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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 improved 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 the 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, it would be best to 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, your site’s navigation menu may disappear.
Such issues occur when a plugin conflicts with a WordPress website’s existing infrastructure, 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.
Based on experience, updating your site’s PHP may work in typical scenarios. However, if you’re using an outdated version of Divi, you should also update its core.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 the 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 applying changes to a live WordPress site, ensure you’ve tested things on a staging website. This will help 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 accessible in WordPress. If you have a hosting plan and a domain, you can make a copy of a business site you own, referred to as 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 can spot conflicts caused by specific agents, allowing you to track, make changes, and finally fix conflict issues in WordPress.
For example, if deactivating a specific theme or plugin solves a problem, you can conclude that 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 deactivation, you should activate 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 to the Plugins page in the dashboard and deactivate each plugin individually.
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, improvements in new functionality can create conflicts between existing assets in WordPress.
First, you should turn off the automatic updates in WordPress. In this case, make sure no theme or plugin updates 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 the 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 undisputable and causes conflicts, find a single plugin that fulfills multiple functionalities.
For example, instead of using several plugins for security, backups, and speed, JetPack helps you use all features collectively.
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 a lack of knowledge 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.
