XMLRPC – Windows Live Writer

  • Unknown's avatar
    screensaver49 · Member ·

    I have been using Windows live writer for years now. All of a sudden I find I cant publish to my blog any more via Windows Live Writer. It seems something to do with remote positng XMLRPC…

    How do I get Windows Live Writer to work again

    WP.com: Yes
    Correct account: Yes

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

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    Have you tried reconnecting from wherever you do that in Windows Live Writer? When doing that, you’ll have to give a XML-RPC link for your site. You get that by appending xmlrpc.php to the end of your URL. So for your site it will be http://screensaver49.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php. If that doesn’t work, try your URL with https instead, but I want to recall this connection only works over http. If it asks for a username and password, it’s the same ones you use to log into your WordPress.com account.

    That said, the Windows Live Writer software was discontinued by Microsoft in 2017, and it doesn’t look like the code that manages that integration on our end has been modified since 2016. It’s possible that it just finally broke, in which case we won’t be able to fix it on our end – it’s just not feasible for us to maintain integrations with software that no longer exists.

    If you can’t get it to reconnect again, I recommend you look at the other options we have for composing your posts offline:

    https://wordpress.com/support/offline-editing/

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    I’ve been doing some searching, and it seems there’s also an alternative program that’s based on Windows Live Writer, called Open Live Writer:

    https://openlivewriter.com/

    I don’t have access to a Windows computer at the moment, so I’m not able to test whether it works with WordPress.com, but you can try that as well if WLW no longer wants to connect to WordPress.com.

  • Unknown's avatar
    screensaver49 · Member ·

    Hi,
    This all worked as of end September this year.
    Wordpress have changed there code in there wisdom have decided to block xmlrpc.php based on a security risk

    https://screensaver49.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php
    Which is what windows live writer is trying to use has worked fine for years. This is not change to windows live writer, its a change to WordPress.

    I read see link below it was an option and it was recommended that it be disabled for security reasons, so Im trying to find out how to re-enable it. Im not concerned about security of my site, its just a blog.
    I have tried both http and https

    What Is xmlrpc.php in WordPress and Why You Should Disable It


    If you read the above link it talks about it and enabling it. This is what I want to do. It also talks about a new API, which of course Windows Live Writer will know nothing about.

    Apart from looking to re-enable it, what solutions do they have for remote positing. ie a windows based remote posting/ blogging tool

    I will try openliverwriter as suggested above

  • aleone89 · Staff ·

    Hello there,

    Many thanks for that additional information.

    > I read see link below it was an option and it was recommended that it be disabled for security reasons, so Im trying to find out how to re-enable it. Im not concerned about security of my site, its just a blog.
    I have tried both http and https

    It’s not possible to re-enable this on WordPress.com. To be able to do this, the site would need to be self-hosted – but even then, you would need to consult with the hosting provider to see if this is allowed.

    The best next thing, if it works is Open Live Writer, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed this works.

  • Unknown's avatar
    justjennifer · Member ·

    Hey Staff, Is XMLRPC now disabled on WordPress.com?

    To my understanding, it was previously enabled by default. https://wordpress.com/support/offline-editing/

    FWIW – I don’t have WLW or OLW, but I did need to disconnect and reconnect my Google Docs add-on https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-com-add-on-for-google-docs/ before it successfully posted on my test site. I also checked that it was listed in my Security>Apps dashboard https://wordpress.com/me/security/connected-applications

  • staff-blorbo · Staff ·

    XML-RPC still works here, but based on what I’ve been seeing, it would appear Windows Live Writer (which was discontinued in 2016) no longer does.

    At that software age, I’d expect that.

    We tested with https://openlivewriter.com/ just now and are having no issue with that.

  • Unknown's avatar
    screensaver49 · Member ·

    Hi,
    Can you please tell me on what platform and version of OS you tested XML-RPC.
    Please understand this can NOT be a windows live writer issue. Its not possible because as you rightly point out the product has been retired for some time, hence it has not changed for years. As you can see from my blog site there are many posts and all happened only through windows live writer. I am on that yacht so blogs are written off line always then remotely posted up for years.

    Logically based on your test XML-RPC worked for you then I have some other issue, and perhaps inadvertently jumped to blaming XML-RPC.

    I cant see a way to attach and image of the error here so I will type it.

    An unexpected error has occured while attempting to login
    Network connection error – Error attempting to connect to blog at
    https:///screensver49.worpress.com/xmlrpc.php
    The underlying connection was closed. An unexpected error occured on send.

    So I have tried providing the wrong password to windows live for connecting to word press. The error is the same !! The password i use to login to wordpress from the browser works, so clearly i know the password and it works on browser to should be the same as Windows live.

    So because the error is the same be right or wrong password I am assuming that its never getting to the point of the password.

    I have disabled my AV software as well. So Im running out of option here.

    I am going to try another ISP in case they have blocked the port or something then I will also install openwriter in couple of hours and test with it.

    I am using the latest version of windows 10.

    I will report back

  • staff-blorbo · Staff ·

    Can you please tell me on what platform and version of OS you tested XML-RPC.

    We tested https://openlivewriter.com/ under Windows 11.

    Its not possible because as you rightly point out the product has been retired for some time, hence it has not changed for years.

    Web technology evolves all the time. The reason it looks like Windows Live Writer (discontinued in 2016) apparently no longer works here is the same reason Internet Explorer 5 won’t work here.

    Instead of Windows Live Writer, please try https://apps.wordpress.com/desktop/ or https://openlivewriter.com/ or the other recommendations at https://wordpress.com/support/offline-editing/

  • Unknown's avatar
    screensaver49 · Member ·

    Openlivewriter worked !!!! :)

    I downloaded and installed and it worked perfectly.

    It even looks and feels exactly like Windows live writer.
    It was also able to open a draft post from live writer.

    Anyway many thanks to you all

    Greatly appreciated

  • Unknown's avatar
    justjennifer · Member ·

    Thanks staff-blorbo for confirming about XMLRPC. And apparently Microsoft recommends Open Live Writer now as it’s the only option in the Windows Store.

    Also, the Blog option in MS Word 2010 still works as well. Cheers and thanks all.

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