[Support request] Issue with elements and JPG images not loading after domain pointing

[Justin]

Hey, I just pointed my domain to my new GP site (hosting with siteground).

I had the below dialogue, and thought I should mention it to your support team. Something was blocking the element hooks and jpg’s from loading correctly, and siteground think it is a GP issue. Below is my conversation with one of their technicians who fixed the issue:

Hey, I just switched my nameservers of humanhealth.je to siteground. I am unable to log in. And my site appears broken on other browsers- images arent displaying and CSS styling isn’t loading

Antonia Nikolova

Jul 8, 2022 18:09

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us.

I reviewed your case and before applying any changes I obtained a backup of the website’s database:

baseos | u1459-inmqk8ziaqir@siteground157.com:~/www/humanhealth.je$ ll *.sql
-rw-r–r– 1 u1459-inmqk8ziaqir u1459-inmqk8ziaqir 5150046 Jul 8 09:54 dbcwqrwaeolhg6-2022-07-08-ce4a5ec.sql

I then flushed the WordPress application cache and the SiteGround Optimizer cache, but the issue remained.

There were 5 leftover references to the temporary domain name in the database which I replaced:

baseos | u1459-inmqk8ziaqir@siteground157.com:~/www/humanhealth.je/public_html$ wp search-replace ‘justinf26.sg-host.com’ ‘humanhealth.je’ –all-tables –precise –recurse-objects
Success: Made 5 replacements.

I flushed the 2 levels of cache I mentioned previously again, but the in browser console I could still see the following errors coming up: https://snipboard.io/7rNygG.jpg

Due to the above, I searched for any references to the temporary domain name in any website files and I found a few:

baseos | u1459-inmqk8ziaqir@siteground157.com:~/www/humanhealth.je/public_html$ grep -Ril ‘justinf26.sg-host.com’ *
php_errorlog
wp-content/uploads/generateblocks/style-95.css
wp-content/uploads/generateblocks/style-392.css
wp-content/uploads/generateblocks/style-8.css
wp-content/uploads/generateblocks/style-376.css
wp-content/uploads/generateblocks/style-384.css

I created a backup of the generateblocks directory which can be found here: ~/www/humanhealth.je/public_html/wp-content/uploads/4266730-generateblocks-tar.gz

After that I replaced the temporary domain name with the new one:

baseos | u1459-inmqk8ziaqir@siteground157.com:~/www/humanhealth.je/public_html/wp-content/uploads/generateblocks$ for file in $(grep -Ril ‘justinf26.sg-host.com’ *); do replace ‘justinf26.sg-host.com’ ‘humanhealth.je’ — $file; done
style-384.css converted
style-392.css converted
style-8.css converted
style-95.css converted
style-376.css converted

I cleaned the cache and the images appear to be loading now and I no longer see any errors in the browser console: https://prnt.sc/CO3jMisGYmfB

Please, bear in mind that the above operations were done as a one time exception on my end as they usually fall outside of the scope of our support.

If you still spot issues with the website layout and you’re seeing them even after clearing your browser cache:

https://www.siteground.com/kb/how_to_clear_cache_in_firefox_internetexplorer_safari_opera/

We can only recommend reviewing the setup of your application further in order to potentially locate the reason why there are still issues with it.

Best Regards,

Antonia Nikolova
Technical Support Team
JF
Justin Faulkner

Jul 8, 2022 18:21

Hey, thanks for this.

Images are now loading correctly. But, the footer, header buttons and banner above the header are breaking.

These are created with element hooks. And only break on the home page. What steps should I be taking to fix the issues?

It is odd how these errors only appeared after pointing my domain. They worked fine on the temp domain. Is there anything going on in the DNS?

What can I do to resolve the issue?

Antonia Nikolova

Jul 8, 2022 18:50

Thank you for confirming the images are loading properly.

As for the elements of the website which are not loading properly, I noticed this section on the home page was loading in a broken manner compared to the rest: [url] https://prnt.sc/UXrI2ZcSLM4l%5B/url%5D

I found this article here: https://docs.generateblocks.com/article/unstyled-content/ and went to your WordPress Dashboard >> GenerateeBlocks >> Settings >> pressed Regenerate CSS files.

Before doing the above, just in case I created an instant backup called TID4266730 which can be found in Site Tools >> Security >> Backups

You can restore from it if needed or leave it there and it will get removed in 30 days from now. You can also delete it to free up the backup slot.

With the above said, once more the above troubleshooting and applied change was made as a one time personal exception.

Please note that our Technical Support Team is trained to assist with hosting related issues only. Unfortunately, we do not specialize in issues related to a particular software, theme or a plugin or with website/database optimization and fine-tuning or SEO optimization.

Issues related to the website design, in general, fall outside of the scope of our support especially given how many different types of plugins/themes there are and how different their setup may be. Some, for example, hard-code the domain name in their files and a manual replacing may be needed. In some situations specific caching layers may prevent the website from showing up properly, however, debugging this specifically as well is not something we generally offer assistance with.

