“Additional Permissions Required” When WP-Optimize Cache Enabled

Hi James,

The issue occurs with only the Search Console module active.
The issue occurs with the cookies plugin deactivated.

tldr;
Google Site Kit works ok in every scenario providing the Page cache is not enabled. Once I can get it re-enabled (see below), I will see if Preload is the culprit.

Other steps taken, using browser in incognito mode:
(WP-Optimize = WP-Optimize Premium)
1. Wipe WP-Optimize, and deactivate plugin.
2. Enable Google Site Kit and connect to services (Site Kit ok).
3. Enable WP-Optimize.
4. Do NOT use Pre-Load Cache option or set it to automatically preload (All ok).
5. Enable cache. (WP-Optimize says cache is enabled, but it isn’t – Site Kit is still ok).
6. Wipe WP-Optimise, and deactivate plugin.
7. Delete WP-Optimize.
8. Delete existing WP-Optimize cache directories on server.
8. Reinstall WP-Optimize.
9. Network Activate WP-Optimize.
9. Do NOT use Pre-Load Cache option or set it to automatically preload (Site Kit ok).
10. Enable cache. (WP-Optimize says cache is enabled, but it isn’t – Site Kit is still ok).
11. Swear profusely and go and have breakfast.

Update after second espresso.

I disabled my Opcache and completely cleared it out, which resolved the issue of WP-Optimize not recognising that the cache was enabled.

I then enabled the cache, ensured it was clear and did NOT set the Pre-Load Cache option or set it to automatically preload.

With the cache still empty (but enabled) for some of the sub-sites, (e.g. the sandbox), I then checked Site Kit on that sub-site.

Site Kit immediately started asking for additional permissions.

It seems that somehow, as soon as the cache is enabled, irrespective of what options are enabled in Site Kit and whether any pages have been cached or not for a particular site, Site Kit asks for additional permissions.

Hi @europoint,

Really appreciate your troubleshooting efforts here (and all the coffees!). I’ve spent some time on this this morning on a network site and this time using the free version of WP Optimize (whereby another user reported the same). In my case I wasn’t able to reproduce (example with Opcache & Page caching toggled)

If it’s not too much trouble would you be able to share a screen recording so I can add this to the related GitHub issue and then escalate this to our engineers? You can use a service such as RecordIt.co or Loom to share, while using our escalations form to share privately if preferred.

In the recording if you could scroll through your WP Optimize settings and also your Network setup settings.

I understand you’ve already dedicate a lot of time troubleshooting this, so I’m happy to hand this over to the engineers for a further review, we have an environment setup for testing any possible conflict regardless.

Hi @jamesosborne,

Sorry about the delay – I got sucked into playing with some other technical activities.

I have completed a Google Docs form with a link to download a video (webm) of the details you requested and a walkthrough of the issues encountered.

No worries about the troubleshooting – I started off in testing, so I quite enjoy getting my hand in!

Many thanks for sharing the video, very useful to see what’s occurring. Based on your configurations I setup the same environment with the same versions of plugins and I’m unable to recreate the same experience so far in testing.

With that let’s check some other configurations, in particular as you have OPCache setup and a customized WordPress dashboard. If it’s not too much trouble can you once again create a video? Within the video please perform the following actions:

1. Temporarily deactivate the “Multisite Enhancements”, “WP OPcache” and “User Role Editor” plugins.
2. Navigate to your WP Optimize settings and “Wipe the settings” (Settings > Wipe settings) – this is of course if you’re happy to once again reset all your WP Optimize configurations
3. Show your Site Kit dashboards on your main site – I suspect it will work as normal if this only occurs once your WP Optimize Page Cache option is enabled
4. Enable Page Cache once more from within WP Optimize
5. Check for the “Additional Permissions Required” notice once more when visiting your Site Kit dashboard
6. If the error appears once more please grant all permissions from within Site Kit when requseted
7. Navigate elsewhere on your Site Kit dashboards or try to recreate the same notice. If the notice appears once more please open your Chrome developer tools and show both your browser console errors and any XHR response

There are a lot of steps above, so please do ask if unsure. These steps may help determine a multi plugin conflict or whether this are multiple OP Cache or WP Optimize configurations impacting your Site Kit setup. You can use the same form previously used to share any screen recording.

If you’re unable to provide the above that’s not a problem, I can still escalate this with the team.

Hi @jamesosborne,

I’ve recorded the video following the steps above as requested, including console errors and XHR response.

@europoint Really appreciate you sharing this video. I’m going to take this issue up with the team and report back to you here. I’ll also add your findings to the related GitHub issue.

I’m also going to setup a separate test multisite to test this from. I’ve spent some time trying to recreate this today although I’ve been unsuccessful so far with my test setup. If you have any other Multisite installs please do check for the same issue with no other plugins other than WP Optimize and Site Kit active.

