a site. More advanced customizations should be implemented a custom plugins, which can be enabled and disabled in isolation of the original functionality.

Fix:

If the customization has been implemented in a child theme, as is best practice, switch to the parent theme to verify the customization

Tips:

Never implement a customization by changing core WordPress files, plugin or theme files directly. This ensures that issues can be isolated more easily and the core files can be updated without affecting any modifications, as updates often overwrite any changes.

Where possible use hooks and filters, in addition to the WordPress standard filters, many developers have their own which often offer a better way to ‘hook’ into functionality.

Most developers do not support customizations, this is because the amount of work to review, support and debug custom functionality is too great. Convention dictates that custom functionality is typically supported by the development team that implemented the code, or by a dedicated freelance specialist such as WPMatic.

Out of date WordPress installation

Issue:

WordPress is constantly evolving, adding new features and fixing security issues. Because WordPress is a self-hosted platform, website owners often need to manually process updates from the WordPress dashboard.

Running old versions of WordPress can lead to compatibility issues with themes and plugins. Some functionality may rely on features only available in newer versions of WordPress.

Fix:

Update to the latest version of WordPress. Provided your site can communicate with the WordPress update system, you’ll receive a notification on the administration dashboard when an update is available.

As with any modification to your site, it’s always advisable to make appropriate backups prior to applying updates.

Tips:

You can check the current releases from the WordPress Versions page here. The latest version is available for download from the WordPress download page here.

Out of date plugins or themes

Issue:

As WordPress can become outdated, so too can plugins and themes.

Theme and plugin updates often include bug fixes and improvements that can enhance the user experience and security of your site. They may also fix compatibility issues and improve performance.

Fix:

Update out-of-date themes and plugins to the latest version. As with any update, make appropriate backups, so any changes can be rolled back if an updates breaks more than it fixes.

All available updates can be viewed by clicking the update icon in the top left of the admin toolbar in the dashboard, the number of available updates will be displayed.

Premium plugins and themes, such as HeroThemes KnowAll package, require you activate your license to receive automatic updates. Themes and plugins from WordPress.org will notify and update on demand from the repository.

Tips:

Many themes and plugins include an update log of the changes in each release, to indicate the enhancements and fixes made. You can find the change log for HeroThemes products here.

Permalink Structure

Issue:

The permalink structure allows you to use meaningful names to reference your content, by default and compatibility with the most web hosts, WordPress will use the post ID as the post permalink eg ?p=123, this is called an ugly permalink.

WordPress also allows for pretty permalinks, where the link is structured to reflect the site content and the URL reflects the content being displayed. This provides for improved contextual URL structures, such as content publication date or post titles.

Fix:

Change the permalink to something other than default.

From the WordPress admin dashboard, find the permalink settings in Settings > Permalinks. The Post name setting is recommended for most sites, if your host supports.

Tips:

You can set the last part of the permalink for individual articles, known as the slug, from the article edit screen. Simply click the edit button, next to the permalink.

Browser and Server Caches

Issue:

Caching is a great tool for increasing the speed of your site, it can reduce load on your server and provide a better experience for visitors.

Caching may be done at the browser or server level, depending on the content.

The issues arise when caches do not clear when they are supposed to, leading to outdated/expired content being served to visitors.

This can result in visitors seeing out of date pages, with old content or experience issues with website features that rely on security tokens.

Caching issues can lead to odd issues that can be tricky to diagnose, so it’s always recommended to clear caches first if experiencing issues.

Fix:

Clear browser and server caches. Depending on your browser and server caching mechanism, this is done in different ways.

For the browser cache there are guides for Firefox here and Chrome here. You can check for browser cache issues by accessing your site from a new incognito/private window.

For server caches, if you’re using a plugin, you’ll need to consult the documentation. If the cache is on a server level – you may have server caching and not even know about it, contact your web host.

Tips:

Caches can be stubborn, make sure you try different browsers, and log out and back into WordPress to help purge outdated cache. Server caching issues can be particularly problematic to diagnose as it’s not easy to test alternative setups. Resolve caching issues methodically.

SSL Backend, non-SSL frontend

Issue:

This is usually the cause of ‘mixed content warnings’ where different parts of a site are loaded over a combination of secure (https) and insecure (regular http) connections.

With the voting functionality enabled in some HeroThemes products you may see a ‘Security check – voting callback’ error if your site has a SSL enforced backend, but loading frontend via regular http.

Note is now recommended that all sites secure content with SSL and Google are now using it as a ranking signal. That is, websites that do not serve content securely may see a detrimental impact on their SEO and rankings.

Fix:

Ensure that both the frontend and backend content is served over SSL.

Providing you already have an SSL certificate – that is, you can prefix your site’s URL with https and it works OK, this can be straightforward. This is typically done by changing your WordPress Address and Site URL from http to https.

More work may be required for sites with existing content, as existing http URLs found in internal links and references to media, such as images, will need to be redirected to https using a .htaccess rule. There are several plugins such as Really Simple SSL that can handle this sort of SSL migration

Tips:

If you can’t address your site with https, you will need to obtain and install a SSL certificate, this is typically handled by your web host, so contact them for further advice and assistance.

You can get a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt, again, some web hosts have an automated SSL feature available, depending on the host and plan.

Installing a plugin or theme incorrectly

Issue:

Unless installing directly from the theme/plugin directory, theme and plugin packages are supplied as .zip files. Premium theme and plugins are always supplied as zip packages.

