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Troubleshooting Common Issues

This guide covers common problems you may encounter while using AI Content Writer and how to resolve them.

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Table of Contents

General Debugging Checklist

Before deep-diving into a specific issue, follow this quick checklist:

  1. Check Logs Go to AI Content Writer → Logs and look for recent entries, especially error or warning messages.
  2. Verify Campaign Status Make sure the campaign is set to Active (not paused) under AI Content Writer → Campaigns.
  3. Confirm API Keys Under Settings → API Settings, ensure:
    • Gemini API key is valid (if using Gemini)
    • OpenAI API key is valid (if using ChatGPT)
    • Pexels API key is set (for thumbnails)
  4. Check WP-Cron Ensure WordPress cron is working, or that you have a real server cron calling wp-cron.php.
  5. Update Plugin & WordPress Make sure you’re running recent versions of:
    • AI Content Writer
    • WordPress core
    • PHP (7.4+ recommended, 8.x preferred)

If these basics look good, move on to the specific issue that matches your situation.

Campaign Not Generating Any Posts

Symptoms:

  • No new posts appear in your Posts list
  • Logs show little or no recent activity for the campaign

Possible Causes

  • Campaign is paused
  • No valid keywords or no RSS feed URL configured
  • Blocked hosts or invalid allowed hosts setting (Articles)
  • RSS feed URL is invalid or unreachable (RSS campaigns)
  • WP-Cron is not running
  • API keys missing or invalid (Gemini/ChatGPT)

How to Fix

  1. Check Campaign Status
    • Go to AI Content Writer → Campaigns
    • Ensure the campaign status is Active
  2. Verify Campaign Configuration
    • Articles: Confirm keywords and (optionally) host are set
    • RSS: Confirm a valid RSS Feed Link is entered
    • Gemini/ChatGPT: Confirm keywords are not empty
  3. Look at Logs
    • Open AI Content Writer → Logs
    • Filter by campaign (if available)
    • Look for errors like:
      • No results found for keywords
      • Failed to fetch RSS feed
      • API error messages
  4. Check API Settings
    • Ensure at least one AI provider (Gemini or ChatGPT) is correctly configured
  5. Verify WP-Cron
    • If your site receives very little traffic, WP-Cron may not trigger regularly
    • Consider setting a real cron job to call wp-cron.php or using a service like a cron monitor

Some Campaigns Work, Others Do Not

Symptoms:

  • One campaign generates content normally, another does nothing

Possible Causes

  • One campaign has invalid settings (e.g., broken RSS URL)
  • Very restrictive Block Keywords on a specific campaign
  • Different post types or statuses hiding results from your usual view

How to Fix

  1. Compare Campaign Settings
    • Check both campaigns side by side
    • Ensure the non-working campaign has:
      • Valid keywords or RSS URL
      • Correct post type and post status
  2. Review Logs Per Campaign
    • Use logs to see what specifically is failing for the problematic campaign
  3. Temporarily Simplify
    • Remove or reduce Block Keywords
    • Set post status to Draft and post type to Post
    • Test again

Titles Generated but No Content

Symptoms:

  • You see pending/temporary posts with titles but empty content
  • Logs show successful title generation but no content logs

Possible Causes

  • Content-generation cron (aicw_generate_content) not firing
  • API errors from Gemini or ChatGPT
  • Posts per run too high, causing timeouts or partial failures

How to Fix

  1. Check Logs Look for entries related to content generation, such as:
    • Content generated successfully for post #ID
    • Gemini API error: ...
    • OpenAI API error: ...
  2. Verify API Keys & Quotas
    • Make sure Gemini or ChatGPT API keys are valid
    • Check your quota/usage in the provider dashboard
  3. Reduce Posts per Run
    • Edit the campaign
    • Set Posts per Run to 1 or 2
    • Wait for cron to run again
  4. Check WP-Cron
    • Ensure aicw_generate_content is scheduled and executed (use a cron inspector plugin or WP-CLI if available)

Content Generated but No Thumbnails

Symptoms:

