WordPress Troubleshooting

Fix common WordPress connection and publishing issues

If you're having trouble connecting your WordPress site to Quotient or publishing blog posts, you're not alone. Most WordPress connection issues come down to a few common problems that are easy to fix once you know what to look for. This guide walks through the most frequent issues and their solutions.

Connection Problems

"Connection failed" Error

The most common cause of connection failures is that your WordPress site has permalinks set to "Plain" rather than "Post name." WordPress needs to use pretty URLs for Quotient to communicate with it properly. To fix this, log into your WordPress admin and go to Settings → Permalinks. Select "Post name" instead of "Plain," then click "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page. After making this change, return to Quotient and try connecting again.

Another common cause is entering your site URL incorrectly. Make sure you're including the https:// at the beginning and that you're not adding a trailing slash at the end. The URL should look like https://yoursite.com, not https://yoursite.com/ or yoursite.com.

"Permission denied" Error

If you're seeing a "Permission denied" error, it means the WordPress user account you're trying to connect with doesn't have sufficient permissions to create and edit posts. WordPress requires that the user be either an Administrator or an Editor to use Quotient.

First, double-check that you're using your actual WordPress username - the one you log in with - not the word "Quotient" or any other application name. If you're certain you're using the right username, you'll need to check your user role in WordPress. Log into your WordPress admin and go to Users → All Users. Find your account in the list and check what role you have. If you're not an Administrator or Editor, you'll need to ask whoever manages your WordPress site to upgrade your permissions.

"Invalid username or password" Error

This error means that either your username or your Application Password is incorrect. Start by verifying that you're using your WordPress username correctly - this is the username you use to log into your WordPress dashboard, not your email address or display name.

If your username is correct, the issue is likely with the Application Password. Application Passwords are long strings that look like abcd efgh ijkl mnop qrst uvwx, and it's easy to accidentally miss a character when copying them. The simplest solution is to create a fresh Application Password. Go to Users → Your Profile in WordPress, scroll down to the "Application Passwords" section, create a new one called "Quotient," and copy the new password carefully. Then try connecting again in Quotient with the new password.

Publishing Problems

Blog Doesn't Appear on WordPress

If you've successfully published a blog from Quotient but can't find it on your WordPress site, don't panic. The most likely explanation is that the post was created as a draft, which is the expected behavior. Log into your WordPress admin and go to Posts → All Posts. Look for your post in the list - it should be there with a "Draft" status. You can then review the post and manually publish it when you're ready.

Sometimes it takes a few moments for the post to appear in WordPress's admin interface, especially if your WordPress site is on a slower hosting plan. Give it a minute and refresh the page. If the post still doesn't appear after a few minutes, check the Quotient interface to see if there was an error message during publishing.

In rare cases, the post might be published but not visible on your site's homepage because of your WordPress theme's settings or because it was assigned to a category that's not displayed on the front page. Check your WordPress theme settings and make sure the post is in a category that appears on your site.

Images Not Showing Up

If your blog text appears on WordPress but the images are missing, this usually means that either the images failed to upload or your WordPress installation doesn't allow the image file type. JPG and PNG images work with virtually all WordPress sites, but some hosting providers restrict certain file types or have file size limits.

Try using JPG or PNG format for your images, and make sure each image is under 5MB. Very large images can fail to upload, especially on hosting plans with strict resource limits. If you're working with high-resolution images, compress them before adding them to Quotient. There are many free online tools for image compression that can reduce file sizes without noticeably affecting quality.

If specific images continue to fail, try uploading them directly to WordPress's media library to see if you get a more specific error message about what's preventing the upload.

Publishing Is Very Slow

Publishing can take anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or more, depending on your blog and your WordPress hosting. This is normal, especially if your blog contains multiple large images. Each image needs to be uploaded to your WordPress media library, which takes time.

If publishing consistently takes more than a minute, consider compressing your images before adding them to Quotient. Smaller image files upload much faster. You might also want to look at your WordPress hosting plan - slower shared hosting plans can struggle with handling uploads, while managed WordPress hosting from providers like WP Engine or Kinsta typically handles uploads much more quickly.

Understanding WordPress.com vs. Self-Hosted WordPress

One source of confusion that often leads to connection errors is the difference between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress. These are two different things, and Quotient only works with self-hosted WordPress.

WordPress.com is a hosting service run by Automattic where you can create a WordPress site without managing your own hosting. If your site address looks like yoursite.wordpress.com, you're using WordPress.com. These sites have limited access to the WordPress REST API unless you pay for a Business plan, which means Quotient can't connect to them in most cases.

Self-hosted WordPress refers to WordPress software that you've installed on your own web hosting. These sites typically have custom domains like yoursite.com and give you full control over plugins, themes, and settings. Self-hosted WordPress works perfectly with Quotient. Common hosting providers for self-hosted WordPress include WP Engine, Bluehost, SiteGround, Kinsta, and many others.

If you're not sure which type you have, check your site's URL. If it ends in .wordpress.com and you can't install plugins freely, you're likely on WordPress.com and will need to either upgrade to a Business plan or move to self-hosted WordPress to use Quotient.

Getting Additional Help

If you've tried the solutions above and are still having problems, here are some steps to take before reaching out for support.

First, try disconnecting and reconnecting your WordPress site in Quotient. Sometimes connection issues resolve themselves when you establish a fresh connection. Go to Settings → Integrations → WordPress in Quotient, disconnect your site, and then go through the connection process again with a new Application Password.

Test whether the problem is specific to a particular blog or affects all your content. Try publishing a very simple blog post with just text and no images. If that works but a complex post with many images doesn't, you've narrowed down the problem to something specific about that content.

Finally, verify that you can create posts normally in your WordPress admin. If you can't create or edit posts when logged into WordPress directly, the issue is with your WordPress installation rather than with Quotient. You'll need to resolve the WordPress issue first before the integration can work.

If you need to contact support, include these details in your message: your WordPress site URL, the exact error message you're seeing in Quotient, whether you're using WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress, and what hosting company you use if you know. This information helps support diagnose the issue much more quickly.

Quick Troubleshooting Checklist

Before you try anything else, run through this quick checklist to make sure all the basics are covered:

• WordPress permalinks are set to "Post name" (not "Plain")
• You're using your actual WordPress username, not "Quotient" or any other name
• Your WordPress user account is an Administrator or Editor
• You copied the Application Password exactly as shown, including all spaces
• Your WordPress site is self-hosted, not WordPress.com
• You can create and edit posts normally in your WordPress admin
• Your site URL in Quotient includes https:// and doesn't have a trailing slash

If you can check all of these boxes and are still having issues, the problem is likely something more specific that will require deeper troubleshooting or support assistance.