Find and fix a plugin or theme conflict

A plugin conflict happens when two plugins, or a plugin and a theme, each work correctly on their own and produce an error only when both are active. This guide shows you how to confirm which pair is involved and what to send their developers.

Installing plugins is available on all WordPress.com paid plans: Personal, Premium, Business, and Commerce plans. For free sites, upgrade your plan to install plugins.

A plugin conflict is an error that appears only when two plugins are active at the same time. Each plugin works correctly by itself, so deactivating either one fixes your site.

That is what separates a conflict from a single plugin failing. A plugin that is at fault on its own produces the error on its own. When two plugins conflict, whichever one you deactivate first looks like the cause, so testing each plugin by itself is the only way to tell them apart.

Confirm a conflict by testing each suspected plugin on its own before you test them together. To run this test without changing what your visitors see, create a staging site to troubleshoot errors and work through the steps there.

Follow these steps:

1. Visit your site’s dashboard and navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
2. Deactivate every plugin except Akismet and Jetpack, which are managed for you.
3. Activate the first suspected plugin on its own, then visit your site and note whether the error appears.
4. Activate the second suspected plugin as well, then visit your site and note the result again.
5. Deactivate both plugins. Activate the second plugin on its own, then visit your site and note the result a third time.

Your three results tell you what you are dealing with:

• Each plugin was fine alone, and the error appeared only with both active. The two plugins conflict with each other.
• One plugin produced the error on its own. That plugin is the cause by itself. Leave it deactivated and contact its developer.
• Neither plugin produced the error, alone or together. A different plugin is involved. Repeat the test with the next plugin on your list.

Reactivate your other plugins once you have your answer, so your site is complete again while you decide what to do.

When two plugins conflict, deactivating either one resolves the problem, so keep the plugin that is better maintained and replace the other. Check both plugins’ documentation first, because a conflict often comes from two plugins providing the same feature, and one of them may have a setting that turns that feature off. Our guide to finding and choosing the best plugins covers the signals to compare and how to pick a replacement.

A theme and a plugin can conflict in exactly the same way two plugins can. Test your theme with all plugins deactivated, so that a result points at your theme by itself rather than at your theme combined with something else.

Follow these steps:

1. Deactivate every plugin except Akismet and Jetpack.
2. Visit your site with your own theme still active, and note whether the error appears.
3. Switch to a default WordPress theme such as Twenty Twenty-Five, leaving your plugins deactivated, and note the result again.
4. Switch back to your own theme, then reactivate your plugins one at a time, checking your site after each one.

Your results tell you where your theme stands:

• The error appeared with your theme active and every plugin off. Your theme is the cause on its own. Contact the theme’s author, or change your theme.
• Your theme was fine on its own, and the error returned when you reactivated a particular plugin. Your theme and that plugin conflict. Keep your theme, and treat the plugin as you would either half of a plugin pair.
• The error appeared with the default theme and every plugin off. Neither your theme nor your plugins are the cause. Review your site’s error logs to identify the source.

Report the conflict to both developers so they can reproduce it and fix it. Send each of them the following details:

• The name and version number of their own plugin (found at Plugins → Installed Plugins).
• The name and version number of the other plugin in the conflict (found at Plugins → Installed Plugins).
• The name of your active theme (Appearance →Themes).
• Your site’s WordPress version and PHP version, which you will find in your site’s dashboard under Tools → Site Health → Info.
• The exact error message, copied in full.
• The result of your test: each plugin works on its own, and the error appears only when both are active.

That last point is the one developers most often ask for, because it rules out a fault in either plugin by itself. Our guide to getting help with plugins and themes shows you where to find each developer’s support forum or contact page.