Troubleshooting

WordPress is a complex environment which can contain any combination of themes and plugins installed and activated, along with additional WordPress setting combinations. This makes each installation a snowflake... beautiful and unique!

However, due to the nature of this software, conflicts can arise and Login With AJAX may not always look or function as expected due to unknown factors in the environment it's installed on. Below we provide some steps to take before asking for support.

In most cases, you can either identify and fix the issue yourself or at very least narrow down the root of the problem which will greatly help speed things up when you ask us for help.

Step 1 - What is the problem?

Is the problem you're experiencing a bug or a conflict, or could it be related to a setting? This is a hard question to answer right here, so you'd need to think whether the behaviour you're expecting is just not working, or of something you'd like to see on the plugin isn't appearing. If it's unexpected behaviour, then maybe move onto step 2, if the latter, try checking our settings pages or widget/shortcode/php options to see if there's an option there that you've missed.

If the problem is aesthetic, then it might be your theme, move onto step 2 to see if a default theme changes the aesthetic to something you'd expect.

Step 2 - Install any Updates

Do any of your plugins or theme have updates pending? If so, install those first because there's a chance the issue has been fixed in one of these updates. The same goes for WordPress itself.

Step 3 - Test with Plugins/Themes disabled.

One of the most common issues will be a plugin or theme conflict. With LWA the most probable issue would be a JavaScript error in another plugin preventing LWA's JS from working.

One way to test this is simply by disabling all other plugins and switching to a default WordPress theme such as Twenty Twenty. However, the downside here is that your whole site will look different and this may not be desirable on active sites with visitors.

Therefore, we recommend WP Safe Mode. We created this plugin ourselves, specifically for helping troubleshoot customer issues, as it allows you to disable plugins and switch themes only for yourself, so that you can test to see if problems get resolved when running in a 'Vanilla' WordPress installation with just our plugin running. Other site visitors remain unaffected and will see your regular setup.

Make sure you also disable mu-plugins. With WP Safe Mode, there's an option to do that, otherwise rename the /wp-content/mu-plugins/ folder temporarily to deactivate it.

Step 3.1 - Does the problem go away in Safe Mode?

Does switching themes or disabling plugins fix the problem? If not, move onto step 4.

If so, then the following step is to narrow down the culprit by enabling plugins one by one, or in groups, to see when the problem re-appears. Once you've narrowed down the plugin or theme at fault, you can take a few extra steps to track down the problem.

Step 3.2 - Could this be a setting issue on another plugin?

Again, it's hard to speculate here but, for example, it's entirely possible you could be running something like a JS optimization plugin that for some reason corrupts our JS files. In this theoretical example you may have the option to prevent that plugin from interacting with specific JS files, and therefore ask it to omit ours.

Step 3.3 - Who's at fault?

Once again! It's hard to speculate here... a developer may have some luck debugging the JavaScript console to see where the error arises and then the likelihood is that the plugin containing the file is at fault.

Another very generic rule of thumb is to check the plugin age and popularity. Chances are, a popular plugin that is updated regularly is far less likely to be at fault than a new plugin or one that has little maintenance due to low usage or popularity. The reasoning behind this is because popular plugins will have more users who would detect common errors and these would usually need to get fixed for plugins to maintain popularity (otherwise they'd need to switch to another working plugin!). The best place to start to ask for support would be the younger, less popular plugin, as chances are there's something they're doing wrong that hasn't been detected/fixed yet.

Step 4 - Ask for support

If you're still stuck at this point, we welcome you to get in touch with us for support!

Before asking for help, we first suggest you do a quick check on the support forums in case others have the issue too. If it's a known issue then it'll likely get fixed anyway, and you're welcome to chime in to let us know you're experiecing the error too (it's good to know if it's a one-off or a widespread issue). If you can't find others experiencing the same issue as you, then please open a new thread.

Remember The more information we have, particularly with bugs, the faster we can reproduce it on our own test sites and provide a solution.

When opening a new ticket, please provide the following information if possible/relevant:

  • Confirm you have tested with WP Safe Mode enabled (or by disabling other plugins and using a default WP theme).
  • Confirm the version of WP, LWA and other relevant add-ons of ours.
  • Provide a link to the page with an issue, if possible.
  • Any steps necessary to reproduce.

You can reach out to our community support forums, which we monitor regularly. Alternatively, Go Pro and receive premium dedicated support for faster replies.