How To Perform A Plugin Conflict Test

A plugin conflict test is a standard troubleshooting step when dealing with issues in WordPress environoments.

Because of WordPress’s extensibility, it’s quite common for unrelated plugins to interact with each other negatively. That’s why this is generally the first step when troubleshooting an issue without a known cause.

Step 1: Disable All Other Plugins

Go to the Plugins page in the WordPress admin panel, tick the box next to every plugin that’s not Breakdance (and isn’t required to reproduce the problem), click the “Bulk Actions” dropdown and choose “Deactivate”, then click “Apply.”

Step 2: Simplify Your Theme Setup

If you’re using Breakdance with a theme, disable the theme by going to Breakdance > Settings > Theme in the WordPress admin panel. Once there, choose the “Disable Theme” option and save your settings.

Step 3: Attempt To Reproduce The Issue

Now that your environment has been simplified, try reproducing the issue you experienced originally.

If it doesn’t occur, you’ve identified a plugin or theme conflict.

Pinpointing A Plugin Or Theme Conflict

Once you’ve verified that the issue doesn’t occur with your theme & extra plugins deactivated, you can begin trying to pinpoint which specific one is responsible.

First, re-enable your theme under Breakdance > Settings > Theme in the WordPress admin panel, then try to reproduce the issue.

If it does occur, you’ve identified that your theme is causing the conflict.

If it doesn’t, move on re-activating each previously active plugin, one at a time, and attempting to reproduce the issue after you activate each one. At some point, the issue will occur again, and you will know that the most recently activated plugin is responsible for the problem.

Final Steps

Assuming you successfully identified a plugin or theme conflict, the fastest way to resolve the issue is to remove that plugin or theme from your site and use something different.

If it’s a critical part of your stack, you should relay your findings and any additional details you have to both the Breakdance team and the third-party plugin’s support team via the appropriate channels.

If the issue still occurred with no other themes or plugins active, it may be a legitimate bug in Breakdance. Please let us know so we can investigate further.

Test done? Contact support now.