It important to install a plugin or theme from the correct section of the WordPress admin dashboard, otherwise an error message such as ‘The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet.’ or ‘No valid plugins were found.’ One of these message usually indicates the theme/plugin

Fix:

Ensure you are installing from the correct section, for a plugin, this is from Plugins > Add New. For themes, Appearance > Themes, then the Add New button.

If you’re unable to identify if a zip file is a theme, check the package contains a style.css file. Likewise, plugins will contain a file with a plugin header, that identifies the plugin.

Tips:

For HeroThemes products, the installable file will be the name of the theme or plugin, all in lowercase, possibly followed by the version number and have the .zip extension. Opening the zip file you’ll be able to see style.css in themes straight away, which WordPress uses to identify a theme pack, otherwise it’s a plugin.

Common issues noted in the documentation

Issue:

Many themes and plugins are designed to be straightforward to use, often using in product guides and assistants. Where this is not possible, the documentation is written to be a reference guide for installing, configuring and using the product.

The documentation often indicates how the product is meant to be used. If something isn’t working it may be that it’s not designed to be used in such a way, or there’s a specific way of achieving a result, checking the documentation should confirm this.

Fix:

Read the documentation, seriously. Not just to help head off common issues, but in order to make the most of your new theme or plugin. There may be a ton of potential just waiting in the documentation, that is not possible to communicate effectively in-product.

The documentation may hold the answers to frustrating issues and help you discover new features and functionality that were not obvious.

Tips:

Don’t skip the red bits and notes in product documentation, these are points the developer wishes to emphasise. If it’s in red/yellow, it’s probably important and you may want to read it.

Getting Help

When things go wrong, it’s important to know what to do and where to get help.

If you’re getting an unexpected result or error message, you should search the message text in your favourite search engine. This may bring up an obvious solution, but some issues may be unique to a particular configuration. In such cases also be sure to add keywords describing the unique elements to your setup, such as error message X with plugin A with theme B.

For issues with your server, your host is the first point of contact for assistance. This includes configuration issues, working with files and folders and general server management.

For generic issues try searching for the symptoms such as ‘WordPress white screen’ or ‘WordPress login fails’.

For How do I…? Questions, the WordPress support pages or product documentation are good starting points. Finding out how something should work is the best way to identify when something is not right.

If there’s a specific issue in a theme or plugin, the author is the next point of assistance. Be sure to consult their documentation and search their support resources – such as knowledge base or support forum

If you have to reach out directly for assistance, be sure to include as much relevant information about the issue as possible. Describe the symptoms, what you expect should be happening, what is actually happening and the steps to reproduce the issue. Where possible, include screenshots (annotated as appropriate).

WordPress provides limited information to help with debugging issues, some products include a debug log, which should accompany any support requests in order to quickly identify or exclude configuration and conflict issues.

Support Checklist

• Conflict with 3rd party plugin or theme?
• Customisations? Child themes or custom plugins?
• Out-of-date WordPress?
• Out-of-date plugins or themes?
• Permalink Structure?
• SSL Issues?
• Incorrect plugin or theme installation?
• Common issues noted in the documentation?

The post Ultimate debug guide for WordPress first appeared on HeroThemes.

This can be managed at any time from your HeroThemes Account, which is where you can find various actions related to your purchase, such as product keys, download links for the latest versions, generate purchase invoices and license management.

Product download links are also available on the Downloads tab.

Upgrading your License

For some HeroThemes products, multiple plans are offered – for example, Basic, Professional and Business. You can upgrade your license at any point from purchase and will be offered a pro-rated upgrade price.

To upgrade your License, log in to your HeroThemes Account, select the Downloads tab then Upgrade button link next to the license you wish to upgrade. You will then see the available upgrades for your current plan.

Note it’s not currently possible to switch licenses between products, only upgrade to the next tier of the same product. Some products are currently only offered with one tier.

Migrating your License

If you wish to move your site to another domain, you may manage this from the Downloads tab in your HeroThemes Account area. Select the Manage Sites link next to the license you wish to manage.

If you are moving domains, you need to first deactivate your old site from the list of sites, before activating the new site.

In the list of sites, you can view the active sites and manually deactivate a site. You can also deactivate a site by clicking on the Deactivate Site button on the license management page of an active site.

When it comes to activating a site, it’s best practice to activate directly through the site’s WordPress administration as advised in the plugin or theme documentation, to ensure the correct site URL is assigned to the activated sites. Ensure you use the correct license key for the product you have purchased and are wishing to activate.

If you receive a message that the license is invalid, check the list of active sites to ensure you have not exceeded the available activations or the site is already active. If required, deactivate the site, remove obsolete sites and try activating the key again.

Note that in a multisite environment, each sub-site is considered separate and count towards the site count. Product licenses must be activated on a per-site basis.

The post License Migration and Upgrades first appeared on HeroThemes.

If you don’t receive an email receipt or login information soon after purchase, please contact us and we’ll check on your payment and account.

The post I haven’t received my receipt or login details? first appeared on HeroThemes.

Yes. You can browse the KnowAll changelog here and the standalone Heroic Knowledge Base plugin changelog here.

The post Do you have a changelog? first appeared on HeroThemes.

The following guidance relates to products purchased via the ThemeForest marketplace:-

A common issue that can occur with users new to installing WordPress themes is a “Broken theme and/or stylesheets missing” error message being displayed when trying to upload or activate the theme. This is because the theme download package on ThemeForest includes additional files to the theme such as the documentation, license etc.

To solve this simply unzip the theme package you downloaded from ThemeForest and upload the themename.zip file which is included (with the file being the name of the theme).

The post The package could not be installed. The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet. first appeared on HeroThemes.