[Support request] Wordfence is destroying my site

[steven]

Melodramatic title, I know.

But it is responsible for producing tons of these files..Which are now being crawled by Google, taking up my crawl budget and doing God knows what damage to my SEO.

<img src="<img src=”https://i.ibb.co/fGpfMQS/wordfence-stink.jpg&#8221; alt=”wordfence-stink” border=”0″ />” alt=”Files” />

https://www.stevejabba.com/?wordfence_lh=1&hid=2C7A168C17C97B8130A79166C32C0599
https://www.stevejabba.com/?wordfence_lh=1&hid=A64A16A2E5BB00BEFBBA34938D9DC1B1

The problem is that every time I try to deactivate Wordfence it sends my site offline in a most alarming way. I then have to reinstall the stupid thing and away we go again.

I contacted their support. They gave me a massive long list of things I need to do :

Remove extended protection manually (https://www.wordfence.com/help/firewall/optimizing-the-firewall/#removing-the-optimization)
Remove the wordfence plugin folder located in wp-content/plugins
Remove the wflogs folder located in wp-content
Remove wordfence-waf.php located in the root of you WordPress installation
Remove all Wordfence related database tables from the database, using for example phpMyAdmin or Wordfence Assistant plugin.
Check either .htaccess file or .user.ini depending on your server configuration and remove any code snippets wrapped by # Wordfence WAF and # END Wordfence WAF.

I am not a technical person. I asked for clarification of “Remove all Wordfence related database tables from the database, using for example phpMyAdmin or Wordfence Assistant plugin.”

I am awaiting a reply.

My question is, do you know of an easier way to just get rid of this plugin, or failing that, stop it from producing these endless garbage files that are destroying my carefully worked-out SEO strategy?

[David]

Hi there,

maybe this article will help stop WordFenced from generating those empty urls ?

https://matttutt.me/how-to-stop-wordfence-creating-urls-and-bloating-your-website/

[steven]

Well I gingerly approached my laptop, eyes widening in fear, testicles retracting towards my stomach and a noticeable loosening around my bowels…..

With trepidation I keyed in the line of code to wp-config.php and…

SUCCESS! The site REMAINS FUNCTIONAL!

I will revert back to you and let you know if it stopped producing these garbage files…

Meanwhile I cussed out Wordfence support, because really a humble average internet user like me shouldn’t have to go to such elaborate lengths to clean up after their stupid mistakes..

Thanks so much!

[David]

Haha – awesome, glad to hear that worked!

[steven]

I have an unfortunate update to this.

1: The instructions to stop wordfence producing the erroneous crawlable files did not work.

https://matttutt.me/how-to-stop-wordfence-creating-urls-and-bloating-your-website/

It kept doing it. I’ve given it some time as you can see and it is still producing the empty pages which Google is crawling.

2: I therefore asked my support at namecheap for advice. They just tried to remove the plugin manually following the advice and instructions from wordfence themselves.

It destroyed my site once again.

3: I am now at a complete loss.
I cannot stop wordfence producing these files.
I cannot remove the plugin because it destroys my site, even when I follow their instructions.

I don’t like it. I can see lots of problems further down the line. I just want this plugin off my site.

Is there anything you can do to help?

[steven]

So I just installed Wordfence on another site I own – same theme, everything.

I deactivated ALL plugins beforehand.

Then unistalled wordfence – site worked fine.

I then deleted all directories and tables using PHP My admin – site is still OK.

Should I deactivate all plugins on the main site, and then repeat this process do you think?

[David]

I can’t really advise on much else.
Uninstalling WordFence should not break a site, so something has to be up with the install.
Have you spoken again with WordFence ? I would thought it be in there best interest to help find the issue

[steven]

I have logged another call on their support forum. They take a long time to reply, if at all.

[David]

I hope someone gets back to you soon!

[steven]

OK, I removed Wordfence myself manually, including poking around and deleting tables using PHP My Admin. This was per their instructions.

Now I have tried to set it up again and it appears to be functioning. But occasionally there is a fatal error..Or the site won’t load at all – just a blank screen.

It’s very difficult to work out what on earth is happening, and I am not a tech guru.

It seems to break the site if I install caching plugins or my table of contents and table plugins.

So far the following plugins are enabled :

Forget About Shortcode Buttons
GP Premium
Imagify
Redirection
WPForms Lite
XML Sitemaps

First, are there any known problems with the plugins above?
Second, are there any recommended caching plugins that work well with generate press?
Also table of contents plugins and display table plugins.

I don’t actually know why the site keeps crashing now, but I don’t want to install wordfence again to fix it. Is there anything I can do to clean up the site to a “base” level so that it runs stably going forward?

Thanks for your help so far.

[steven]

Here’s what happens intermittently:

https://ibb.co/9gLvKL6

[David]

I haven’t heard of ‘Forget About Shortcode Buttons’ but the others are all commonly used plugins. Generally any plugin that breaks sites is gonna be flagged on their suppport forums. So i don’t believe they would be your issue.

If a critical error has occurred then your host should be able to help debug the error which may give you some pointers on what needs fixing..

[steven]

OK this kept happening – critical errors etc

I now have the same amount of plugins activated BUT they pointed out the permissions on files and folders on my server in public_html and other folders were wrong

They should be 0755 or 0644

I changed them and (fingers crossed) no more critical errors since, either within wp-admin, when looking at plugins page, or when just browsing the site as a memeber of the public.

There is still a very weird problem which I will raise tomorrow – it’s got something to do with the theme I think – but this is one for your knowledge banks!

God knows how the permissions got all screwed up (see this link – they’re a mess)

[David]

We’ll look out for your other topic

[Author]

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