Issue: After you save your Weaver Xtreme options from the Customizer interface, the settings don’t show up when you view the site with your bowser – even though they do show in the Customizer preview.

Note: you should never use both the Customizer options interface and the Legacy options interface at the same time. Their settings tend to conflict and overwrite the other.

There are two main reasons this can happen when using the Customizer:

1. Caching

If the content of your site is cached, it is possible that changes you make from either the Customizer interface or the Legacy Options interface will not display properly when you view your site from a regular browser window. Depending on what plugins you might use, or what external content delivery service (such as CloudFlare) you use, you may need to clear your cache before changes show up.

This problem more commonly manifests itself when using Weaver Xtreme Plus because of the static CSS style file called style-weaverxt.css generated by X-Plus that is subject to caching.  When your Customizer “Save & Publish” settings do not show up in a new browser window, this is almost certainly a Cache issue.

Fixing Caching

There can be THREE places your site’s content is cached:

1. By a WordPress Cache Plugin – They usually disable caching when you’re logged in as an admin, but there can be issues.
2. By your browser – Browsers will often cache static content – images, or more relevant: static .css style files such as the CSS file generated by Weaver Xtreme Plus.
3. By your external caching service such as Cloudflare – it is easy to forget about the Cloudflare caching. It is also easy to forget to install the Cloudflare plugin on your WP site, even if you did properly set up your settings at Cloudflare.

 

Steps to temporarily stop caching

• Use Inline CSS – When you have Weaver Xtreme Plus installed, there is a new option to use “Inline CSS”. Setting this option almost always fixes the problem. The setting is found on Customize : General Options & Admin : Admin : Inline CSS or on the Legacy Advanced Options : Site Options tab.
• or Disable Caching … everywhere – Disable your WP Caching plugin, disable caching on your browser (this is not always easy), disable Cloudflare cache (clear it or enable development mode via the plugin). Be sure you have the Cloudflare plugin installed.
• For Chrome – If you use Chrome for site design development (which we suggest as the best cross platform browser for WP development), install the Classic Cash Killer browser extension, and turn it ON when developing. This is a real easy way to be sure that nothing is being cached by Chrome.

 

Try to remember the cause of this problem!

If you haven’t been changing the design of your site in a while, it is easy to forget why your settings don’t show up immediately on in a new browser window. Remember, if your changes aren’t showing up, they might be blocked by caching!

There is no automatic way round this problem – caching definitely improves site speed, and is a desirable feature – unless you are dynamically changing the look of your site!

 

2. Customizer: not enough PHP memory

When using the Customizer option interface, Weaver Xtreme requires at least 128M of what is called PHP memory be available. Because of the way WordPress implements the Customizer, and the very large number of options offered by Weaver Xtreme, this PHP memory is essential. While most hosting companies these days supply 128M of PHP memory by default, 64M or even 48M is not unheard of, especially for very cheap hosting accounts.

If you have updated to Weaver Xtreme Version 3, you should get a warning message if you don’t have enough PHP memory. You can also see what your PHP Memory is by looking at the Dashboard : Appearance : Weaver Xtreme Admin : Help : Your System and Configuration Info box. Scroll down to view the PHP Configuration. (You must have the Weaver Xtreme Theme Support plugin installed to get this info.)

What to Do?

If the Customizer settings are not being saved (or even if the Customizer options don’t display properly), you have two choices for getting around the issue.

1. Add more PHP Memory

This is the preferred solution as the Weaver Xtreme Customizer interface offers many advantages over the Legacy Option interface. Adding more PHP Memory can often be done by using your hosting control panel, but you still may have to contact your hosting company to have this limit raised.

Just to help your confusion level, there are three different PHP memory limits, but only one matters. There is a Local PHP Memory Limit, a WordPress PHP Memory Limit, and a Server PHP Memory Limit. It is the last one that really matters – the Server PHP Memory Limit. This is the one that really must be 128M as it is set by your hosting company and overrides the other limits. As noted, you may be able to change this from your hosting control panel yourself, or more likely, you will have to contact your hosting company.

2. Use the Weaver Xtreme Legacy Options Interface

If you can’t get the memory limit raised, or can’t wait for that to happen, or don’t even like the Customizer interface, you can disable the Weaver Xtreme Customizer interface and use the Legacy Options Interface found on the Dashboard : Appearance : Weaver Xtreme Admin menu.

To disable the Weaver Xtreme Customizer interface open the Dashboard : Appearance : Weaver Xtreme Admin : Advanced Options : Admin Options tab, and check the “Disable Weaver Xtreme Customizer Interface” option. This will disable the Weaver Xtreme portion of the Customizer interface and eliminate any PHP memory issues. (You must have the Weaver Xtreme Theme Support plugin installed to use the Legacy Interface.)

Don’t worry if you ever want to switch back to the Customizer interface later – any options you set using the Legacy Interface will still be saved and available for the Customizer.

 

3. Host Configuration: “max_input_vars”

There is another host configuration setting that can also cause problems: “max_input_vars”. This value limits the number of values that a website is allowed to “pass” via the browser when you click “Save Settings” or “Save & Publish”.

The typical value for this is 1000, which has for a long time been more than enough to handle Weaver Xtreme’s hundreds  of options. Each Weaver Xtreme option is “passed” for saving when you click “Save”. It seems that now the Customizer is adding more options to this value, and that in some so far rare cases, depending on plugins installed, is exceeding 1000.

We would recommend increasing the 1000 to 1500 to solve this issue. It is likely to be a long time before 1500 would not be enough.

Most hosts will let you increase this value, either directly through your host control panel, or by contacting their technical support.