Appearance
Troubleshooting the WordPress Plugin
Start with Settings → show.fm → Connection. It shows the site's status, its key and when the site last checked for new episodes. Most problems show up there, with a button that fixes them.
Blocks keep playing public episodes whatever the connection's status. Only posting new episodes, scheduled episodes in the editor and Migrate need a working connection.
Connection statuses
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Connected | New episodes are posted here. show.fm tells the site straight away when an episode changes. | Nothing. |
| Scheduled checks | show.fm can't reach the site, so it checks for changes every 15 minutes instead. New posts can take up to 15 minutes. | See show.fm can't reach your site. |
| Expires in a number of days | The site key ends soon. After that date, new episodes stop being posted. | Click Reconnect before then. |
| Expired | The site key ended, so checks stopped. | Click Reconnect to get a new key. |
| Disconnected | show.fm disconnected the site. This happens when the account password changes or the site is removed in show.fm. | Click Reconnect. |
| Needs reconnecting | The site's security keys (the salts in wp-config.php) changed, so the saved connection can't be used any more. | Click Reconnect. |
| Auto-posting paused | The show's plan doesn't include connected sites. Embeds still work. | Click Check your plan, and upgrade in show.fm. |
Reconnect takes you through the same steps as connecting. See Connect a WordPress Site.
Admin notices
The plugin shows at most one notice at a time, on the Dashboard, the Plugins screen and its own settings, and only to administrators. Each has one button that fixes the problem, and you can dismiss it.
| Notice | What to do |
|---|---|
| Your show.fm connection expires in a number of days | Click Reconnect. You see it 30 days and 7 days before the key ends. |
| show.fm disconnected this site, for example because the account password changed. | Click Reconnect. |
| Auto-posting is paused. The show's plan doesn't include connected sites, so new episodes aren't posted here. | Click Check your plan. |
| New episodes aren't being posted here because the chosen post type isn't available. | Click Check the Publishing settings and choose another Post type. |
| New episodes aren't being posted here because the chosen author can't publish posts. | Click Check the Publishing settings and choose another Author. |
| New episodes aren't being posted here because show.fm sent changes the plugin couldn't read. It keeps trying. | Click See what to fix, which opens WordPress's Site Health screen. Update the plugin if an update is waiting. If it carries on, contact support. |
After you save the Publishing tab, the plugin tries the waiting episodes again straight away.
Problems connecting
If connecting fails, the Connection tab says Couldn't connect to show.fm. with the reason and Try again. The common reasons:
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| show.fm could not confirm that this site belongs to you | Check that the site is public, uses https and has the plugin active. See the site check. |
| The connection request expired or was already used | Click Connect to show.fm again. Each request works once, for a short time. |
| This site's address must use https | Switch the site to https, then connect again. |
| show.fm could not be reached | Wait a few minutes, then try again. |
| The connection could not be saved. Your server needs the PHP sodium extension, or WordPress 6.6 or later | Ask your host to enable PHP's sodium extension, or update WordPress. |
| Connected, but this site could not report in to show.fm yet | Nothing. The site is connected, and tries again by itself. |
The messages you might see in show.fm while you approve the connection are in Connect a WordPress Site.
show.fm can't reach your site
show.fm contacts your site when you connect, and each time an episode changes. If it can't, connecting fails, or the site falls back to Scheduled checks. Check that:
- the site is public, not in maintenance mode or behind a login;
- a security plugin or firewall isn't blocking show.fm's requests to your site's REST API (the addresses under
/wp-json/); - the WordPress Address and Site Address under Settings → General match the address you use, so show.fm isn't redirected.
New episodes aren't appearing
- Check the Connection tab's status (above).
- Check Post new episodes automatically is on in the Publishing tab.
- Check the episode in show.fm: on its Publish tab, the Publishing card says whether this site is posting it. See Post Episodes to WordPress.
- Look at Recent activity on the Publishing tab for what the sync did.
- If the status is Scheduled checks, wait up to 15 minutes. To check now from the command line, run
wp showfm sync.
A player shows old episode details
Players and lists use a copy of show.fm's data that the plugin keeps on your site. When a page with a block is viewed and its copy is more than 15 minutes old, the plugin refreshes it in the background within a couple of minutes. If a change you made in show.fm still hasn't appeared after that, clear the copy from the command line with wp showfm cache flush. See Clear the cache.
Messages in the block editor
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| We couldn't find that show or episode. | Check the show's address, or choose another episode. |
| Goes live on a date | A scheduled episode. Visitors see nothing until then. |
| This episode isn't public yet. | The episode isn't published. On a connected site, people who can publish posts see it as scheduled instead. |
| No longer available on show.fm. | The episode was unpublished or deleted. |
| Archived in show.fm. | The episode is archived. |
| Paused because of the show's plan. | show.fm isn't serving this show's episodes right now, for example because of its plan. On a connected site, Go to billing opens show.fm. |
| This show is hosted outside show.fm, so it can't be embedded here. | The show's audio is hosted elsewhere. |
| Couldn't reach show.fm. Showing the last saved copy. | show.fm didn't answer. Visitors see the last copy the plugin saved. |
| show.fm is busy right now. Showing the last saved copy. | Too many requests in a short time. Wait a moment. |
| There's no transcript for this episode yet | The episode has no transcript on show.fm. |
| This site needs reconnecting to show.fm, so only public episodes are listed. | Reconnect the site to see scheduled episodes again. |
Migrate
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| No Migrate tab | Connect the site first. The tab appears once the site is connected. |
| Another administrator's name, with their progress | Only one administrator can migrate at a time. Wait for them to finish. |
| A player under No match | The episode isn't on your connected shows. Import it into show.fm, then click Scan again. |
| A post under Check by hand | The plugin couldn't read that post safely. Edit the player by hand, or split a very long post, then scan again. |
| A post under Not changed after a swap | The reason is on the row. Often someone edited the post during the swap. Scan again and swap again. |
| Something went wrong. Your progress is saved. Try again. | Click Try again. Nothing is lost. |
Disconnect the site
See Disconnect your site.
Uninstall the plugin
Deactivate and delete the plugin from Plugins. Deleting it removes the plugin's settings, its saved copies of shows and episodes, its scheduled tasks and its own details on posts. Your posts and media stay.
Uninstalling doesn't cancel the site's key. Disconnect first, or disconnect the site afterwards in Connected Sites.