If you still spot issues with the website, you may consider reaching out to the support team of the plugin/theme with which the specific layout on the website was added or contact a professional developer for further assistance.

Best Regards,

Antonia Nikolova
Technical Support Team
JF
Justin Faulkner

Jul 8, 2022 19:00

Hey Antonia,

Thanks for this. It is odd how this occurred after the domiain change?

Thank you so much for all of your help with this – I dont know what I would have done.

Is this something I should raise with Generate Press – the theme’s support?

I have to access the site through Safari at the moment. At the moment Chrome displays the old squarespace site. I have cleared the cache, but assume it just needs some time to register the change.

Thanks again

Justin

Antonia Nikolova

Jul 8, 2022 19:08

You are most welcome.

As Generate Press is a 3rd party service, we cannot give a detailed answer in regards to the reason why this issue occurred.

I have suspicions that it was a caused by a combination of the following feature being used: https://docs.generateblocks.com/article/unstyled-content/ and the fact that the images, for instance, were saved in the CSS files in the following manner:

background-image:url(https://humanhealth.je/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Chiropractor-Jersey.jpg);

As you can see the domain name is mentioned.

The temporary domain name used to be there instead.

When you change the primary domain name we perform a change in the database, however, the standard wp-cli command is used to replace any http(s)://$old_domain.com references with the new one:

However, certain plugins/themes may have a feature which saves the original domain name URL in a specific file or files in a specific folder. Given the fact that there are many themes/plugins out there each having their own individual setup and directory or even directories where they may have saved this information, it is close to impossible to automate a process which can address all of these hypothetical scenarios.

Due to the above, if such a thing occurs the references would need to be replaced manually.

Still, in order to get a detailed and more accurate answer, if you would prefer, you may raise this with the support team of Generate Press.

As for your not being able to see the website being loaded from our servers, if you recently pointed the domain name to us, that is normal as there is ongoing propagation: https://www.siteground.com/kb/what_is_dns_propagation_and_why_it_takes_so_long/

Best Regards,

Antonia Nikolova
Technical Support Team

[David]

Hi there,

there were 2 issues by the looks of this.

1. The Background Images added to Container Blocks of the GenerateBlocks plugin. Those image URLs are saved in the CSS.

2. The styling of certain elements built with GenerateBlocks.

Both of which should have been repaired by regenerating the CSS in the GB Settings.

There isn’t much more we can do to stop this from happening when a domain transfer happens.
Ill see if we can get some docs written on the matter.

[Justin]

Thanks David,

So in future, to avoid this, all I need to do is regenerate the CSS after pointing a domain to the new site?

[David]

Yeah, as long as the new domain is in the WordPress Settings > General, then regenerating the CSS will update the URLs in the CSS.

[Justin]

Hey, I have this same issue on another site.

How do I regenerate the CSS as David mentions above? I have this same issue happening on another site and I haven’t changed the domain yet from the siteground temp domain.

Is this something I will have to do as standard every time I build a site?

Thanks for your help

[Fernando]

If your site is new, you shouldn’t need to do this. I believe the issue occurred for this user because of a domain transfer.

You can regenerate CSS files through GenerateBlocks > Settings in your admin dashboard.

Hope this clarifies!

[Justin]

Thanks Fernando. It is odd because this is happening on a new site that I haven’t added a new domain to. Just using the temp siteground domain.

I purged the cache, regenerated CSS and templates. This fixed the problem on some pages not all.

You can see the problem on this page: http://justinf24.sg-host.com/faulkner-fisheries/
It should have this same formatting: http://justinf24.sg-host.com/ewell/

To achieve consistency on the site, I am setting up global styles, then creating page patterns and starting each page with my defined global pattern.

Any idea what is causing this to happen on both sites I have started in the last few weeks?

The other site has since been fixed – just that the issue is now showing on my site

[Fernando]

Seems like a caching issue. To test, I added ?nocache to the url, and the issue was resolved: https://share.getcloudapp.com/Jruom6d9

You can test this out as well.

Check if you have CDN or server side cache(hosting provider): https://share.getcloudapp.com/KoujNwx4

If you have caching plugins, try disabling them to test as well.

Kindly let us know how it goes.

[Justin]

Thanks Fernando. I use the siteground optimiser, and I had one cache tickbox unchecked:
‘When clearing the cache – purge the WordPress API cache too.’
I then purged my cache again and this fixed the issue.

Is siteground optimiser the best caching/optimisation plugin to use alongside genpress? Or do you recommend any others like wprocked, flyingpress, autoptimise?
Thank you for your help.

[Fernando]

We recommend Autoptimize: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/configuring-autoptimize/

Personally, I find WP Rocket good as well.

I haven’t tried SG Optimizer so I can’t tell. Most caching plugins should be good though if setup correctly.

Most caching plugin are the same in terms of functionalities. They often vary only in layout.

I find a setting which often cause issues are any form of combination of JS/CSS files.

It might be good to ask for suggestions in our GP Community as well: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1113359788719597

Hope this clarifies!

[Author]

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