RSS Feeds Keeps Breaking

  • Resolved lestado

    (@lestado)


    5 years, 5 months ago

    Ever since September my RSS feeds are broken! I have disabled all plugins and tried multiple themes, nothing fixing it. I’ve tried tutorials on fixing wordpress rss I’ve tried plugins I’ve tried examining the code manually and can’t figure it out!

    This is what my problem looks like: <head/>
    This <head/> tag keeps getting added to the feed and it breaks my aggregation plugin on another server because it can no longer validate my feed. This problem first appeared when WordPress updated to 5.2.3; my feeds worked fine before that.

    To top it off, if I look at the feed source without the validator, the damn <head/> tag isn’t even there! What the hell is going on?

    My feed’s source code

    A screenshot of my feed in RSS validator.

    When I change my theme the <head/> tag problem temporarily goes away but reappears when there are literally no plugins activated so I have no clue what is doing this. That stupid little <head/> tag is ruining my entire setup and has been a thorn in my side for months now.

    • This topic was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by lestado. Reason: Wasn't enough info
    • This topic was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by lestado. Reason: Added more details
    • This topic was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by lestado.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • I grabbed an RSS feed and it was fine then I ran the feed thru the validator and it broke.

    Try turning off Cloudflare for a test or two. Just gray out the ‘cloud’ in the DNS settings page.

    It’s possible you have a plugin running that might be doing that also. I think Tiny MCE used to change some of the HTML tests but I thought that only happened during editing content and that might have been Tiny MCE Advanced instead. The editor shouldn’t affect the RSS feeds.

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by JNashHawkins.
    Thread Starter lestado

    (@lestado)

    Yea, I renamed the plugin folder and left them all off. Problem remained. I also have changed themes multiple times and checked my feeds-rss2.php file.

    Right now I set cloudflare to bypass cache so I can try the validator as you recommended. Just ran a test and it’s the same result. I’m completely stumped. If you look at the source code for the feed manually that <head/> tag is NEVER there! It’s as if it appears only when you use validators on the feed.

    I feel like I should add: I have 5 other wordpress sites and all of their feeds are fine. I’ve even rebuilt this server with different sets of plugins and themes several times to try to eliminate the problem and it reappears every time. This is beyond frustrating. I feel like someone is SQL injecting me and causing this.

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by lestado.

    It makes me wonder, too.

    I’m seeing your Cloudflare proxy again.

    I do see where W3 Total Cache served it up – minified even. I wonder if that’s possibly causing that.

    Could you flush all the caches and shut down W3 for a bit or ask Frederick at W3 if he thinks I’m on the right trail here?

    Thread Starter lestado

    (@lestado)

    So: in case anyone else has this issue…

    I renamed the plugins folder again and re-enabled each plugin individually, testing the feed validator every time. This time I found the culprit. Its W3 Total Cache. I’m guessing something in the 5.2.3 update broke it. Switched to WP Fastest Cache and everything is fine now. Maybe this will save someone else the tedious process I had to go through.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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