XML Parsing error with RSS Feeds? Disable Feedburner Feedsmith

For those of you suffering from the following XML parsing error when trying to access your RSS feed and you use the Feedburner Feedsmith plugin, I may have stumbled upon the solution:

XML Parsing Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity
Location: https://www.yourblogURLhere.com/feed/
Line Number 2, Column 1:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
^

After trying many upon MANY of the solutions posted all over the internet, I had nearly given up. However, I did manage to fix it using a combination of two solutions. I’m not sure if it was a combo of both or just the second step that fixed it but doing step 1 and then step 2 can’t hurt!

Step 1: Download and install this fix (i used the PHP method): https://wejn.org/stuff/wejnswpwhitespacefix.php.html

Step 2: Disable Feedburner Feedsmith

Step 3: Clear your cache and try accessing your feed again.

I don’t know if Feedsmith was causing the problem or it was a combo of both, but this solution has worked for me. My guess is if you are running Feedsmith or any other RSS plugin that works like Feedsmith this will be a solution for you. Every time I re-activate the Feedsmith plugin the Feed breaks again.

Hope this helps.