Sitemap Error

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear that you are facing issues with generating your sitemap and receiving the error message "error on line 1 at column 7: XML declaration allowed only at the start of the document."

This error typically occurs when there are white spaces or characters before the XML declaration in the sitemap file. Since you have already checked the functions.php and wp-config.php files, the issue might be related to a plugin conflict or caching interference.

To troubleshoot this further, please follow these steps:

1. Check for any plugin conflicts using the Health Check plugin as mentioned in our KB article here.
2. Ensure that your caching is disabled, as caching can sometimes interfere with the sitemap functionality of Rank Math.

If the issue persists after following these steps, please provide more details about your setup so we can assist you further. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
Why the Sitemap_Index.xml is Throwing a 404 Error » Rank Math

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

In this case, please follow these steps to flush your sitemap cache:

1. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp

2. Exclude the Sitemap files of the Rank Math plugin in your caching plugin. The cache could be via a plugin or from the server. For plugins or Cloudflare, please follow this article:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/

3. Disable the transient cache for the sitemap by applying this filter. This will make sure that your XML sitemap always reflects the latest changes on your site:

/** 
 * Filter if XML sitemap transient cache is enabled.
 *
 * @param boolean $unsigned Enable cache or not, defaults to true
 */
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

If you’re not sure how to add this code, you can follow this guide:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

If the issue persists, then you may follow this guide to fix this issue on your sitemap:
https://wejn.org/stuff/wejnswpwhitespacefix.php.html

Looking forward to helping you.