Why can't I see the Twitter widget on my site, but others can?

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterhmurray · Member ·

    I have the Twitter widget on the third column of my Soundcheck page:
    http://www.peterhmurray.com

    It is visible to others (and should be visible to you), but for some reason I can’t see it when I’m logged in as admin of the page.

    I’ve tried clearing my cache. I also tried removing the widget and starting from scratch…
    Can you tell me know if there’s a fix for this?

    Thanks!
    Peter

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    thatrobyn · Member ·

    Hey Peter, Are you able to see the widget in your Firefox browser when you’re logged out of WordPress.com?

    Additionally, are you able to see the widget when you are logged in (and out) as admin in another browser? For instance, do you see something different when you look at your site in Google Chrome?

    Please let me know and I can help further. Thanks so much!

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterhmurray · Member ·

    Hi Robyn!

    This is very helpful troubleshooting.
    Okay, this is what I can tell you:

    – I am not able to see the Twitter widget on this computer in Firefox, whether I’m logged in to WP or not.
    – I am able to see the Twitter widget in Internet Explorer on this computer, both logged in and logged out.
    – I am able to see the widget in Firefox on another computer, both logged in and logged out.
    – There’s also weirdness with the fonts… on this computer it’s showing my site with the default fonts (not the ones I selected)… on the other computer, it showed the site with my chosen fonts at first, but once I signed in to WP, it reverted to defaults, and when I signed out again, it stayed with the defaults…
    (I have taken screencaps if that’s helpful)

    Any help is appreciated! Thanks! P

  • Unknown's avatar
    thatrobyn · Member ·

    Peter, Thanks for doing that sleuthing! It does sound as if the issue lies with Firefox. Let’s continue this troubleshooting. If we can fix it…great. If not, I would love to see those screenshots. You can upload them to your Media Library and I can access them from there.

    Try out the three steps above and get back to me to let me know how things are working. We’ll get to the bottom of it! Thanks again :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterhmurray · Member ·

    Hi Robyn,
    Well, some progress…
    First of all, clearing the cache made no difference.
    But it seems that my Avast add-on may be the problem. When I disable that plug-in only, I’m able to see the Twitter widget. When I enable it again, the Twitter widget disappears again.
    Do you know if there’s a solution to that, perhaps somehow I can configure Avast? Or do I need to just keep that disabled?
    Regarding the font, I went to the advanced setting page and noticed that “allow pages to use their own fonts” was checked… not sure what else I can do. FYI I’m using Firefox 30.0.
    Next steps?
    Thank you! Peter

  • Unknown's avatar
    thatrobyn · Member ·

    Hey Peter,
    Ok, sounds like we’re making some progress. That’s good to know about Avast. I am certainly no expert with that plugin, so you may want to contact them directly. However, I did find the following, which might help:
    http://smallbusiness.chron.com/stop-avast-blocking-websites-54917.html
    Let me know how that works for you.

    Regarding the fonts:

    Are you able to see the fonts in Google Chrome whether or not you’re logged into your site? Does this problem only occur when you’re logged in?

    I would love to see some screenshots of what you’re viewing. You can upload the screenshot to your Media Library, like any other image, and I’ll be able to access it from there. Just let me know when there’s something I can view.

    The page at the following link has some helpful tips for taking screenshots:

    Take a Screenshot

    For comparison, here’s what I see when I look at your site in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari:
    https://cloudup.com/cSLuACmWJMS

    Thanks Peter! Looking forward to hearing from you.

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterhmurray · Member ·

    Thanks Robyn!
    Okay, first of all I went into Avast and entered peterhmurray.com and peterhmurray.wordpress.com as excluded URLs from the webshield.
    That produced no difference… when I reactivated the Avast webshield after doing that, the Twitter widget disappeared again. When I again disable the Avast add-on, the Twitter widget reappears.
    I installed Chrome, and Avast was not automatically added as an extension. So I added it as an extension, and immediately the Twitter widget disappeared again.
    So in both Firefox and Chrome, it’s clearly the Avast plug-in that is causing the problem, and adding the URL as an exclusion doesn’t fix the issue.
    Regarding the fonts… I checked the settings and in fact the fonts that are showing are the ones I chose (both headings and body text as Proxima Nova). What happened is that somehow on my other computer when I first checked, the fonts went back to the default fonts–briefly… and I got it backwards, I thought that was my chosen font. So despite that unexplained blip, let’s not worry about the fonts. That seems okay.
    But I do need to figure out the Avast thing. Should I contact their support? Or do you have other ideas? Thanks!

  • Unknown's avatar
    thatrobyn · Member ·

    Peter, Short of removing Avast altogether and finding a less intrusive anti-virus plugin, I’m not sure what to tell you. We have figured out that Avast is definitely the issue, so if they want to retain users, they’ll surely be able to help you out. I’m interested to hear how this works for you.

    Ah! Ha! Well, I’m very glad your fonts are showing up as you wish.

    Thanks again, for your diligent troubleshooting. Very helpful! Best of luck with Avast’s support! Cheers :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterhmurray · Member ·

    Thanks Robyn,
    I have just submitted a tech support ticket with Avast, and will let you know what the outcome is, in case others have the same problem!
    I really appreciate all your help!
    P

  • Unknown's avatar
    thatrobyn · Member ·

    Excellent. I really appreciate that generosity. It’s certain to help out future users! Thank you very much, Peter!

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterhmurray · Member ·

    Here’s the response from Avast:

    “Please try to disable the ‘Do not track’ option by following these steps:
    Click on the green “a” in the upper right corner of your web browser window.
    That will show the avast! Online Security panel. Please click on “Settings” in the lower left corner of the panel.
    In avast! Online Security Settings, please uncheck the option “Do not track” and click on “Save”.”

    This fix did work, so I now have the Avast plug-in ON and my Twitter widget IS showing.

    However, this does mean that I am not able to choose to enable the option that “Detects and blocks unwanted advertising and prevents analytics sites from secretly tracking you” including:
    “Block social networks by default
    Block ad tracking by default
    Block web analytics by default
    Block others by default”

    Of course, these things would not be blocked with the Avast add-on enabled anyways… so this is a small price to pay I guess!

    Thanks again Robyn!

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterhmurray · Member ·

    Sorry, in the last paragraph I meant Avast add-on DISABLED, not enabled.

  • Unknown's avatar
    thatrobyn · Member ·

    Peter, This is great information for other WordPress.com users who have Avast installed. I truly appreciate the follow-up, as well as your detailed account of the solution. Thanks again!

    The site looks terrific, by the way :)

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