Very strange problem - pages randomly stalling
I have a very strange issue at hand;
On PC with at least the Edge and Chrome browser when you click through/surf through a website we made, after some time when you are on a random page and click on a random link in the page, progress stalls, i.e. nothing happens except for a progress circle running, sometimes for 10-25 seconds, after which either the next page opens or a complete blank page appears.
This has been happening with several people at different locations and on different PC's and PC laptops.
On Mac, with several browsers and computers, I cannot reproduce the issue.
Now here is the strange thing:
When on PC you are logged in the backoffice, the problem is NOT occuring.
So it ONLY happens when you're logged out (and on a PC it seems).
We tried everything we could think of; disabled all plugins, reuploaded the betheme files, tried it on another webserver, installed caching functionality on server and website, used different computers and loads of other things but nothing solves the issue.
Could this be some kind of bug?
We did find only one event in the error log file of the server saying:
Got error 'PHP message: PHP Warning: Undefined array key "type" in /data/sites/web/websitecom/www/wp-content/themes/betheme/functions/builder/class-mfn-builder-admin.php on line 1463;
This was registered just once in the log and before and after that it was never registered again, so could be unrelated(?).
Through codecanyon I have sent the (login)details of the website involved. Can you randomly surf around on the website with a PC and Edge and/or Chrome browser to see if you have the same issue?
Sometimes it takes 5 clicks, sometimes 20 clicks to get the stalling, it's just a matter of time. And again: only when you are not logged in.
Hopefully you can find out what is causing this, we kind of lost track after hours of trying to debug this.
UPDATE: in the meanwhile I have also discovered that the issue isn't there when using Firefox (on PC)
Possibly browser and platform related?
Comments
Hi,
Do you have AdBlock installed and active on your browsers by chance?
I surfed through your website for a while, and indeed, it hung as soon as I clicked some links, but as soon as I disabled AdBlock, the website loaded the previously clicked link.
Can you check that as well, please? It will confirm that this is the root cause, and it was not coincidence.
Best regards
Hi Phil,
No, I /we don't have adblock installed.
After disabling did you click around for some while again and during that you were NOT logged in, correct?
The mentioned previous link working after disabling may not be a reference, because it happens at random, with unpredictable links, on random pages. And while not being logged in.
One time you need to click 8 times to get it, other time 22 times at a completely different section of the website.
You don't have that anymore after disabling your AdBlock and using Edge or Chrome on a PC?
Best regards
UPDATE:
I have installed AdBlock in my browser to see if I could reproduce what you experienced and that was not so in my case.
So with AdBlock installed after a few random clicks, the stalling occurs, I then disabled AdBlock and after a few random clicks the same stalling problem happens.
I checked that on my PC on Chrome. However, I rechecked it with a different device, and I can see that disabling AdBlock only helps after the browser hangs, and when I surfed some more, it hung again. Surprisingly, activating AdBlock helped to load the stunned page again. It looks like triggering on/off ads blocking feature helps.
As you also noticed, this issue does not occur on Firefox.
Can I do some testing on your website? I want to disable some plugins and hide some sections for a testing time.
Best regards
Hi Phil,
Earlier I have sent you the login details of the live site, PLEASE DO NOT test there,
Just now I have sent you the details of the test environment (through code canyon), the test environment has the exact same issue.
Can you gain access there?
I received your credentials for testing environment and tried log in, but the following page appeared:
Can you disable it or whitelist Poland, please?
Thanks
Hi Phil,
Sorry, my bad: I sent the wrong URL, have submitted the correct URL through codecanyon just now.
I was able to get to the WP dashboard now, but this appeared when I tried to log in:
Can you disable the additional verification, please?
Thanks
Sorry about that, can you try again now?
Thank you, it worked now.
We have done some tests but found nothing.
Please contact your hosting provider and ask for some server logs. Maybe we will find something there.
Best regards
Thanks so far I will collect the server logs and post them.