  • Posts have content but no featured image
  • Logs mention thumbnail failures

Possible Causes

  • Missing or invalid Pexels API key
  • Media upload permission issues
  • Connectivity problems to Pexels API

How to Fix

  1. Check Logs for Thumbnail Messages Look for:
    • Thumbnail generated successfully for post #ID
    • Failed to download image from Pexels
  2. Verify Pexels API Key
    • Go to Settings → API Settings → Pexels
    • Ensure the key is correct and active
  3. Test Media Uploads
    • Try uploading an image manually via Media → Add New
    • If this fails, fix permission or disk-space issues
  4. Check Server Connectivity
    • Confirm your server can make outbound HTTPS requests
    • Check with your host if external connections are blocked

Posts Stay in Draft or Pending Status

Symptoms:

  • Posts are created but remain in draft or pending and never become publish

Possible Causes

  • Campaign’s Post Status is set to Draft or Pending Review
  • Publishing cron (aicw_publish_posts) not running

How to Fix

  1. Check Campaign Post Status
    • Edit the campaign
    • In the Publishing options, verify the selected status
    • If you want auto-publish, select Publish
  2. Verify Publish Cron
    • Check logs for messages such as Published X posts for campaign #ID
    • If missing, ensure your cron is running and aicw_publish_posts is scheduled
  3. Mix Manual and Automatic Publishing
    • Consider keeping campaigns on Draft initially for manual review
    • When confident, switch to Publish

Too Many Posts Being Generated

Symptoms:

  • Your site is flooded with new posts
  • API usage or hosting resources spike unexpectedly

Possible Causes

  • Posts per Run set too high
  • Multiple active campaigns with similar schedules
  • Cron running more often than expected (e.g., multiple real cron triggers)

How to Fix

  1. Reduce Posts per Run
    • Edit each active campaign
    • Lower Posts per Run to a safe number (1–3)
  2. Pause Non-Critical Campaigns
    • Temporarily set some campaigns to Paused
  3. Review Cron Setup
    • Ensure you don’t have multiple external crons hitting wp-cron.php too frequently
  4. Review API Costs
    • Check Gemini/OpenAI dashboards
    • Adjust settings to align with your budget

Duplicate or Very Similar Posts

Symptoms:

  • Posts with nearly identical titles or content
  • Repeated topics from the same sources

Possible Causes

  • Overlapping keywords across multiple campaigns
  • Limited source variety (same RSS feed or search results)
  • AI producing similar content for similar prompts

How to Fix

  1. Review Keywords Across Campaigns
    • Ensure each campaign targets different topics or niches
  2. Use Block Keywords
    • Consider blocking repeated patterns or phrases
  3. Manually Trim Duplicates
    • Delete or merge duplicate posts as needed
  4. Widen or Refine Sources
    • For RSS: use multiple, diverse feeds
    • For Articles: vary keywords and Bing hosts (main vs news)

Low-Quality or Off-Topic Content

Symptoms:

  • Content feels generic, shallow, or irrelevant
  • Articles don’t match your niche or target audience

Possible Causes

  • Vague or overly broad keywords
  • Insufficient context in prompts
  • Highly competitive or noisy topics

How to Fix

  1. Improve Keywords/Prompts
    • Use long-tail, descriptive phrases
    • Include audience and context (e.g., “for beginners”, “for WordPress users”)
  2. Narrow Campaign Focus
    • Create multiple campaigns for different sub-topics
  3. Use Content Filtering
    • Block irrelevant terms
    • Use Search & Replace (Pro) for tone and brand adjustments
  4. Add Manual Editing
    • Treat AI content as a draft
    • Add your own insights, data, and examples

API Key or Quota Errors

Symptoms:

  • Logs show messages like invalid API key, quota exceeded, or insufficient_quota
  • Content generation fails intermittently

Possible Causes

  • Incorrect or revoked API keys
  • Exceeded free or paid quota
  • Billing issues with Google/ OpenAI

