Multisite subsite responsive pages

Hi Iain, I just tested https://www.shalalalalee.co.uk on my laptop and an iPhone and I see what you mean. I *think* the issue may be in the theme. Here’s how you can test it out: create a dummy site using that theme and no content to speak of — maybe a line or two of ipsum text in home page and a similar line or two in a text widget in the sidebar. Don’t activate any plugins.

If the responsive features work on the dummy site, then there’s a plugin or something in your content that’s not responsive. You can try copying over the content bit by bit to the dummy site until the responsiveness no longer works, and then you’ll know what needs attention. Leave the plugins off. If it works with all your content, try turning on the plugins one by one until the responsiveness breaks.

If it’s the theme, the responsiveness won’t work correctly straight off. You should bring this to the attention of the theme developer to be resolved. Similarly, if the problem is tied to a plugin, bring it to the attention of the plugin developer.

If the developer doesn’t assist you with the resolution, you can either choose a different theme (or plugin, as the case may be) or, if you feel comfortable writing CSS media queries, attempt to correct the problem on your own.

Hi Susan,
Many thanks for your message.
My initial thought after reading was that there must be something else wrong as why would all of the sub sites be having the same issue. I see where you are coming from though so I have done as you suggested and created another site and used the same theme used on https://www.dreamshedtheatre.co.uk (responsive working) and https://www.shalalalalee.co.uk (responsive not). I deactivated all plugins beforehand and then added https://www.dreamshedtheatre.co.uk/auntie/ I have done a few edits here and there, checking responsiveness each time and also changed the theme and the responsiveness is holding. Even activating all of the network plug ins has not broken it.
Therefore, I don’t think this is being caused by the themes but rather plug ins.
Unfortunately the other sites did not start being responsive after deactivating plug ins so my thoughts are that plug ins should be deactivated before creating a new sub site. With the three sub sites all being broken for responsiveness https://www.shalalalalee.co.uk https://www.billcronshaw.co.uk https://www.seriouslyfunnyplay.com am I right in thinking I should start again by deleting the sites, deactivating plug ins, create site, activate plug ins = responsive working?
Thanks again.
Iain

Hi, Iain, I’m trying to think of a scenario where activating a plugin after a site is built rather than before makes a difference, and I’m drawing a blank. Before you go through all that work … do you have caching of any kind on your sites? The reason I’m asking is that if you deactivated plugins on these sites, the responsiveness may still appear to be broken because older versions of the pages are cached.

If you’re sure that’s not a factor and you have a small site you want to rebuild to confirm that it resolves the issue, you can certainly try it. I’d just hate for you to do an enormous amount of work only to find it didn’t fix the problem.

Hi Susan,
Thankfully the one site was only a single page so I was able to go through that process pretty quickly. What I have discovered is way off where we were looking. I have recreated the shalalalalee site with https://www.shalalalalee.co.uk being the domain name. All was looking great on my phone until the point where I redirected the domain name to the page https://www.dreamshedtheatre.co.uk/shalalalalee-billcronshaw where the site is located. If you visit the domain name the responsiveness is broken but visiting the site directly and it is fine. So my problem is with web forwarding. I have checked on all the other sites and the same thing is occuring.
With my hosting I have set it up as masked web forwarding and I wonder if the two other options here may help – 301 moved permanently or 301 moved temporarily – whatever those mean.
Thanks,
Iain

Hello, Iain

dreamshedtheatre.co.uk and shalalalalee.co.uk are hosted in different server accounts, as per my [limited] checks.

For this to work perfectly, you will need to:

1. Make shalalalalee.co.uk to be hosted on the same account as dreamshedtheatre.co.uk – and to load the content from the same server path (if you were using cPanel, it would be what we call a ‘parked’ domain on top of dreamshedtheatre.co.uk, check with your hosting company how it can be accomplished in your case)
2. Use WordPress MU Domain Mapping Plugin in your Multisite to map the domain to your subsite

If your account for dreamshedtheatre.co.uk have a dedicated IP, you can simply make shalalalalee.co.uk point to the same IP address (no need to park the domain on your hosting control panel in this case).