Per your request, opening a ticket about this matter. Please keep in mind to work on the staging site and not the live one.
A new issue that AICF staff found is that they can't remove featured images from Artists. It's even worse in Events, Posts and Newsletters where you can't even see a featured image in the backend (see screenshot). On staging, this issue is present as well with ONLY Toolset+WPML activated, as well as with Toolset as the only set of plugins activated. It would be impossible to test without Toolset on as Types is what generates some the CPTs.
I still suspect there's a connection to Access as well.
A new issue that AICF staff found is that they can't remove featured images from Artists.
I just created an account as a "Staff" User, then deactivated all plugins except Toolset and WPML. I was able to remove featured images without any problems in wp-admin. In many cases I see the existing featured image is throwing 404, which I assume is a side effect of using the staging environment? This makes it look like the featured image is empty, which can be confusing. Here are the Artists and Featured Images I removed.
Artist: hidden link
Featured Image, was 404: hidden link
I clicked "Remove featured image", then "Update" to save the Artist. The featured image no longer appears.
Artist: hidden link
Featured Image: hidden link
I clicked "Remove featured image", then "Update" to save the Artist. The featured image no longer appears.
Then I added a featured image back to Artist 54054 as a test. This process is very slow on your staging site, and seems to stall on the front-end when the Media Library disappears. This is because so many Media items are throwing a 404 that the browser is stuck trying to download all of them before the Featured Image appears in the post editor. Eventually, it does happen, and the featured image can be seen. But I can see how this process looks like it's failing if your Users do not wait for all the failed Media Library image 404s. See the screenshot attached "media-404.png" - I obfuscated the content and URL names for privacy but you can get the idea.
It's even worse in Events, Posts and Newsletters where you can't even see a featured image in the backend (see screenshot).
I'm logged in as a Staff User and I'm able to see the Featured image for Events and Posts in the backend. See the screenshot below event-feature-image.png.
I don't see Newsletters because I guess I have disabled whatever plugin is responsible for that post type. Is it possible your Users do not have the Featured Image panel active in wp-admin? In the post editor screen, scroll to the top of the page. In the top right corner, click the tab "Screen Options". Make sure Featured Image is checked here.
So I need more information to replicate this. Is a different User role involved in these problems? Are your staff members using a CRED form or forms to edit these posts?
The problem is with all relevant level users: developer, senior staff and staff.
AICF staff all have the featured image metabox turned on, that's not the problem. The issue now seems that after removing an image and hitting update, they are unable to re-insert an image. They click on set featured image, choose an image and insert it, but then end up getting an empty box (see attached screenshot). Anyway it seems inconsistent, most likely related to all these 404s coming up. Knowing about of all these 404s makes it certain that there's something wrong with how this CPT, why is this happening
Here's another interesting thing that happens. I tried to deactivate Access, still worked the same. However, if I deactivate all of WPML, the backend page won't load and will generate a 500 error message.
I'm also realizing another bug in this CPT. The title field (artist name) in Artists is non-editable, both for new and existing artists. Both on live and our staging. I will open a separate ticket for this one.
Sidenote: Regarding Newsletters don't worry about it, you said you were logged in as staff and they are not allowed into Newsletters.
They click on set featured image, choose an image and insert it, but then end up getting an empty box (see attached screenshot).
I can't see the screenshot but I am confident this is because so many images in the Media Library are 404. Here is what I think happens, step by step:
- User clicks "set featured image" in post editor
- Media Library appears, thumbnails of each image begin loading. This is the slow part, because a large number of these thumbnails are 404. The browser queues them all up to be loaded.
- User selects an existing thumbnail or uploads a new featured image in the other tab, then sets that image as the post's featured image.
- Media Library dialog disappears.
- Now the User still sees "Set featured image" in the featured image panel, and the image they selected does not appear immediately.
- There is no status indicator to show that the browser is still trying to download images, so it appears that nothing is happening and the new featured image was not set.
- Eventually the new featured image will appear in place on the post editor screen once other image 404s resolve. I have tested this several times and I'm seeing similar behavior. It looks like the featured image was not inserted, but if I wait until the other image 404s are resolved, the featured image appears as expected.
The question is - why are these 404s happening? Here is an example of an image that exists in production but not in staging: hidden link - 404 error hidden link - 200 OK
Does this mean the images were not copied down to staging correctly, or does this mean some process is deleting images on staging?
Does this mean the images were not copied down to staging correctly, or does this mean some process is deleting images on staging?
That's a good question. I am not able to tell myself, so I'm forwarding this question to Flywheel. At the same time, here's another interesting thing. This is happening much more in staging, but almost every media item is doubled (see screenshot). Happens on staging for sure, and perhaps to a lesser degree on live (though hard for me to confirm). I directed this question at Flywheel as well, though if you have any insight, let me know.
Oh, another thing: regarding the 404s, you said that some items exist in live but not staging. But are you experiencing a bunch of 404s popping up on the live site as well?
This is happening much more in staging, but almost every media item is doubled (see screenshot).
This is most likely because WPML Media is currently disabled on staging.
But are you experiencing a bunch of 404s popping up on the live site as well?
No, but I'm not using the live site very much. I copied a handful of 404 URLs from staging and loaded them on production, but I did not investigate other images on production.
Perhaps during testing it has been turned on or off since I checked. Let me attach two screenshots showing the difference between WPML Media active and inactive, while logged in as Developer, looking at the Media Library with the "English" language selected in the admin bar. You can see with WPML inactive several images are duplicated. With WPML active, those duplicates do not appear. Can you attach screenshots showing the problem in wp-admin, along with specific steps to reproduce the problem, including language selection, user role, etc.?
There's nothing new I can add. You're able to reproduce the issue(s). This cluster of issues obviously stems from a combination of both of your company's plugins, Toolset and WPML, since they are the only ones that are activated. I don't know what causes all of this, but I cannot troubleshoot this myself. This is why I turn to you, and gave you access to a staging site in order to reproduce the issue so you can find the fix. You support both these plugins so the answer must lie there.
I just don't know what to say beyond this other that than I need a fix for all these issues promptly, and my client has lost their patience at me a long time ago. I'm being pushed around to find a solution which only you (=Toolset support) can provide, for this and all other open issues.
There's nothing new I can add. You're able to reproduce the issue(s).
Great, please close this ticket. Neither of us is able to reproduce an issue where featured images cannot be deleted. Therefore this ticket should be closed, and we will continue with the other tickets.
1. To confirm: the 404's are appearing AFTER selecting a featured image to add, right?
2. On the live site, are you still seeing 403's? I asked Flywheel to take a look too and they said they didn't see anything.
3. Flywheel asked if they can reset the staging site. Is that ok? Maybe that'll help us look at things better. Let me know.
3. Flywheel asked if they can reset the staging site. Is that ok? Maybe that'll help us look at things better. Let me know.
Yes I think this is a great idea, since staging and the live site are now quite out of sync. We can validate again after the staging site is synced with production.
1. Flywheel have reset the staging site.
2. They did their own investigation and strongly believe the issue comes from the Types plugin. They also weren't able to find anything in their server configuration that could cause this issue.