Will The Plugin Work?
Think Twice Before Installing A WP Plugin.
I’ve had more than enough problems with WP plugins. They can happen at any time but especially when there is a WP update and the plugin is not updated to work with the new WP version and stops functioning properly.
Sometimes it continues to function and does what it was created for but it can interfere with other functions of your site that have nothing to do with the function the plugin was intended for.
For example I had a plugin for Google Analytics which after a WP update disabled the setting of my site which allowed links to open in a new window. After that WP update all links were opening in the same window in spite of the WP settings to open in a new window. After deactivating and deleting the offending plugin the problem was solved. But it was a long and hard time to find out what was causing the problem.
Plugins for WP are a two edged sword.
Plugins of course can do an incredible amount of good and are of great help. But sooner or later they are very likely to create problems. The recent one is one that I haven’t been able to solve yet. Nothing I’ve tried so far worked. That includes about 20 to 30 minute chat with a WP specialist company’s wizard. All his ideas and suggestions were unhelpful. The last thing he suggested was that I subscribe to their paid service and that they would solve the problem for me. Needless to say, I didn’t pull out my credit card.
So what is the current problem I’m experiencing with a plugin now?
I’ve tested so many like plugins and none of them seems to work properly now.
One worked initially until I used its settings to exclude the like button from the home page and a couple of posts.
The exclusion worked but it became permanent. When I wanted the like button to show in the places where I excluded it from, there was no way for me to do it. In the settings it failed to show the 3 places from which it was excluded so I couldn’t put the settings back to having the button show on the home page and the couple of posts.
I thought that by deactivating the plugin and installing a different like plugin the problem would be solved. But alas, it was not. In spite of making sure that the settings don’t exclude the home page and the posts which were disabled with the previous plugin, the like button still wasn’t showing in those places.
My next step will be contacting the creator of the like plugin I have installed now to see if they can help.
If they do I’ll be sure to let you know. If I find a solution to this I’ll write about it here, updating this post.
Please comment and share your views on this and on WP plugins in general. What issues have you encountered with WP plugins?
Filed under: Internet Marketing Tools
In starting days of blogging I was not using many plugins but now I have a list of plugin which i use with all my blogs. They help in many ways. Like you said they need to be updated time and again as soon as they release new version. I strongly feel updates make them more user friendly.
I hope i made my point clear.
Thank you for your post and looking forward for more.
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Vance Reply:
July 30th, 2017 at 8:21 pm
Hi Kumar,
Thank you for your cool comment. I agree with what you are saying. I would add that updating the plugins is only possible if their creators make updates to them first. Word Press keeps coming with new versions of the Word Press platform all the time and sometimes the plugin creators don’t keep up with it. Some plugins don’t get updated for a long time after WP updates and some plugins don’t get any updates at all. What is even more confusing is that some plugins continue working without a problem in spite of not being updated. The question then is how do we know if they will or won’t cause a problem without any updates. And when there is a problem, how do we determine which plugin, if any, is causing it and how we can do it quickly and easily.
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I have seen quite a few posts about WP plugins expiring or no longer updating. You must read the fine print when it comes to plugins. You don’t want to have to replace all of them a short couple months later!!
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Vance Reply:
August 2nd, 2017 at 6:52 pm
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for commenting. I wonder if you read the whole post. There is no fine print on plugins. Even if the plugin has been updated regularly up to the present time, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will continue being updated in the future. And WordPress updates happen quite frequently. Even if a plugin is usually updated, it may take some time after a WordPress update. And that may cause problems.
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As a new blogger, I am looking for all the advice I can get! I have only just started thinking about growing traffic to my blog, and your post has great information that is understandable, even to me.
My WordPress just updated- of course, I went scanning through all my plugins and posts to make sure everything was square. As for plugins, I already have 6 I ave deactivated due to finding bugs, interference with other plugins, or plugins just not useful (I had a Hello Dolly plugin installed that randomly gave lines to the movie to my viewers- WTH?)
Bookmarking your blog- thanks!
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I am new in blogging. I don’t understand the whole article completely but it really gives me a lot of information. Thank You.
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Hello,
Yeah, it’s true…! Even Updating a plugin usually, takes some time after WordPress update…Great information.Thanks for sharing your brain with us…..
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Hello, I have a new blog and as a non-technical person, it can get overwhelming when you start getting bugs all over your site without the slightest clue where they are coming from. I now have a different perspective on trusting every plugin I come across. Thank you for the insights in your article.
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Vance Reply:
September 7th, 2017 at 9:46 am
Hi Jason,
Thank you for commenting. Plugins are both great and an occasional curse. When something starts going wrong with how your site functions, a good guess is to check all your plugins and turn them off one by one to see if the bug goes away.
Good luck with your new blog.
Cheers,
Vance.
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Wow, this article is life-saving! I never knew that plugins could do any harm to a wp site. So I continue installing every other fancy plugin I found with my free wp theme. Thanks very much for this particular article. I’ll get a premium wp theme for good.
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I recently installed a plugin to make my cleaning business website faster but then suddenly my site started behaving funny and then I has to hire a web developer to fix it. Unfortunately I came across your blog after I have learnt my lesson. But I believe your article can help many business owners in saving their site. Thank you for sharing Jason.
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In my opinion, plugins are a necessary evil. plugins make some functions easy but at the same time, they affect the performance in one way or another. I had a issue with cache plugin that caused my auto social share to fail every time i published a post. I had to replace the cache plugin to get the issue fixed.
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Hey, Vance,
Great thinking and great writing. 3 months earlier, i got a problem with my Jetpack WP plugin and my site is getting a problem with indexing. I wasn’t aware of the problem and can’t find what wrong going with my work. But, after few analyzing, i discover that Jetpack plugin needs to update and then i update it. After that, the problem was solved.
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Hi Vance,
Plugins are life blood of a wordpress based website. Almost all tasks have been programmed in various plugins. There are thousands of plugins available in wordpress repository for free use.
Still, Yes, the plugins may not work properly some times because of poor coding. What’s more worse is, other plugins also fails to do is work. This may be mainly because plugins using same function names etc.. defined by other plugin owners in their code. We must make the function names unique enough to avoid problems.
Reji Stephenson
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For a newbie Blogger like me, this information about WP PLugin is really very helpful. Thank you Vance for sharing such a useful information with us.
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Thanks, great information I’ve never think plugins can harm my website but after reading your article I will make sure the plugin is created by the top provider before installing it.
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The information provided in this article is very important for those who are new to WordPress. This is also helpful for those who are already using it. Keep me updated if any changes occur.
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Had to read a lot of reviews before installing WP plugins. I used to have one which causes a lot of bugs to pop out and it also slows down my site. It took sometime before I figured out the problem and had to contact the provider a lot of times. It’s good suggestion to keep updating for new versions.
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Hey Vance, long time no see. Good to see that you’re still around. So many of our blogging acquaintances have disappeared 🙁
As to plugins, I’ve had my own issues with them. You definitely need to install ones that are current and maintained by the author. Anything less is playing with fire.
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Great post! Plugins can both be a blessing and a curse and definitely checking when the last update does help. When I first had my website, it had Revslider plugin downloaded with the template and being a complete newbie, I didn’t’realize the problems it had and created a backdoor (Something like that), luckily my host provider detected it and helped cleared the issues and I quickly deactivated the plugin. Since then I meticulously try updating plugins as soon as it has an update and deleting those that have stopped updating. And Wordfence is a godsend haha. Hope you found a solution! 🙂
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Hi Vance,
Thanks for your Post. It really helped me a lot.
Thanks,
Atul Garg.
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