BLOG

Solving Common WordPress Theme and Plugin Conflicts

WordPress assets, such as Themes, Plugins, and 3rd party Scripts – help users extend WordPress functionality. However, WordPress theme and plugin conflict(s) may arise if WordPress is not monitored with periodic maintenance.

In this case, checking for conflicts between Themes and Plugins is undeniable – especially when a WordPress site has complex infrastructure.

In this resource, let’s learn how to track and solve WordPress common conflicts between Themes and Plugins.

Introduction: Conflicts between WordPress Themes and Plugins

Conflicts between WordPress themes and plugins happen – when two assets on a WordPress site aim at running similar or contradicting queries.

When such scenarios happen, you need to find out – if a recent change in WordPress has made a difference in functionality.

Solve WordPress Theme and Plugin Conflict(s)

Solve Common Conflicts

White Screen of Death

A WSoD issue in WordPress occurs when a poorly-designed WordPress script exhausts PHP memory limit. Such errors show a white page without a particular error statement on the screen.

In such scenarios, if the case doesn’t originate from PHP memory exhaustion – a culprit plugin can cause conflicts with existing assets in WordPress. However, you must learn how to fix the White Screen of Death issue in WordPress.

Here is a detailed tutorial on how to fix WSoD errors in WordPress.

Unusual behavior

After you have installed a specific plugin, you may experience – your site’s navigation menu has disappeared.

Such issues occur when a plugin conflicts with the existing infrastructure of a WordPress website, such as themes, plugins, PHP, or functionalities.

The first thing you can do is check your PHP version and ensure that the PHP version your site is running on is the latest. If not, contact your Hosting support to upgrade your site’s PHP version to the latest core.

Functionality in a WordPress Theme or Plugin stops working

For example – when WordPress core, PHP, and other plugins in WordPress are updated, the old version of Divi Builder stops working correctly.

In this case – the Builder stops loading properly, leaving users unable to create and design WordPress page layouts with a point-and-click user interface.

In typical scenarios, updating your site’s PHP may work, according to experience. However, if you’re using an outdated version of Divi, you should also update its core.

No Changes Saved error

In WordPress, specific plugins may prevent WordPress from saving content changes.

For example – after installing WordFence, a plugin for WordPress security – WordPress may fail to save content changes when WordFence blocks specific queries to WordPress database.

In this case – support representatives can change blocked URLs and help you fix the (No Content Saved error) in WordPress.

Let’s describe ways to fix WordPress Theme and Plugin conflict(s).

Ways to Fix WordPress Conflicts

Pre-Conflict Measures in WordPress

Before you apply changes to a live WordPress site – make sure you’ve tested things on a staging website. It helps you determine if a new change will affect your business site.

A staging site represents a clone of a WordPress site – used to help users test new updates, scripts, or programs on a WordPress infrastructure before applied on a live website. Once a change doesn’t affect a staging site, you can apply changes to a business infrastructure.

Creating a staging site is easy in WordPress. If you have a hosting plan and a domain, you can create a copy of a business site you own, which refers to a staging site. You can also use a Tool that helps you create a staging site online.

Isolation of Themes and Plugins

If you think – a specific theme or plugin is causing conflicts, you should isolate WordPress themes and plugins – one by one.

This helps you see if you’re able to spot conflicts caused by specific agents, allowing you track, make changes, and finally – fix conflicts issues in WordPress.

For example, if deactivating a specific theme or plugin solves a problem, you can conclude – keeping the culprit agent off the site may help solve performance issues in WordPress.

Let’s learn how isolating WordPress themes and plugins can help solve conflict issues in WordPress.

Themes

Head over to the Appearance -> Themes page in the dashboard and – deactivate the currently-applied theme. After de-activation, you should perform activation of a default WordPress Theme, such as Twenty-Twenty Three.

Next – clear browser cookies and see if the change has made any difference.

Plugins

Deactivating WordPress plugins one by one may solve performance issues in WordPress.

In this case – head over to the Plugins page in the dashboard and perform deactivation of plugins – one by one.

Here – you should observe if the changes are making a positive difference to WordPress.

WordPress Updates

WordPress updates may create conflicts between WordPress themes and plugins.

For example – when a theme or plugin is updated, new functionality improvements can create conflicts between existing assets in WordPress.

The first thing you should do is to turn the automatic updates off in WordPress. In this case – make sure no theme or plugin is updating automatically. When manual updates are enabled, you can see if updating a theme or plugin on a staging site creates problems.

Let’s learn how to set updates for WordPress assets.

Themes

You should check if a premium plan supports automatic updates if you’re using a premium theme. If yes, you should check if turning off automatic updates is possible in WordPress.

Plugins

Similarly – head over to the Plugins page in WordPress dashboard and set manual updates for all plugins. When a new update is available for a theme or plugin, you can see updates on the WordPress Updates page in the dashboard.

Use Multi-purpose WordPress Plugins

If using specific plugins That provide different functionality is undeniable and causes conflicts, find a single plugin That fulfills multiple functionalities.

For example – instead of using several plugins for security, backups, and speed – JetPack, on the other hand, helps you collectively use all features.

No doubt – using a single plugin for more functions helps users avoid conflicts in WordPress.

Wrapping up

You can avoid WordPress conflicts if you know how to keep WordPress error-free with backend infrastructure, WordPress manual improvements, and periodic maintenance.

In this case – don’t leave WordPress assets unattended, such as letting WordPress update plugins automatically.

In this article – you learned how to solve common WordPress theme and plugin conflict(s). Avoiding conflicts doesn’t require technical expertise; however, users with lack of expertise can face issues.

Let us know in the comments section for more information on preventing WordPress conflicts. You can also contact us for support services, see our plans, or call for custom plans.

Leave a Reply

Comment policy: We value comments and the time that visitors to our blog spend to give feedback. Please note that all comments are manually moderated and any deemed to be spam or promotional will be deleted.