API Error 999 on Staging Sites

  • Hi, I just upgraded from 2.9.5 to 6.03 and am testing it on staging for a multisite network. On each site that uses this plugin, I’m seeing “Error 999: Access token could not be decrypted.”

    Does the fact that this is a staging environment have anything to do with the error? The feeds were all working fine prior to the update. The staging site has not been rebuilt in a while, so nothing should have changed in the database.

    My main concern is that we’re going to have to reconnect each feed on the production sites, which I’m hoping to avoid if possible ??

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Thread Starter Eric Karkovack

    (@karks88)

    Can anyone provide some insight on this? I really don’t want to update on our production environment if it’s going to cause our feeds to stop working.

    Plugin Support Smash Balloon Joel

    (@joelsmashballoon)

    Hey @karks88,

    I do apologize for the delay in getting back to you here. This is caused by the encryption features recently added to our plugin which is a recent requirement from Facebook to use their API. In short, the Access Token has been encryption and after moving / wp-config.php tokens and salts being changed, our plugin can no longer decrypt it properly for API calls.

    To ensure that you do not run into issues between staging and production sites, you will want to set specific encryption keys and salts for our plugin. For details on this please see our documentation here.

    In short, in wp-config.php for both staging and live you will want to have the same matching key and salt, like so:

    define(‘SBI_ENCRYPTION_KEY’, ‘add_encryption_key_here’);
    define(‘SBI_ENCRYPTION_SALT’, ‘add_encryption_salt_here’);

    Add these two lines and add the Key and Salt of your choice (they can be generated here if you want a properly created one). Again, these will need to be the same on both staging and production sites.

    Note: You will need to reconnect once after doing this for any site you make the change on. After this, however, you should be all set going forward. If you have further issues let me know and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

    Best regards.

    Thread Starter Eric Karkovack

    (@karks88)

    Thanks for your help, @joelsmashballoon! I will give this a look.

    Plugin Support Smash Balloon Joel

    (@joelsmashballoon)

    Hey @karks88,

    Glad to be of assistance. Just a heads up, similarily, if you use our Facebook Feed, product the very same steps would be necessary, but the key and salt variables are called

    CFF_ENCRYPTION_KEY
    CFF_ENCRYPTION_SALT

    Just to get ahead of any potential issues there. Let me know should you need anything else.

    Many thanks.

    Thread Starter Eric Karkovack

    (@karks88)

    @joelsmashballoon Thanks!

    If we upgrade without the salts in place, will that also disable the feed on production, or can we safely update?

    Plugin Support Smash Balloon Joel

    (@joelsmashballoon)

    Hey @karks88,

    If you do not put the specific same key/salts on both Staging and Production, if you push from staging to update production this will likely break the Instagram account connection. If you simply update the plugin on production (without pushing from staging) from a much lower version of the plugin from before the encryption changes (free version 2.9.4, pro version 5.12.4) everything should currently work as data will be encrypted on update with the available keys and salts on the site.

    To prepare for any issues, if you need to reconnect any account you can manually create an Access Token and ID, to then manually connect if there are any issues. To get a token and ID use our tool here: https://smashballoon.com/instagram-feed/standalone/token/.

    Best regards.

    Thread Starter Eric Karkovack

    (@karks88)

    Hi @joelsmashballoon,

    That makes sense – thank you! We have a version control setup that just pushes code – not the database values. So I think we’ll be in good shape, but will be prepared just in case.

    Plugin Support Smash Balloon Joel

    (@joelsmashballoon)

    Hey @karks88,

    Just checking in to see whether everything is still alright on your end and if you need any further assistance? If you’re all se, we can mark the thread here as resolved for now and you are always welcome to reach out again should you have any questions in the future either here or on our website.

    Many thanks.

    Thread Starter Eric Karkovack

    (@karks88)

    Hi, @joelsmashballoon – We’re all good, thank you for checking! I have marked this as resolved ??

    Please I have tried to work on the same issue several times.
    The same problem persists.

    The Site is live
    Because the site is set to Generate Secret Keys every new week to help stop constant hacking, immediately this is done, the site connected to the Instagram feed plugin is lost.

    How do We set the connection to be the same even if the Secret Keys is updated it does not disconnect?

    Plugin Support Smash Balloon Joel

    (@joelsmashballoon)

    Hey @danono,

    Thank you for reaching out to us for assistance. While we are looking into ways of making the encryption work on a broader range of different setups and installations, a static Key & Salt is required for our plugin to keep the source connection valid.

    Is it possible for you to simply set the SBI Salt & Key for our plugin the same? That will not affect the security of the rest of your site.

    Best regards.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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