Plugins are a great way to make your WordPress site more functional and interesting. But sometimes, they can conflict with each other and cause some major headaches.
This post will show you how to find plugin conflicts in WordPress so that you can get them fixed before they cause any serious issues for your website’s functionality!
What Are plugin conflicts?
Plugin conflicts happen when two or more plugins are fighting to control the same aspect of your WordPress site.
For example, if you have Google Analytics installed and a new plugin is also trying to install an analytics package, then there’s going to be some conflict.
Why do plugin conflicts happen in WordPress?
Plugins share resources in WordPress, so sometimes they can conflict with each other. This often happens when one plugin is trying to do something that another plugin already does.
For example, let’s say you have a social media widget installed on your website and then install an SEO plugin that also includes its own social media functionality.
Both plugins are going to be competing over how the user will interact with their content. So, this may cause some serious issues for your website!
Moreover, if there were only one of these plugins running at a time, it would not matter as much because either option is perfectly functional. Since the two plugins are fighting over control of what occurs on the webpage where they’re used. In this case, problems will be like long loading times occur, the website becomes unresponsive, worse, and many more.
Common causes of plugin conflicts in WordPress:
There are many causes of WordPress plugin conflicts. But I have shared some basic causes that you should know.
- Your plugins are not compatible with the latest version of WordPress or a new one you installed. Check if they have an update available and if so, install it before deactivating any others.
- Two plugins may be incompatible because their code has been changed in ways that affect how both work together on a site.
- Plugin files could have become corrupted from updates to other items. This is rare but can happen when updating themes or WordPress versions and installing too many plugins at once without carefully following instructions from developers.
How to find and fix a plugin conflict?
It is actually easy to find and fix plugin conflicts. But before you start looking, make sure that the plugins are installed on the same WordPress installation. In essence, it will be easier to find out which of them causes a conflict with other plugins.
If you are a WordPress user, it is important to know how to find a plugin conflict issue. For example, the plugins like Rank Math and Yoast SEO plugin will cause conflicts with each other because they offer similar features.
When you install these two plugins at once on your site or blog for instance, then there will be a notification about conflict/deleting one plugin. This shows that neither of them can work together because of a lack of compatibility issue.
You can find plugin conflict issues in two ways: one is manually deactivating the plugin one by one. And another way is to use a conflict/troubleshooting plugin.
To find plugin conflicts in WordPress, use the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin which is a free plugin.
You may have a question why should I use this plugin? The answer is that this plugin can help you find plugin conflict in your WordPress site without changing the original functionality. That means you will not lose any function and setting of your custom design.
However, back to the guide.
Go to the WordPress dashboard then find and install a plugin called Health Check & Troubleshooting Tool.
Now click on the ‘Troubleshooting’. You will get this option under the WordPress tool menu.
Now your site is under troubleshoot mode. You can find conflict plugins or issues easily with no effect on your site visitors.
After enabling troubleshooting mode, your site will work like a new one that you get after 1st installation.
Now is time to find out which plugin is occurring conflict issue.
The next step enables the plugin one by one to find out which one working properly or not or the reasons for conflict issues.
Enable troubleshooting of every plugin and check your existing conflict issues, if you find out the plugin which the major reason for conflict then uninstall or remove the plugin from WordPress or you can update its version if a new version is available.
When you complete identifying the plugin conflict issue, you can uninstall and remove the Troubleshooting plugin, because it is unnecessary to keep it install and activate.
Besides, sometimes conflict issues can happen because of the WordPress PHP version, so try to use the latest version of PHP from your hosting control panel.
Simply login to your hosting account and go to the PHP version.
Then click on the current version and update to the latest version.
Note: Some hosting companies update the PHP version lately, so it does not matter you should use the latest one that is available there.
In most cases, conflicts are solved when doing such steps. However, sometimes more intensive troubleshooting may be required uninstalling conflicting plugins completely from WordPress or changing their position in the list of plugins.
What are some ways to avoid conflicts with plugins?
Below are some ways to avoid conflicts with plugins:
- Use only one plugin for the same purpose.
- Update all your plugins as soon as possible.
- Don’t continue with a new plugin on WordPress if you notice issues after activation.
- Make sure each installed plugin has an updated version available at least once every three weeks. When there are no new updates, try to find out what was changed instead of upgrading.
- Always remember that the plugin you’re installing should be compatible with your version of WordPress. So never install a plugin if it’s not providing any useful features for your website and only offers conflict resolution. This can actually slow down or crash your site.
- When there are errors after activating a certain plugin make sure you have all admin pages accessible.
In Conclusion
Every plugin can conflict with other plugins. In the last piece of advice, we have discussed how to find the WordPress plugin conflict issue by checking if there is any error or warning.
The major step will be installing another theme and deactivating the plugin one by one to see whether it solves your problem or not. If you still get errors, then probably it’s time for you to contact on WordPress developer team.