I have sent you a screenshot (through codecanyon) of an xdebug file which now shows an issue with the header it seems?
We checked that, and it does not seem that the Betheme is the culprit. From what we see, functions that take the longest to load are standard WordPress functions and some Wordfence.
We can investigate further, but we will need FTP access to your website. We will comment out particular functions and see which could be the cause of this odd behavior. However, I cannot guarantee that we will find the root cause and correct it as it happens only on Chromium-based browsers, and no one has reported a similar issue recently.
Best regards
Hi phil, i will send the ftp acces in a short while.
We slowly suspect that maybe something on one or more of the pages, like the rev sliders are causing this, perhaps a video in one or more of the rev sliders that has a wrong codex
The details of test environment and ftp are sent through codecanyon
The videos (or one of them) seem to be the root cause. After we removed them from the website, everything worked smoothly.
For some reason, Chrome does not like them; maybe it could be due to Codex, as you mentioned.
Best regards
So that would be a bug in Chrome(a like browsers) I persume?
Any idea on how to solve or go round this? Some other codex? But which one is the question. Problem is that some of the videos are in rev slider and some on the pages themselves.
And you say you removed all of them but I still see all videos are there? How/where did you remove them?
Is it now solved on the test environment?
p.s. can this not originate from rev slider?
Sorry, ghost post, see one above ☝️
And you were not logged in when testing? Because when you were logged in, the problem was not there, when you logged out, the problem occured again.
We disabled all plugins and switched popups that contained videos to draft. By removed, I mean from the website source.
Everything shows that it is a Chromium-based browsers issue.
Unfortunately, we are not browser and video experts, so we cannot tell why exactly this configuration causes this issue.
Yes, it works smoothly now in the testing environment.
I can only suggest re-rendering videos with a different codex.
Yes, I tested it on a not-logged browser.
Best regards
Thanks for your efforts to look into this matter and explaining all you did!
I will continue my quest with this to solve this persistent issue, will keep you posted.
Can you tell me how you removed the videos from the website source so I can test that myself?
And I then need to disable rev slider, correct?
In the meanwhile I have resaved all videos (in the way we normally do and which always worked online, but we never had them in rev slider), but no solution yet, I now also contacted slider revolution to see if they can help.
I am at a complete loss, on a duplicate of the website I disabled rev slider but still have the problem, somehow in the background the videos(?) are still being dragged along, even after cache removal, even after i stripped down the entire website from all sliders, plugins, pages and media. Unbelievably I still had the problem …
Have you commented parts of code in page.php and header.php with the main theme? I saw those were modified but put back in original state.
How did you get the problem solved on the test environment? Can you please explain, step by step? I just can’t stop the issue like you apparently did and confirm or reproduce it is either one or more of the videos and/or rev slider. :-(
We removed them from the source by disabling plugins and switching popup templates to draft, and that is all.
Did you check your testing domain? It works without hanging or stunning for me.
Best regards
Yes, I tested the test environment and it does seem to be working there.
I have another test envirnoment, disabled the plugins and switched popup templates to draft and the issue is still there ... :-/
Slowely developing a headache here :-)
You can remove the videos from the media library and they will not load on the website.
Best regards
Yes, that is a good idea as well. :-)
But nevertheless very strange, on another testserver I now don't have the issue and my client has (even after removing cache etc). In the meanwhile rev slider is also looking at the matter ... anxious to find out what they come up with.
What would be the best way to migrate a betheme installation from one place to another so that during migration the integrity of all betheme elements, content and content is checked or parsed?
I am also looking at the possibility that maybe at one moment during the copy of the website the integrity of Betheme (in the db) has become corrupted? I already tried overwriting all betheme files with new ones, even tried resaving all betheme pages. Nothing is solving the problem we still have. Slider Revolution still hasn't come up with a solution either.
We suggest using the Duplicator plugin:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
We used it many times and never had problems with it.
Best regards