Elementor’s use of file_put_contents() is a major problem for shared hosts

  • I’ve recommanded and used Elementor for a number of sites – the most recent of which I ran into a problem with today

    It had been working fine – it was almost complete and suddenly, all style was lost from the site.

    I’d recently upgraded so I rolled-back, tested things, faffed about and eventually I found the problem – no CSS files in wp-content/uploads/elementor

    The error-log showed that the shared-server hosting I was using had blocked use of file_put_contents() – Googling, this seems to be a common restriction as it’s considered a security risk (it’s often disabled on non-shared hosting too)

    Obviously this leaves me with a problem – I either move the site or stop using Elementor and for a variety of reasons I think it will have to be the latter in this case.

    Moreover, I’m now worried that other sites I’ve used Elementor with will run into the same issue – the nature of which being that once someone edits the site, it will be trashed beyond repair!

    I would suggest – quite strongly – that you stop using that function ASAP but obviously that will take time and so in the meanwhile I’m afraid that’s the end of Elementor for me

    Shame really – quite a powerful tool but SO many clients rely on shared hosting that I just can’t take the risk…

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  • Thread Starter johnpeat

    (@johnpeat)

    I had to move my Elementor-based site to another host – however I’ve done some research and it does seem that

    a – quite a few shared hosts disable file_put_contents() for security reasons
    b – it’s used within the WordPress core files!!

    My hosting company’s assertion that I simply needed to “fix the code” isn’t really valid given it’s use in the WordPress core – and I’ve no idea what alternatives to it exist anyway

    Certainly – anyone “losing” CSS/style from their site should check their error_log to see if this is the cause (this obviously means you cannot use Tools > ReCreate CSS either)

    p.s. the site will look fine in the editor (as the CSS is available locally) but when you browse your site outside the editor, it will look rather wonky…

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