Common Problems with WordPress

Error: Expat or Parsing

This type of error can have different causes:

• If you just installed a plugin, it might be preventing Zapier from authenticating. Disable the plugin and try again.
• The type of permalink used on the WordPress installation is causing trouble. To change the permalink type:
  • In your WordPress site, go to Settings, then click Permalinks.
  • Click any permalink option other than "Plain" (this is the default option).
  • Click "Save Changes".

Author is the Authenticated User Rather Than Specified Author

This can happen if the authenticated user does not have an appropriate role. Please review WordPress' details on Roles and Capabilities as you will need an authenticated user who at least has an Editor role to post as other authors.

Error: 500 Internal Server Error or other trouble connecting

In order to connect to WordPress, you must have XML-RPC functionality turned on. This is turned on by default in WordPress 3.5+. If you're having issues connecting, go to Settings > Writing > Remote Publishing and check the checkbox.

You may also receive this error if your WordPress installation is secured and not publicly available. Unfortunately, the installation must be publicly accessible to work with Zapier.

Also, we're unable to provide IPs to allowlist as our IPs are not static - they rotate because we use AWS. If you'd like, you should be able to allowlist a block of IPs from AWS to make this work. You would just need to make sure the list you're allowing is the us-east-1 IP range.

AWS provides a list of their IP address ranges at https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json. You can read more about how to use those IPs here.

Additionally, Zapier's calls will always include the header User-Agent: Zapier, so this may be an alternative when allowing a whole range of IPs isn't feasible.

Error: (403) Forbidden

Jetpack Protect, an official WordPress module, might occasionally block some AWS IP addresses. You have three options to resolve this:

• Allowlist the specific IP: The error message will list the blocked IP. You can allowlist it using Jetpack Protect. See instructions for Allowlisting with Jetpack.
• Allowlist the entire AWS US-East-1 IP range for the xmlrpc.php file: You can find the AWS US-East-1 IP range and follow these instructions.
• Disable Jetpack Protect: This is not recommended for security reasons. However, you can disable it temporarily for troubleshooting. 

Additional troubleshooting

• Reconnect WordPress: Once you've chosen an option, try reconnecting your WordPress account to see if the issue is resolved.
• Firewall: If you have a firewall enabled, make sure it allows connections from Zapier as well.

Error: XML-RPC server accepts POST requests only

This error could mean that you're using the wrong Base URL in the login screen. If you're using http: try using https:. If you're using www.example.com try using it example.com.

If you continue to get this error, then it's likely because the XML-RPC is being blocked on the WordPress site. It's most likely being blocked by a plugin, the hosting provider, or a security setting. To fix, try disabling a your plugins one and a time, then try reconnecting to WordPress account to see if you can isolate the problem plugin.

If not, it might be a back-end change that needs to be made by your hosting provider or website developer. We recommend reaching out to them and asking them to update the XML-RPC settings for you. You can send them this link for more information: https://codex.wordpress.org/XML-RPC_Support

If your provider/developer wants to allowlist access to us, you can let them know that we use Amazon's AWS products for our server infrastructure, so they'll need to allowlist their IP list from the us-east-1 region. You can find that range list here: https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json . You can read more about how to use those IPs here.

Add a Custom Featured Image to your WordPress Post

In order to take an image from a previous step (like your Trigger, for example) and add it as a featured image on your post, you have to use 2 WordPress steps.

First, you use the 'Upload Media' step to add the image to your WordPress website:

Then, on your 'Create Post' step you make use of the image you just uploaded, by selecting "Use a Custom Value" for the 'Featured Media' field and then using the "Attachment ID":

Error: 401 Incorrect Password 

This may be due to using your Wordpress user login instead of your site login.

To fix this:

1. Log into Wordpress Classic Editor.
2. Either:
   1. Set a new password.
   2. Create an application password for Zapier.

Use this password to connect your account in Zapier.