Feed With Invalid Mime Type – Feed Validates

  • I currently have an issue with an external feed on one of my WP sites. It works fine in other installations, so not sure what could be going on here. I’ve tried deactivating all plugins and going back to the default theme with no change, it still errors out.

    The feed was working and now returns the following error despite validating

    A feed with an invalid mime type may fall victim to this error, or SimplePie was unable to auto-discover it. Use force_feed() if you are certain this URL is a real feed.

    I’m on WP 4.1.1, anyone else experienced this and how do I fix it? It occurs using 3rd party plugins and with the default WP RSS Widget.

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    What is the URL of the feed, and what version of WordPress are you running?

    Thread Starter plumwd

    (@plumwd)

    https://quora.com/rss/

    As indicated above I’m on WP 4.1.1.

    The feed works on several other installations of WordPress on other servers and WAS working for months and then suddenly stopped on this installation.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Hm, the feed is very much not valid: https://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fquora.com%2Frss%2F

    It looks like a problem on their end.

    WordPress caches feeds for 12 hours (I think, maybe 6), which would explain why it’s still working on some sites.

    Thread Starter plumwd

    (@plumwd)

    Weird it validated yesterday.

    This one validates https://www.quora.com/Jason-M.-Lemkin/answers/rss and does not work in WP.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Hm, that one is working for me right now.

    With a feed as frequent as the Quora feeds, I wouldn’t doubt that they are periodically invalidated, and that WordPress’s infrequent cache refresh rate lends itself to caching the invalid feed for a while.

    Thread Starter plumwd

    (@plumwd)

    I’ll give it a go and see what happens. Thanks!

    Thread Starter plumwd

    (@plumwd)

    Nope not working:

    RSS Error: A feed could not be found at https://www.quora.com/Jason-M.-Lemkin/answers/rss/. A feed with an invalid mime type may fall victim to this error, or SimplePie was unable to auto-discover it.. Use force_feed() if you are certain this URL is a real feed.

    Just wanted to note this is on a self-hosted site and NOT wordpress.com

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Likewise, this is www.remarpro.com, still working fine for me: https://cloudup.com/cyTo6vpXhiD

    Try deactivating all plugins. If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

    If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the Twenty Fifteen theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue (theme functions can interfere like plugins).

    Thread Starter plumwd

    (@plumwd)

    Yeah I’ve done all that several times including reverting to the base theme. This is a tricky one!

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Ok, at the moment I’d just have to guess that it’s a frequently invalidated feed, and either your blog cached it at the wrong time (in which case it will probably be fine in 24 hours) or mine cached it at the right time (in which case it will probably be broken in 24 hours).

    Thread Starter plumwd

    (@plumwd)

    I really think it’s something else other than caching. It hasn’t worked at all on this particular site for the last 2 days, but works just fine anywhere else I try it.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Well, I’ve tried it on two WordPress 4.1.1 sites now (one with lots of plugins, one without), and it works great, so it’s not a WordPress issue at least.

    Thread Starter plumwd

    (@plumwd)

    I think you’re right. I think it’s got to be some weird server configuration.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Yeah, maybe there’s something descriptive in your server error log?

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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