Web Stories Sitemap Not Loading

#677832
  • Resolved Aly B

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi there, my web stories sitemap is not loading and reports this error: “There has been a critical error on this website.” Kinsta unhelpfully says it’s because the 256 PHP memory limit is being exceeded, and they said there’s no reason I should need a higher limit nor do they offer one. The weird thing is only the web stories sitemap doesn’t load, but all other sitemaps I have load with no issues.

    I thought maybe it was an issue with my PHP version being at 8.1, so I updated to PHP 8.2, and that caused a fatal error to my site. (See sensitive data.)

    So, I went back to PHP 8.1 and restarted my PHP engine.

    I’ve since created a staging environment, deactivated every plugin but RankMath and Google Web Stories, and set my default theme to 2024 WP. I still cannot get my site to generate a web stories sitemap that doesn’t give a critical error. I’ve also verified that the correct code is added to the configuration file of my NGINX server. Kinsta is not helpful and says it’s because there’s an error in the RankMath or Web Stories plugin, which I know to be false; I have them on other websites, and they’re working just fine. I’m wondering if you have any insight as to why RankMath might be having conflicts with my site on Kinsta?

    Thanks!

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • RankBot

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello, I’m sorry to hear about the issues you’re facing with your web stories sitemap. It seems like you’ve done a lot of troubleshooting already, and I appreciate your efforts in trying to resolve this.

    From the information you’ve provided, it seems that the issue might be related to the PHP memory limit. Kinsta’s response about the PHP memory limit being exceeded could be a clue. The fact that only the web stories sitemap is affected could indicate that it requires more resources than other sitemaps.

    You mentioned that you’ve verified the NGINX server configuration file, but it might be worth checking if there are any unintended rules in your actual robots.txt file or if there’s a weird plugin conflict. You can do this by going to Rank Math SEO → General Settings → robots.txt.

    If you’re still experiencing issues after checking these configurations, it would be best to reach out to our support team directly by opening a ticket here. Our staff will be able to assist you further and provide more specific guidance based on your site’s setup.

    Thank you for your understanding, and I hope we can resolve this issue for you soon.

    Sources:
    Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
    Fatal Error Happening on Some Installations After 1.0.49 Update » Rank Math

    Rakibuzzaman Siam

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello,

    The error messages you shared mean that the server resources on the server are getting exhausted.

    Please note that when you have a large number of web stories on your website, Rank Math needs some server resources to generate the sitemap, and the following values are recommended to make sure that all functionality of the plugin can run consistently:

    PHP Memory Limit: 512M
Max input time: 150
PHP time limit: 120
PHP max input variables: 1000

    As your hosting provider is not letting you increase the server PHP values, you can try to reduce the Links per sitemap in Rank Math > Sitemap Settings > General: https://rankmath.com/kb/configure-sitemaps/#links-per-sitemap

    If the issue still persists, we can suggest you to change your hosting provider.

    Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.

    Thank you.

    Aly B

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi there, I tried this solution, and I can get the Web Stories sitemap to generate as long as there are less than 48 links per sitemap. Unfortunately, this breaks my posts into a ridiculous number of sitemaps. (I’d had the previous value set at 200 per sitemap. I only have 68 web stories currently.)

    The only plugins I have activated on my site are Rank Math and Google Web Stories, and I am using a default WP theme. Should generating a sitemap of 50 links really be too much for this default site? It seems like there might be something else going on?

    Also, I haven’t posted new web stories in a while to even add them to the sitemap, and this is an error I didn’t have before this last week, which is what’s so strange.

    Thanks!

    Great

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello,

    The web resource running out is actually more on the side of the Web Stories content than on Rank Math since other post types do not require such high resources. Although we can help you dig further if we have access to the site but with the error you shared, it is very much looking like a memory issue.

    And if it is indeed a memory issue, I’m afraid you would only be able to resolve this either by increasing our memory or by reducing the links per sitemap. Please note that having a high number of post-sitemaps does not have any bad effect on your SEO efforts. It is not uncommon to see sites with hundreds of post-sitemaps and if it helps resolve the issue – might not be a bad idea.

    Regards

    Aly B

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    Thanks for the reply! For now, I will set my link number limit to temporarily fix the issue.

    I chatted further with Kinsta, and they thought the issue may be happening with a slowdown when the Web Stories plugin accesses my database (f4c_posts) and a file that’s leaking memory (*****_684/public/wp-includes/class-wpdb.php) when it comes to trying to get to the web story sitemap.

    They also say there’s a potential issue with a table in my database that has 1.7 million rows (f4c_rank_math_analytics_gsc). I don’t even have Rank Math connected to my GSC or Google Analytics, so I’m not sure why that large table would be there. Should I be concerned that this large table exists?

    Thanks!

    Reinelle

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello,

    Since you’re no longer using the Analytics feature of Rank Math, please turn off the Analytics module on Rank Math > Dashboard.

    Then, you can clear the data inside rank_math_analytics_* tables in your database.

    Please note that we always recommend creating a backup first when working with databases and making such actions.

    Hope that helps.

    Thank you.

    Aly B

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    Thanks for your help! I’ve deleted the table, which, alas, still doesn’t allow the web stories sitemap to appear with all the web stories on one page. However, reducing the number of links per sitemap has made it where my sitemap at least loads with a small amount of links.

    Great

    5 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello,

    We are glad to hear that this issue has been resolved. Thank you for letting us know. This ticket will be closed now, but you can always open a new one if you have any other questions or concerns. We are here to help you with anything related to Rank Math.

    We appreciate your patience and cooperation throughout this process.

    Thank you for choosing Rank Math.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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