Site not syncing — what to check

If a site shows an old "last sync" time in the dashboard, or says it is waiting for its first sync, work through this checklist.

1. Check the plugin is active

WP admin → Plugins → confirm PowerSEC is Active. If it was deactivated, reactivate it.

2. Check the plugin can reach Central

In WordPress, open PowerSEC → Central Connection. The Connection Status card shows whether the site is connected, and Test Connection checks the API key with Central.

Common problems:

The server can't reach powersec.io

The plugin talks to https://powersec.io. From the server, run:

curl -v https://powersec.io/health

It should return HTTP 200. If the name doesn't resolve, the server's DNS is broken — contact your host. If it times out, ask your host to allow outbound HTTPS (port 443) to powersec.io.

"Invalid API key" or the site was disconnected

The site's keys no longer match Central — for example after the plugin was deactivated, which disconnects the site. In Central, open the site: if its keys were revoked, use Issue new connection keys (see step 6).

An SSL certificate error

cURL error 60: SSL certificate problem means the server's CA bundle is out of date. Ask your host to update the OS ca-certificates package.

3. Check WP-Cron is running

Scheduled syncs use WP-Cron. If WP-Cron never runs, scheduled syncs stop.

If DISABLE_WP_CRON is set to true in wp-config.php, make sure a real cron job calls WP-Cron, for example every 5 minutes:

*/5 * * * * curl -s https://example.com/wp-cron.php > /dev/null

4. Check the PHP error log

tail -100 /path/to/wp-content/debug.log

Look for lines containing "PowerSEC". Common errors:

• "Allowed memory size exhausted" — increase WP_MEMORY_LIMIT in wp-config.php
• "failed to open stream: Permission denied" under wp-content/uploads/ — PowerSEC keeps its backups and quarantine folder in the uploads folder, so the web server must be able to write there. Folders should normally be 755 and files 644; from the WordPress root:

find wp-content/uploads -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find wp-content/uploads -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Make sure the files are owned by the user your web server runs as. If you are not sure, ask your host — never set anything to 777.

5. Sync now

• In Central: open the site and click Sync at the top of the page (or Force Sync under the site's advanced actions)
• In WordPress: PowerSEC → Central Connection → Sync Now

If it succeeds, the regular schedule resumes.

6. Issue new connection keys

If the site's keys were revoked:

1. In Central, open the site and choose Issue new connection keys
2. Confirm — a new set of keys is shown once
3. In WordPress, open PowerSEC → Central Connection, paste the three new keys and save

Your backups, alerts, and history are kept; only the keys change.

Still stuck?

Open a ticket with:

• Site URL
• Plugin version (WordPress → Plugins)
• The last sync time shown in Central
• Any error shown on PowerSEC → Central Connection
• The last 50 lines of debug.log that mention PowerSEC