8 errors explained and corrected!

I won’t tell you what the card is Site health of WordPress, you understood very well what its usefulness is… On the other hand, decoding some messages that are displayed there, is sometimes more complicated… In this article I’ll help you fix the most common mistakes to finally get a site health screen without “recommended improvements” OR “critical issues”. Let’s go !

💡 Little disclaimer: it’s always better to do it make a backup of your site and its database before taking any action such as updates, installing new extensions, changes from the host, etc. If you haven’t set up a backup system on your site, learn how to use the UpdraftPlus extension.

1 – WordPress update available

“A new version of WordPress is available”surely you know this quite common message since the WordPress CMS updates several times a year.

In most cases, minor updates are done automatically (for example, 6.4.1 is a minor update). While major updates may wait for action from you (e.g. 6.5 is a major update).

You can enable automatic updates for minor or major releases. Most of the time everything is fine.

If you’re the stressed-out type, enable automatic updates for minor releases and manually perform major updates after you’ve backed up your site.

In any case, don’t let your site go through different versions of WordPress without making updates, this can lead to a security breach and compatibility problems over time.

2 – You should remove inactive themes

Another fairly common notification is “you should remove inactive themes”.

In fact, keeping several themes installed alongside the active theme can pose a security problem.

You should delete all inactive themes.

1. Go to tab Appearance > Themes.
2. Click on Theme details that appears when you hover over your theme thumbnail.
3. Click on ELIMINATE at the bottom right of the screen.
4. For themes you keep, consider enabling automatic updates.

For my part I advise my students to keep only 1 basic theme (e.g. Twenty Twenty One) next to the used theme. Don’t forget to update it when the opportunity arises or better yet, turn on automatic updates!

3 – You should remove inactive extensions

Like inactive or outdated themes, so are extensions. screen Site health it can notify you when an extension update is needed or when you should remove unused extensions.

I recommend that you enable automatic updates. This way, your site will always be up to date and will avoid suffering from security vulnerabilities that could be discovered in outdated versions of your extensions.

4 – Your site uses a deprecated version of PHP, which requires an update

The PHP version of a website depends on the settings made on your server. If you read the official WordPress requirements documentation, you might find this PHP 7.4 is currently the minimum requirement. This may increase over time, but today a WordPress site may not work properly with this version (actually, your site may work, but some plugins will be incompatible).

You should know that your host will never contact you to tell you that your The PHP version is outdated. It is your duty to check it from time to time.

Fortunately, if your server is running an older version of PHP, the site health screen will warn you. To remedy this, you will need to go to your hosting space to update the PHP version.

Here are two ways to do this with the most common hosts:

4.1 – Update the PHP version on OVH

If your site is hosted by OVH, log in to your personal space to do the following:

1. Go to tab WebCloud
2. In the list of your accommodations, select the one you want to edit.
3. Then go to the tab General informations.
4. Click on the 3 dots icon and then on Configuration modifier.
5. Click on Modify the current configuration then off following.
6. Choose the environment stable64 and select, for example, the latest version of PHP PHP8.2 Currently. Apply your changes.

4.2 – Update the PHP version on o2switch

If your host uses cPanel technology, such as o2switch, here’s how to change the PHP version:

1. Go to your cPanel personal space, to the tab Technical area.
2. Go down to the section Software and click Select a PHP version.
3. Next to Current PHP version there is a drop down menu. Select the latest version of PHP.
4. Then validate by clicking on Apply to.

⚠️ In all cases and regardless of your host: once the PHP update is complete, wait a few minutes and visit your site “in offline mode” to check if there are no problems. Everything should be fine. But in rare cases, if you encounter any problem, just repeat the action to downgrade PHP to an older version and check again. It could mean that one of your plugins or themes is not compatible with the latest version of PHP.

Keep in mind that running a WordPress site on a recent version of PHP aims to optimize your site’s performance and reduce security vulnerabilities.

5 – utf8mb4 requires a newer client library

The notification “utf8mb4 requires a newer client library” in rarer cases it may appear in the site health screen.

Here’s how it looks:

If you see this message, it is likely that your site is hosted by o2switch and it is quite simple to fix it:

• Go to your cPanel personal space, to the tab Technical area.
• Go down to the section Software and click Select a PHP version.
• Disable the option first mysqli
• Then activate the option nd_mysqli

Returning to the site health screen, the message should have disappeared.

6 – One or more recommended modules are missing

The notification One or more recommended modules are missing Associated with The optional module, imagick, is not installed or has been disabled often appears in the health screen of sites hosted on o2switch.

Other modules may appear in the list as international OR ZIP.

To fix it is not complicated and it is the same procedure that we saw just before:

• Go to your cPanel personal space, to the tab Technical area.
• Go down to the section Software and click Select a PHP version.
• In the list of modules, check for missing option modules such as imagine them, international OR ZIP.

Back in your site admin, the notification disappeared.

7 – You should use a persistent object cache

Still on the site health screen, you definitely didn’t miss the notification You should use a persistent object cache…most sites have been showing this message since the WordPress Performance team introduced it.

To put an end to this message once and for all, here is the solution I propose to you:

7.1 – Install and configure the APCu Manager extension

1. A very simple solution is to search for “APCu” from the tab Extensions > Add.
2. Install and activate APCu Manager which is a completely free extension. Choose well the one of Pierre Lannoy.
3. Go to the extension settings.
4. Just enable the option Object cache OR Cache object.

Voila, the message disappeared on the site health screen and your site performance probably improved.

7.2 – Activate the ACPu module from cPanel

If the checkbox to enable object caching is deactivated, your hosting does not support ACPu.

Depending on the host you’re using, you may need to contact support to find out why this option isn’t available in PHP and how to make it available.

If your host uses cPanel technology (like o2switch and many others), you can easily activate this module – always the same way:

1. If in the settings of the APCu Manager extension the option is not clickable…
2. Go to your cPanel personal space, to the tab Technical area. Go down to the section Software and click Select a PHP version.
3. In the module list, select the module apcu to activate it.

Back in your site administration, you can check the box that activates the cache object and the site health notification will magically disappear 🤣.

8 – SQL Server deprecated

The prerequisite environment for using WordPress has recently been changed with the recommendation to use it Mary DB 10.4 instead of 10.3 thus conveying the message Outdated SQL Server on the site health screen.

Don’t panic, your site won’t self-destruct after three 💣 🤣. Simply contact your hosting provider to find out if they can fix this problem or to ask about the procedure to follow to update Maria DB.

Did you build your site yourself? Check now if this is built on a solid foundation, if you’ve used the right tools and best practices… 👉 Check out my online WordPress training with lifetime updates.

Screenshot of the site status, in conclusion…

Although I am aware that I have not listed all the notifications that can be found in the Health screen of the WordPress site, I hope you found some solution. Feel free to share any messages/solutions you may have recently encountered in the comments…

To go further, I propose a reading list: