Crash protection and the Recovery log

Sometimes a plugin crashes WordPress and the site shows "There has been a critical error." PressConduit 0.31.23 and newer tries to bring your site back on its own.

If PressConduit itself crashes your site

PressConduit tries three things, in this order.

1. Put back the last working copy. Before an update, PressConduit saves a copy of the version that was working. It puts that copy back. In our tests this took about 1 to 2 seconds.
2. Download the trusted version. If there's no saved copy, PressConduit downloads the trusted version from the PressConduit hub. The hub signs that version with a private key. PressConduit only accepts a file if the signature, the size and the file fingerprint (called a checksum) all match, and the address is www.pressconduit.com. In our tests this took about 5 seconds. We tested on a real Bricks site, an Elementor site and a Divi 5 site.
3. Switch itself off. If both fail, PressConduit turns itself off so the site stays up.

In steps 1 and 2, PressConduit stays on. The bad version is also blocked, so the site doesn't update straight back into it.

A version only becomes the trusted one after it passes a test on Divi 4, Divi 5, Elementor and Bricks sites. Right now the trusted version is 0.31.23.

A copy is only saved if the working version proved itself first: about 10 minutes and 5 page loads without a crash.

If another plugin crashes your site

PressConduit also watches for other plugins that crash the site while WordPress is starting up. It switches off that one plugin. It never deletes any files, and you can turn the plugin back on after you fix it.

It ignores crashes that happen later in a normal page load, so a visitor can't trigger it. It ignores "out of memory" and "too slow" errors. It never switches off PressWarden.

The safety stop

After 3 switch-offs in 15 minutes, it stops and writes limit_reached in the log. That keeps a crash loop from turning off more and more of your site.

Where to read the Recovery log

• In wp-admin: open the PressConduit screen and click the Recovery log tab. It shows the last 50 events, newest first, and any blocked versions.
• Download it: click the Download log button on that tab.
• Ask Claude: with PressConduit connected, ask about a crash. Claude can use pcd_recovery_status (what is installed, what is blocked, whether your host supports this) and pcd_recovery_log (the event list).

The log never holds passwords, tokens or stack traces.

What the events mean

• crash_detected: A crash was spotted. It names the plugin and file.
• self_rollback: PressConduit put back a working copy of itself, from the saved copy or the hub.
• stable_install_done: The hub download worked. (stable_verified and stable_downloaded are steps on the way.)
• stable_skipped, stable_fetch_failed, stable_install_failed: The hub download didn't work. The details give the reason.
• self_rescue: Both fixes failed, so PressConduit switched itself off.
• recovered: Another plugin crashed the site and was switched off.
• version_blocked, version_unblocked: A version was blocked, or the block was lifted.
• limit_reached: The safety stop kicked in.
• lastgood_snapshot_taken: A working copy was saved before an update.

What gets saved on your site

• wp-content/pcd-pc-lastgood: the saved working copy. Only one is kept.
• wp-content/pcd-pc-broken: the bad copy, kept so we can look at it. At most 2 are kept.
• wp-content/pcd-pc-logs: the Recovery log file.
• wp-content/mu-plugins/pressconduit-recovery.php: the small file that does the rescuing. Don't edit it. If you change it, PressConduit puts it back.

Each folder has a file that tells the server not to show it to visitors. Apache and LiteSpeed obey it. nginx ignores it, so on nginx ask your host to block these folders.

Clearing a blocked version

PressConduit won't install a blocked version again. A newer version clears the block by itself. To clear it sooner, ask Claude, or remove that version from the pcd_pc_blocked_version option.

What this does not do

• Older versions aren't protected. A site must be on 0.31.23 or newer. The update into 0.31.23 itself isn't covered.
• A brand-new install has no saved copy. If its first crash happens before one is saved, it depends on the hub download. Your host must let the site reach www.pressconduit.com.
• It can't help when your host shuts the site down. Suspensions, firewalls and captcha pages stop everything on the site, including this.
• It needs tools your host must have. Those are the zip tools and the signature library. Most hosts have them. The Recovery status shows whether yours does.

If your site is still down, see My site shows a critical error after a PressConduit update.