Wordfence broken, won't allow updates to Options

Do you have any custom rules in your .htaccess file? If anything is blocking /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php, some parts of Wordfence (and other plugins) won’t work.

You could also try turning on the “Disable config caching” option on the Wordfence Options page. That usually fixes the inability to save options. If that works, it could have been caused by settings that your host changed.

There are also some troubleshooting steps here that you can check that can prevent scans from starting:
https://docs.wordfence.com/en/My_scans_aren%27t_starting._What_would_cause_that%3F

I tried “Disable config caching,” but it won’t work because Options is not saving. (Indeed, you have a Catch-22 right there on the Options page, because next to “Disable config caching” you say, in parentheses, “Try this if your options aren’t saving,” but if Options are not saving, as mine aren’t, then you cannot try this. See the problem?

Nothing in my .htaccess file specifically blocking Ajax. Nothing has changed on my end since WF stopped working, and it’s not likely due to changes by my web host because WF still works fine on two other sites I have with the same host.

Regarding the troubleshooting page you sent:

The first item, “Try enabling the option at the bottom of the Wordfence ‘options’ page titled ‘Start all scans remotely,'” doesn’t work because, again, I can’t save any changes to the Options page.

My site’s WordPress AJAX handler is working — I checked https://www.example.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with my site and I saw the blank page with a “0” at the top left.

Nothing else on that page is applicable. I’m not getting any error messages, WF just stopped doing anything and I can’t save changes to the Options page. And like I said, I tried throwing everything out, including all the “wp_wf…” tables in the database, and starting all over with a fresh installation, and still this problem persists.

Since the “disable config caching” option didn’t help, the option cache probably isn’t related then. It does normally work even when options won’t save, because Wordfence sees that you submitted that option before it tries to use its cache.

When you try to save the options, do you get a red box in the lower-right corner of the page saying “Wordfence is working”? And a spinner to the right of the “Save Changes” button? Or does nothing happen at all?

Are the two other sites on the same server as the one that isn’t working, or just at the same hosting company?

Also, do you know how to find your site’s “error_log” file? The location can vary at different hosting companies, but sometimes you can find it in your site root, and possibly another one in wp-admin. Since this is an unusual issue, those might help, but some hosts disable them.

Thanks for the clarification. No red box, no spinner — nothing happens at all. I believe the other 2 sites are on the same server, since in the past when the server has gone down all 3 sites have gone down, but I’m not positive they are on the same server.

Thanks for the error log file tip. I found it and it does have a number of “client denied by server configuration” errors for Wordfence, Jetpack and some other plugins. I’ll contact my host and have them look into it.

Ok, great! If the host cannot help, since the red box doesn’t even appear, there might also be a browser issue or theme conflict, since you already tried disabling all other plugins.

In most browsers on PCs, you can press “F12” on your keyboard to open some tools, and click the “Console” to view javascript errors. Another method is shown here, if you need it:
https://docs.wordfence.com/en/You_guys_wanted_me_to_open_the_JavaScript_console_-_How_do_I_do_that%3F

Errors from themes/plugins that appear in the console can stop Wordfence’s javascript from working.

Also, if you use any browser extensions like “noscript”, you might have to whitelist your site. Usually I’d expect the other sits to be affected too, unless you had whitelisted them for other reasons previously.

Hi Matt,

The engineer at my web host solved the problem, which I will relate here both for your benefit and for anybody searching this problem in the future. I had previously tried Bulletproof Security a few months ago before going with Wordfence, but I didn’t like it and found it too invasive. I uninstalled BS and thought all traces had been removed, but apparently it had left a custom .htaccess file in the plugins folder that I never knew was there, and rules contained within this .htaccess file were denying access to WordPress to modify some of its own files. Removing this file fixed the problem! Interestingly, Wordfence worked fine for several months with the BS .htaccess file in the plugins folder, so perhaps the 6.0.12 version of Wordfence that came out the other day was different in some way that allowed that BS .htaccess file to break it.

Thanks for all your help in figuring out the problem! Cheers.

Great, thank you for posting the follow-up as well!

Hi Matt-
I just upgraded to Premium and the red box in lower right says, Wordfence is working and then say my changes have been saved but they are not in fact saving.

I’m interested in the solution above, is that something the host has to do for us? But because mine says that it’s working, maybe this needs a different solution?
Thanks, looks like a big step of from regular Wordfence, cheers!

@paulaartist:

If you haven’t already, please open a support request with the account that you set up when you purchased your license, here:
https://support.wordfence.com/

We can only provide support for free version in this forum, per the www.remarpro.com forum rules, but we can certainly help with this issue. Thanks!

-Matt R

Hi Matt
I’ve got exactly this issue! however cant seem to find where to open a new thread on the forum.
I installed wordfence earlier this week(Monday) as someone noticed a problem with my website. It seemed to work great and I ran several scans. I did the “Disable config caching” option as I had the “stored data not found after a fork. Got type: Boolean” problem and everything seemd OK. Tuesday and today (wed) I cannot click on any button! I can try changing the options such as scan remotely, however the save button does not work. I also tested the ‘send email to ‘ and that is the same.

Please can you advise me what to do?
thanks
Chris