[Support request] CAN'T CUSTOMIZE

[Stewart]

Can’t seem to customize your theme in WordPress. Tried several times with latest version of WordPress and then with version 4.4. Neither worked. Other themes don’t always let me customize either all of a sudden. Not sure where this is coming from. I’ve installed lots of WordPress themes and I’m sure I’m doing it right. Tried on two host sites– same result. Any ideas?

Tried again and found it was the plug-ins that caused the problem. If plug-ins are enabled, the page just hangs and nothing appears. If I disable plugins like Colors, Hoooks, Import/Export, Sections, Spacing, Typography Woocommerce, I can get the customization page.

Basic WordPress themes and one or two small themes I downloaded had no problem. Ultra, a theme from Themify will freeze on customization as well.

Memory problem?

[Tom]

Definitely could be a memory issue – have you upped it in your configuration?

WP 4.4 is quite old – same issue using 4.9?

[Stewart]

I added this line at the bottom of my config.php file:

define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ );

But still can’t customize. I have a couple of WordPress installations in subfolders on that site and they all work fine with your theme and others, using the latest WordPress version.

[Tom]

Right click in the Customizer when it won’t load and click “Inspect”. Is there anything in the Console tab?

[Stewart]

Nothing loads at all when I click Customize– just a blank page.

[Tom]

And is there anything in the Console tab if you right click + Inspect?

[Stewart]

After clicking Customize from any layout, dashboard or edit view, the next screen doesn’t load. The little round loading animation doesn’t even load. There’s nothing.

[Stewart]

I added the line
error_reporting(E_ALL); ini_set(‘display_errors’, 1);
in the config.php file

When I tried to customize, I got this error:

Fatal error: Call to a member function check_capabilities() on null in /home/nscommun/public_html/new/wp-includes/class-wp-customize-control.php on line 283

This is happening with this theme and another theme, Ultra by Themify, but not WordPress built-in themes.
This is happening on two different web hosts.

[Tom]

The fact that it’s happening in two themes means there’s code outside of the theme causing the issue. It’s likely a plugin or a custom function.

Have you tried with everything deactivated?

What version of WordPress are you using?

[Stewart]

I’ve tried with no plugins installed at all. I’ve re-installed WordPress half a dozen times with new databases and new folders and old and up to date version.. I’ve used fresh copies of your theme and downloaded a new version of the plugins file. I’ve even tried another computer, a PC, instead of my old Mac in case I had a virus or something. There are no other plugins on either of the new sites I’m having trouble with. They are on different hosts. But there are active sites with your theme and a lot of plugins working fine. They’re all test sites working in sub folders.

Just tried a third option– Siteground, a new host that I’m not familiar with. Both the Ultra and Generate Press themes work there! I’ll have to take this up with the web hosts but of course they blame you.

Do you have any de-bugging ideas or do you know a good WordPress troubleshooter. The WordPress forums couldn’t be more useless.

[Tom]

If it works on one host and not the other, it definitely points to hosting issues.

My debugging tips are all here: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/debugging-tips/

[Author]

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