Free version wordpress scan not working

Sorry the title should read: Free version “wordfence” scan not working.

Hi Elise,

Try removing the plugin and all table data and reinstalling the latest version of Wordfence. That clears up a lot of scanning issues due to a bad installation.

Thanks,
Brian

Hi Brian

I uninstalled the plugin and removed all of the files (or thought I had). Reinstalled it through the new plugins page, but the data about the 7th December backup is still there and it still doesn’t seem to be working. I tried to run the manual backup but it’s still not working.

How can I ensure that I have properly deleted everything I need to before reinstalling it?

Thanks
Elise

Hope this helps…

Here’s how you reset Wordfence to defaults and get it to acquire a new free API key. You can also use the first part of this procedure to remove all Wordfence data:

-Sign into your own website’s WordPress admin area.
-Go to the Wordfence ‘options’ page.
-Scroll all the way to the bottom where you’ll find a checkbox to remove all Wordfence data if the plugin is disabled
-Check that box and hit “save”.
-Then go to your Plugins menu and disable Wordfence.

At this point all Wordfence data has been removed from your system including all Wordfence database tables. If you simply wanted to remove Wordfence, you can stop here. If you reenable Wordfence, it will automatically create all the tables it needs and Wordfence will be reset to defaults. All your live traffic data will be deleted and all your Firewall options will be reset to defaults.

Hi Brian

I did everything you said above, and it did remove the old December scan as you said. I completely deleted the Wordfence plugin, and then re-downloaded it from scratch and activated it. Everything was completely clear. I put in all the settings I wanted.

In the Scan Summary box it says:
“Welcome to Wordfence!

To get started, simply click the “Scan” button at the top of this page to start your first scan.”

I clicked on the “Start a Wordfence Scan” button at the top. It said in the bottom right corner “Wordfence is working”. Then nothing. No scan happened and the screen stayed exactly the same.

Please help.

Elise

OK. Here is a document with some more steps to try. Let me know how that goes.

https://support.wordfence.com/support/articles/1000010338-my-scans-are-not-starting-what-should-i-do-

Hi Brian

I think i’ve got to the bottom of the matter and have successfully run a scan. However the situation is not very good and I am hoping you can advise further.

This is a private website. I have a plugin called ‘Force Login’ activated which means that anyone visiting any page on the site will be taken to a WordPress login page before they can see anything.

The only way I could get the scan working was to disable the Force Login, which means that my site was accessible to the public for the duration of the scan until I re-activated it.

For me to get the automatic daily scans it appears I would have to keep this off permanently.

There must be a better way than this?

Regards,
Elise

If that plugin is blocking access to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php then a scan won’t be able to start. You could try Wordfence “options” -> “Start all scans remotely” and see if that works when the Force Login plugin is enabled.

Hi Brian

I went through the whole procedure on the link you gave me.

I selected start all scans remotely and clicked save. I also checked the Ajax was working on the website using the link in your previous post and got the 0 on the top left of the screen as expected.

If Ajax is working, what else could be preventing the scan?

Regards,
Elise

I’ve posed the question to our developers. Obviously, something in the Force Login plugin is keeping the scans from happening. I’ll let you know what I hear back.

Thanks,
Brian

Hi Elise,

Brian asked me to look at this. Even if your Ajax handler is returning 0 when you test it, when it’s asked to perform a specific function the plugin you’re using may block that.

I would recommend you ask the developers of the plugin if it interferes with ajax requests at all, because that’s how we scan and if your scans aren’t working when the plugin is enabled then it’s likely the plugin is doing something to that Ajax handler.

Regards,

Mark.