WordPress Crash Again In Widgets, Images, Posts, and more

Some suggestions:

Can you replicate the issues with all plugins disabled AND a stock WordPress theme activated such as Twenty-Fifteen?

Have you checked the error log in cPanel, or whatever file manager your host provides?

What happens if you enable debug through wp-config.php and try and replicate the iddues?

Hi Barnez, and thank you so much for your suggestions.

1. The issues unfortunately does persist even when I disable or delete all plugins and try a stock WP theme.

2. OK so that’s something new. Yes I have cPanel, and I found something new there, different from the other logs that my host told me to look into. There’s something there, but it’s all Greek to me, so I don’t know what to make of it (which was why I asked my host to look into the issue in the first place, sigh/lol). I’ll post some excerpts (I’ve deleted the IP and URL info in these):

MAIN error_log:
[Sun Sep 13 09:04:45 2015] [error] [client (deleted) ] 220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited, , referer: https://(deleted)

and

[Sun Sep 13 09:04:47 2015] [notice] [client (deleted)] mod_rbl: (deleted)] is listed in RBL.

There are lot’s of those.

Then in
PHP error_log:
/wp-admin/error_log:
[13-Sep-2015 10:52:14 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 9439967 bytes) in /wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 1173
[13-Sep-2015 10:56:21 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 8909935 bytes) in /wp-includes/functions.php on line 295

There’s about 20 of those from today.
I’ve wondered about this before too if I am somehow using too much memory somewhere, which is why I asked my host about such issues. I still don’t know what to make of this text though.

3. The code under “Example wp-config.php for Debugging” looks interesting, because I’ve only looked at using plugins for that. But will it tell me something that I can use? Or should I post that information for others here?

Thanks again to Barnez, and also anyone else who can offer me any advice! ?? I really appreciate your help.

I would focus on the installation running out of memory. In cPanel you can look into the Resources Usage under the Logs tab and see how the memory metrics look for the last few hours –> 24 hours –> few days. If it is regularly reaching its limit then that would be a strong reason for the issues you’re experiencing.

For memory issues you can either talk to you host about increasing your available php memory or try increasing it yourself in either the php.ini, wp-config.php or .htaccess in the root directory: https://ideaboxthemes.com/increase-php-memory-limit-wordpress/

In my cPanel I only see Disk Space Usage, Bandwidth, and CPU Throttling, and none of them tells me I’m over a limit. But I guess there should be one for RAM use too? Which I don’t see there.

I modified the wp-config.php file.
First with this:
define( ‘WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ );

then with this:
define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’96M’ );

None of that worked or changed anything. I changed it back to the way it was. But now there’s a new problem too. I can’t even create a new post now or edit an old one.

I will ask my host for some help again, though I’m unlikely to get any help from them.

WordPress is such a cluttered mess.

Ask your hosts about the memory limit, and whether they can raise it. You could also try a manual update of WordPress to rule out any corrupted files from a previous update:

1. Take a full backup first (site files + database)
2. Delete all the existing WordPress related directories/files from the root, *except* the wp-content directory and wp-config.php file
3. Download a fresh version of WordPress 4.3 to your local machine
4. Upload the new WordPress files (excluding wp-content and wp-config.php) to the root of the site through your host provided file manager (e.g. cPanel) or FTP client such as Filezilla

Good luck!

You currently have a 256M memory limit which is perfect. Increasing your memory limit is not the solution because 256M is more than enough memory to run everything. If you have something that is using all your memory up then increasing your memory will only mean that more memory will be used up when the same problem occurs.

Doing a google search for "220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited"
Gives me these clues: this error is associated with an SMTP email/bulk emails not sending problem.

Doing a google search for: mod_rbl: is listed in RBL.

Real-Time Black Lists Or RBLs Explained
Realtime black lists are web site services that keep track of the domain name or ip addresses where possibly the spam emails originate from. The purpose behind the service is to allow IT Mail Administrators to query the database and block messages that are listed in there in order to block spam. There are scores of websites that offer this type of service and most of them provide the service at no cost.

There are 3 clues/symptoms that your website may be hacked – running out of memory, 220 bulk email errors and RBL errors. Some hackers hack sites so that they can be used as Spam servers to send out massive amounts of Spam emails. Scan your site with the Sucuri SiteCheck scanner.

Clarification: RBL log entries are normal, but when you also see 220 errors occurring at the same time then that is suspicious.