HollyM asked 2 years ago
Help! I can't update anything on my site. When I try to update a page or make a new post, when I hit publish I get a message at the top of the screen that says “Updating failed. You are probably offline.” I am not offline. I’ve been trying to figure this out for months! It was working before.
Shawn Hesketh answered 2 years ago
I'm sorry to hear you're having to deal with that pesky error. It's not exactly the most helpful error message, as it offers no clues as to what's causing it.
The short version is that your site is unable to communicate with the WordPress REST API, which is the underlying interface that certain software can use to access WordPress from outside of your WordPress installation itself.
Basically, WordPress uses a method called the ‘REST API’ to send and receive requests to the WordPress database. If those requests fail to send or receive, then parts of your WordPress website may not be able to function, including the WordPress block editor, which uses the API to send update and publish requests to WordPress.
So, you're probably wondering, why the REST API stopped working if you didn’t make any changes to your website, right?
There are several reasons WordPress may be unable to access the REST API. The most obvious is if you've lost your connection to the internet. That's not the case for you, as you stated in your question.
So, if your internet connection is working fine, the next thing you might check is your WordPress site URL setting.
Go to: Settings > General and douhble check that the Site Address and WordPress Address options are correct. For most websites, you should have the same URLs in both fields.
If your site's URLs look okay, then you might check your REST API status using the built-in Site Health tool in WordPress.
Go to: Tools > Site Health to view the report. If the REST API is not working, you should see an alert under the recommended improvements like, “The REST API encountered an unexpected result.”
It should include some information to explain what's going on when WordPress makes REST API calls. Hopefully, this gives you a clue as to which plugin or third-party service may be causing the problem.
If that doesn't help, your best bet will be to reach out to the support team at your hosting company. They may have additional troubleshooting tools that you don't have access to. And, part of your hosting bill pays for support, so don't hesitate to avail yourelf of that!
Finally, if your hosting company is no help (first of all, it may be time to find a new Managed WordPress hosting company), you can always chat with a WordPress expert from Codeable who can likely resolve this error for you fairly quickly.
I hope one of these suggestions help you get it resolved!
All the best!