How to Fix

  1. Check Logs for Exact Error
    • Go to AI Content Writer → Logs
    • Look for detailed Gemini or OpenAI error messages
  2. Verify API Keys
    • Confirm keys in the provider dashboard
    • Update them under Settings → API Settings
  3. Monitor Usage and Quotas
    • Use provider dashboards to monitor consumption
    • Upgrade your plan or adjust usage limits if needed
  4. Reduce Load
    • Lower Posts per Run
    • Pause non-critical campaigns
    • Increase interval between runs (Pro/frequency settings)

Cron Jobs Not Running

Symptoms:

  • Logs stop updating
  • No new titles/content/thumbnails/publishes occur

Possible Causes

  • WP-Cron disabled (DISABLE_WP_CRON set to true)
  • Low traffic sites where cron is rarely triggered
  • Server-level issues blocking wp-cron.php

How to Fix

  1. Check WP-Cron Constant
    • In wp-config.php, ensure DISABLE_WP_CRON is not set to true
  2. Set Up a Real Cron Job
    • Configure your hosting to call:
*/5 * * * * php /path/to/your/site/wp-cron.php > /dev/null 2>&1
  • Or use the site URL: wget -q -O - https://example.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron > /dev/null 2>&1
  1. Use a Cron Monitoring Plugin
    • Install a cron management plugin to see scheduled events
    • Verify that hooks like aicw_generate_title, aicw_generate_content, etc., are scheduled

Performance Issues or Timeouts

Symptoms:

  • Slow admin pages
  • Timeouts during cron runs
  • High CPU or memory usage

Possible Causes

  • Too many campaigns generating content simultaneously
  • Posts per Run set too high
  • Shared hosting resource limits

How to Fix

  1. Reduce Campaign Load
    • Lower Posts per Run for each campaign
    • Pause non-essential campaigns
  2. Stagger Campaigns
    • Use Pro’s frequency controls (if available) to run campaigns at different intervals
  3. Optimize Server Resources
    • Upgrade hosting plan if you regularly hit resource limits
    • Ensure PHP memory limit is at least 128MB (256MB recommended)
  4. Check Logs for Hints
    • Look for timeouts or partial failures in logs

Admin Pages Not Loading Correctly

Symptoms:

  • Blank or partially rendered admin screens for AI Content Writer
  • JavaScript or CSS errors in browser console

Possible Causes

  • Conflicting scripts from other plugins/themes
  • Incomplete plugin update or missing assets
  • Aggressive caching/minification

How to Fix

  1. Check Browser Console
    • Open Developer Tools → Console and look for JS errors
  2. Disable Caching/Minification Temporarily
    • Turn off JS/CSS minification/combining in performance plugins
  3. Check for Incomplete Updates
    • Reinstall or re-upload the plugin if needed
  4. Conflict Test
    • Temporarily deactivate other plugins and switch to a default theme
    • If the issue disappears, re-enable components one by one to find the conflict

Conflicts with Other Plugins or Themes

Symptoms:

  • Errors appear only when certain plugins/themes are active
  • Logs or PHP error logs mention functions/classes from other plugins

How to Fix

  1. Standard Conflict Test
    • Deactivate all plugins except AI Content Writer
    • Switch to a default theme (e.g., Twenty Twenty-Five)
    • If the issue resolves, re-enable items gradually to identify the culprit
  2. Check PHP Error Logs
    • Look for fatal errors or conflicts in your server’s PHP error log
  3. Report Incompatibilities
    • Once the conflicting plugin/theme is identified, report it to both plugin authors with detailed logs

When to Contact Support

If you’ve gone through this guide and still can’t resolve the issue, it may be time to contact support.

Before reaching out, gather:

  • A clear description of the problem
  • Steps to reproduce it
  • Relevant log entries (copy/paste from AI Content Writer → Logs)
  • Information about your environment:
    • WordPress version
    • PHP version
    • Hosting provider
    • Other major plugins (e.g., security, caching)

You can then:

  • Use the Help section in the plugin’s admin menu (if provided)
  • Open a support topic on the WordPress.org support forum for AI Content Writer
  • Or contact the developer via the official website if you have a support license

Last Updated: November 28, 2025 | Plugin Version: 2.1.0

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