How to Test for Theme and Plugin Conflicts

How to identify a conflict?

Conflicts can cause many different types of issues, and take many forms. Some examples of issues that might be caused by conflicts are:

• MailPoet loads blank pages; 
• Partially loaded pages or missing options;
• You cannot save your settings;
• Clicking on buttons or options does not work;
• A visitor cannot sign up to your form.
• And oh so many more...

Why do they happen?

Conflicts can also happen for an infinite number of reasons. One common source of trouble is when a plugin or a theme load different versions of the same script on the same page. There are dozens of popular scripts that allow rich functionality in plugins and themes, for example, jQuery.

Unfortunately, some plugins and themes load their scripts on all pages in the admin, including MailPoet's, resulting in functionality breaking or unexpected

How to determinate which plugin or theme conflicts with MailPoet?

Before you begin:

1. Update all your plugins. Is there still a problem with MailPoet?
2. Clear your site's cache, if you have this option. Is there still a problem with MailPoet?
3. Ensure you have a backup of your website. Most plugins and themes save settings in the site's database, and deactivating plugins or switching themes shouldn't cause loss of settings, but we cannot guarantee it.

Step-by-Step Guide To Identify A Conflict

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Tools > Site Health > Troubleshooting and click on "Enable Troubleshooting Mode" :

If you have an older version of WordPress, you need to install and activate the plugin Health Check & Troubleshooting in WordPress  dashboard  > Plugins > Add New and search for “Health Check”. In this case, visit the menu item Dashboard > Health Check. Go to the Troubleshooting tab and click on the "Enable Troubleshooting Mode" button.

3. After activating this mode, you - and not your visitors - will see your website with all plugins disabled, and a default theme activated. 

This enables you to reactivate the plugins and/or theme one at a time to see when the problem returns. 

4. Enable MailPoet plugin in the  Troubleshooting Mode first and try MailPoet to see if it works normally with all the other plugins disabled.

5. If MailPoet is still broken, contact us using the link in the top menu of this page or with the form available in the help icon at the bottom right of all your MailPoet pages (preferred).

If MailPoet works normally, great! Continue to the next step.

6.  First enable your theme in the Troubleshooting Mode menu. Test to see if MailPoet works. 

If MailPoet and your theme don't conflict, enable your other plugins one after the other and test MailPoet each time to see which plugin breaks MailPoet. 

This step should help you identify which plugin or theme conflicts with MailPoet.

7. Disable Troubleshooting Mode:

Performing a conflict test can be a time-consuming, technical challenge. If you’d like to hire someone to do this work for you, our trusted partner Codeable is able to perform conflict testing on your behalf: https://codeable.io (affiliate link)

How to resolve a conflict?

You cannot resolve conflicts yourself, unfortunately. But you can:

1. Keep MailPoet or the conflicting plugin or theme disabled for the time being;
2. Delete the conflicting plugin if you don't really need it;
3. Temporarily disable the plugin that conflicts with MailPoet, if it's affecting only one functionality, so you can re-enable it after making the changes you need.
4. Contact the author of the plugin or theme and let them know about the conflict.