@jamesosborne You will be pleased to hear that I can’t replicate it either in a test setup!

I cloned the entire WordPress site into another database and folder structure (but using the same host), modifying just the URLs for access and the WordPress admin stylesheet to a garish yellow background so I knew which website I was playing with!

Next I removed all plugins except WP-Optimize and Site Kit, physically removing them from the server for added measure. I also cleared down the OpCache for the new site.

With just the two plugins active and available, whether the WP-Optimize cache was enabled or not, and whether OpCache had been rebuilt or not, the analytics and PageSpeed still work.

I am now introducing each plugin from the live site back in to the test site one by one to see if any break Site Kit in conjunction with WP-Optimize. I will let you know how I get on.

Interesting, many thanks for sharing! I didn’t get time yet today to test the same multisite setup on another hosting platform but I will get around to it.

I am now introducing each plugin from the live site back in to the test site one by one to see if any break Site Kit in conjunction with WP-Optimize. I will let you know how I get on.

Good idea. In addition to testing your plugins it might be worth checking your hosting control panels caching options and confirmations (on this new site). There may be a multi party conflict resulting in this notice.

I’ll also keep you posted after I test the same using a multisite setup from another hosting provider and platform. And thank you for all your efforts! Judging by the other impacted user in the GitHub issue I suspect here may be other users.

@europoint Just to keep you updated I’ve setup a SiteGround multisite and I’m also unable to recreate the same from there. Along with checking your plugins can you check your php configuration for the impacted site, testing does the same occur with a different PHP version active?

@jamesosborne

I have tested with the following on my cloned test multisite:
1. Activating each plugin one by one – Site Kit still worked without issue.
2. Disabling each plugin and activating all in one go – Site Kit still worked without issue.
3. Replicating the root folder exactly into my test multisite (ensuring I had the same .htaccess, php.ini etc) – Site Kit still worked without issue.
4. Changed the PHP version from 7.4 to 7.3 (the lowest I can go on my host) – Site Kit still worked without issue. As far as I am aware Ionos do not implicitly implement additional caching options and I have not set any explicitly at the host level.
4. Finally, I played with the WP-Optimize cache settings. The cache settings were set to 24 hours, and scheduled preloading was disabled. I changed this so that the cache settings were set to 7 days and scheduled preloading was enabled. The result was that Site Kit asked me for additional permissions.

I am now kicking myself for doing both changes at the same time, as I don’t know which change caused the error. It should also be noted that WP-Optimize preloading of the cache was running at the time that I made the changes.

More testing to continue.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by europoint.

@jamesosborne

Frustratingly, I can’t replicate the symptoms despite repeating the steps in a multitude of different ways.

To get Google Site Kit working again, I disabled and removed Google Site Kit, then removed the WP-Optimize configuration file (held under wp-content/wpo-cache/config), reinstalled Google Site Kit and re-enabled it. After that, enabling the cache and changing the settings, still left the Google Site Kit operational.

This may be a short term solution to anyone stuck with the same situation.

Within the wpo-config file, when you make any changes in the GUI, it will change arrays from [] to [“”], and true/false to “1”/”0″ respectively (with the exception of the “enable_page_caching” parameter which remains true/false).

$GLOBALS[‘wpo_cache_config’] = json_decode(‘{“enable_page_caching”:true,”page_cache_length_value”:7,”page_cache_length_unit”:”days”,”page_cache_length”:604800,”cache_exception_urls”:[“”],”cache_exception
_cookies”:[“”],”cache_exception_browser_agents”:[“”],”enable_sitemap_preload”:false,”enable_schedule_preload”:”1″,”preload_schedule_type”:”wpo_use_cache_lifespan”,”enable_mobile_caching”:”0″,”enable_user
_caching”:”0″,”site_url”:”https:\/\/test.yourdomain.com\/”,”enable_cache_per_country”:false,”enable_user_specific_cache”:”0″,”wpo_cache_cookies”:[],”wpo_cache_query_variables”:[],”default_values”:[]}’, tr
ue);

I have tried making changes to each of these in turn and reloading WP-Optimize in the GUI but that doesn’t seem to make a difference.

In short, I am still not sure what is causing the issue, despite being able to replicate it at least once!

@europoint Really appreciate you sharing all these insights from testing. If it’s ok with you I’ll summarize your findings with the GitHub issue with the potential workaround?

We also have a couple of test multisite installations setup to try and replicate this further. I’ll see if I can get an engineer to review or try to recreate.

@europoint Just to let you know I’ve escalated the GitHub issue. Please follow it’s progress over on GitHub, while I close out this support topic. Many thanks for bringing this to our attention, and feel free to add any comments here or preferably to the issue which will be reviewed by a team member.