Illegal string offset PHP error. Plugin stopped working :(

I’m really sorry to hear that the plugin has stopped working. I feel like it is more frustrating for a code to suddenly stop than to never work at all. All the errors you noted are PHP warnings, which means they should not cause the code to fail. Nonetheless, I rewrote the sections that were causing the problems. Could you update the plugin and see if the problem is fixed?
It sounds to me like something is causing WordPress’s option functions ( get_option() and update_option() ) to not work or to delete the plugin’s record. One of the best ways to find a problem is to deactivate all plugins and change to the default WordPress theme (Twenty Fourteen). Then reactivate the plugins one at a time. Hope this helps.
Best,
Eric

Dear Eric,

Thanks for your suggestions and update, but unfortunately it was not helpful. I’ve deactivated everything (actually I don’t use too much plugins), and changed to default theme, but everything remains the same – plugin can’t access its settings.. Same php warning, same behavior – can’t save settings (always defaults), can’t store users (but it is asking for authorization from instagram). In case you’ll have some ideas, please let me know. Probably it is not the plugin issue but some PHP misconfiguration on my server side. Strange thing is that other plugins are working normally. BTW when dealing with settings, this PHP warning throwing from another part of the plugin:

[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.861850 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'general_loader' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.861938 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'general_highlight_color' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.861958 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'general_hide_message' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.861970 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'general_load_header' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.861981 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'general_lightbox_no_load' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.861994 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'general_lightbox' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862009 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'general_lightbox_params' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862077 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'general_block_users' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862089 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'hidden_display_link' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862101 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'hidden_widget_alignment' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862112 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'hidden_lightbox_custom_rel' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862124 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'hidden_photo_feed_offset' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862135 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'hidden_photo_feed_shuffle' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862153 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'cache_disable' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings
[Thu Jan 09 16:51:51.862271 2014] [:error] [pid 18872] [client 192.168.1.9:49595] PHP Warning:  Illegal string offset 'cache_time' in /home/crasher/www/poznamka/wp-content/plugins/alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram/gears/alpinebot-admin.php on line 27, referer: https://poznamka.com.tw/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=alpine-photo-tile-for-instagram-settings&tab=plugin-settings

Problem with same variable – $options array(). Plugin is disabled for now, but maybe you can check my site. I am not sure this could help, but just in case – https://poznamka.com.tw

THANKS!

Dear Eric,

In addition, I’ve tested your other plugins for the same bug presence, but they are works fine! G+/Picasa and Tumblr works just like a charm, settings are always saved, no any warnings in logs… I hope this information could be helpful somehow..

Dear Eric,

I’ve found a part of the problem. I’ve deleted MySQL database records for your plugin and everything started works fine as before.

I’ve got this issue AGAIN when I’ve tried to authorize second user. Please check it on your side. Only one user works.

I’ve checked mysql record after adding second user and found that it is corrupted (not completed):

images.ak.instagram.com/profiles/profile_30900769_75sq_1374133483.jpg";s:8:"fullname";s:31:"Sergey

As you can see, end of the record just truncated somehow (no trailing quote and overall looks incomplete).

EDIT: After future investigation I’ve found that this problem is about to appear when in user’s instagram profile description are some unicode control characters like Emoji. My first user have no such Emoji signs, just plain text. But another user’s description contains many Emoji characters. You can see it here. MySQL record just truncated at the first Emoji character (After “Sergey”). Looks like they are used somewhere in php or mysql as control characters and leads to corrupted database entry.

Can we try to fix this issue? ??

With warm regards,
Sergey

It looks like the Emoji characters cause a silent error in PHP’s json_decode function, causing the user data to be parsed incorrectly. I added a filter to try and remove any control characters. Can you delete the plugin from your website and then install it again? I’ve updated to plugin but I don’t want to change the version number until I know this worked. Please let me know if the mysql record still looks corrupted.
Best,
Eric

Dear Eric,

Huge thanks to you, now it is working perfectly!
You got a small donation from me for your great job.

Thanks again!

You are welcome. Glad I could help ??

Would you mind rating the plugin?

Done!

Eric, a little feature request – could you please add custom text field to widget after images? Of course, if you’ll have some time ?? It could be nice to add link to user’s instagram profile or something like that. Now I’ve done it with separate “text” widget, but can’t reduce space between widgets, so they are bit far from each other (you can see what I am talking about on my blog.

Thanks!