Got a call from a new client last week. Their WooCommerce site’s “add to cart” button was working… sometimes. For some users, it would just spin forever. No error message, nothing. Just a dead end. Their previous developer was MIA, and they were losing sales. Total mess. This is the kind of problem that keeps store owners up at night, and it’s almost always caused by silent errors that never get logged. Effective WordPress error logging isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity.
WordPress, by default, is designed to fail gracefully. Or, to put it another way, silently. This is great for visitor experience—nobody wants to see a page of ugly PHP warnings. But for a developer, it’s a nightmare. You’re flying blind. You know something is wrong, but you have no idea what it is, where it is, or when it started. You’re stuck trying to reproduce an intermittent bug, which is one of the fastest ways to lose your sanity.
Why Your WordPress Error Logging Is Probably Broken
My first move was to check the browser’s developer console. It showed a generic AJAX error. Not helpful. My next thought was to fire up their staging site and turn on WP_DEBUG. The problem, of course, was that the bug wouldn’t happen on staging. It never does, does it? The issue was tied to a specific combination of live server configuration and user action. A race condition, maybe. The only way to catch it was to see the errors happening in the production environment, and you can’t just turn WP_DEBUG on for a live site. That’s developer malpractice.
So, the real fix starts with logging these errors to a private file on the server where only you can see them. Trust me on this. It’s the first thing we do on any new project. You just add a few lines to your wp-config.php file.
// Enable WP_DEBUG mode
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
// Enable Debug logging to the /wp-content/debug.log file
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
// Disable display of errors and warnings
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );This little snippet tells WordPress to start logging all errors, notices, and warnings to a file named debug.log inside your /wp-content/ folder. Crucially, it keeps them hidden from the public-facing pages of your site. Now you can see exactly what’s breaking when it breaks.
What’s the Point?
Fixing bugs without proper error logging is just guesswork. You’re poking around in the dark hoping to get lucky. The professional approach is to build a system that tells you when things go wrong. This config is the bare minimum, but it’s a solid start. For more complex issues, especially those involving external services, you often need more. The idea of a dedicated plugin to catch things like HTTP API failures or silent AJAX terminations, which Carl Alexander wrote about over at his blog, is the logical next step for any serious site.
- Stop guessing: Get real data on what’s failing.
- Fix things faster: Pinpoint the source of the error without hours of manual testing.
- Protect your users: Keep errors hidden from visitors and potential attackers.
Look, this stuff gets complicated fast. If you’re tired of debugging someone else’s mess and just want your site to work, drop my team a line. We’ve probably seen it before.
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