do you need to update the forum permalink (Integration > Page and Permalink panel)?

Or perhaps the combined css cache on forum – toolbox – housekeeping

Oh dear – I am sorry. @mr-papa is correct and it was what I meant to suggest. This is what comes of using a phone when sleepy and just settling down in bed fp=or the night!

Hi.  I have done everything suggested on this page:  https://simple-press.com/documentation/codex/faq/troubleshooting/my-forum-display-is-unformatted-after-an-update/

Also, today, I completely uninstalled Simple Press using the “Nuclear Option” which removes the database tables as well.  

Then, I downloaded a new copy of the plugin and installed it brand new.  And I activated the Barebones theme.  After installation, even without any content, the forum still appeared without formatting.  

Then, I restored my Simple Press database tables from an automatic backup performed by my web host yesterday.  Now, the content is there, but still, there is no formatting.

You can view it here:  https://myplasticfreelife.com/discuss/

so are you saying this was working before?  its starting to sound like a server configuration issue…  perhaps they changed the server settings?

many of our themes use php as part of the css display… for the vast majority of server configs this works just fine… some servers block this…

you can test this out by downloading our Barebones CSS theme (https://simple-press.com/store/themes/standard/)… they are free… and see if that gets it working… its a css only equivalent of the base Barebones theme…

try downloading it and uploading to wp-content/sp-resources/forum-themes… and then on forum – themes – theme list, selecting that theme… and see if it works… if so, you wont be able to use any of our more complex php driven themes…

another possibility is the use of Rocket… it seems to be doing some caching which could be causing the problem too…

<!-- This website is like a Rocket, isn't it? Performance optimized by WP Rocket. Learn more: https://wp-rocket.me -->

is this something you added recently as well??  can you temp disable it and see if things work better?

Yes, it was working before… up until the most recent Simple Press upgrade I believe.

Switching to the CSS Desktop theme works.  But I am still confused because I have not had any problems with the PHP-based themes (I’ve used both Barebones and Default) before.

Also, I have used WP-Rocket for over a year with no conflict with Simple Press.  But during my tests today, I turned it off and cleared the cache to make sure that wasn’t the problem.  I have been clearing the WP-Rocket cache and clearing my browser cache each time I try something new.  At one point, I even deactivated WP-Rocket, and that didn’t help.

I would like to be able to switch back to the PHP theme if we can get it to work again.  I don’t see why it shouldn’t. 

we are not talking php themes here… but php in css…  so in some of our themes, the css files are actually php files that generate css…   the two are different languages…  basically, they require the server apache (or other web server app) to process css files as php…

for 99% of servers, this works fine… some servers block it.. or more likely, just dont enable it…  believe its just a standard apache handler type… but unfortunately, the small number of folks with this issue have never closed with their hosts to work a fix and let us know for sure what the setting is…

At this point, since you have already confirmed that a css only css file works, I wouldnt worry any further about rocket – does not appear to be involved…

Something I just noticed — In Integration tab — a bunch of folders are missing.  See attached image.  Should they have been created when I reinstalled Simple Press?  And could this be causing the problem?

normally, they would be… but those are not the default locations… those would be:

sp-resources/forum-xxxxx

but perhaps you were around in the 3.x or 4.x days before the sp-resources became standard… still, those shown wont affect the css at all…  and would only come to bear if you were using those features…

php parsing of css files comes down to server settings…

sorry, also meant to ask if there was a particular reason why using the css only version of the Barebones theme was an issue??   its every bit as functional as the php css version except for overlays…  the php allows us an easy way to change the css file base on overlay…

if you want a specific overlay version of the Barebones theme you wanted, we could help generate that real quick…

or were you using a different theme?

I think I first started using Simple Press in 2012.  At least, that’s the first time I posted anything in this forum!

Okay, so I still need to go into Integrations and fix the storage locations.  I can see those locations you referenced via FTP and they do contain content.  

What about plugins/simple-forum/styles/icons/default/custom?  What’s the correct location for that now?

The newer default folder is

wp-content/sp-resources/forum-custom-icons

but, of course, you can define it wherever you want it – you can redefine any of the storage folder locations.

I have to dd to what @mr-papa has already said and I know people never like hearing it! But when something like SP works and then suddenly stops working, something has changed. This can’t be an SP update issue or it would have been introduced to all our users so it is something else.

When trying to work out just what it is – it is imperative that you turn off the CSS and JS caches in the forum admin > Options > Global Settings otherwise you are just using a cached version of the theme – and if that theme has displayed incorrectly and been cached it will continue to display incorrectly until stopped.

This is, in fact, one way that it can stop working after an SP update as the update clears the cache as a matter of course so that it refreshes on the first page load following. If something had been put in place that would break the theme it then becomes noticeable.

This can be anything. An update to the WP theme being used… A new WP plugin installed… Or – as Mr Papa said above – a change to your server configuration by your host.