The plugin generated xxxx characters of unexpected output

[Ivy]

You can receive the following error at activation time of a plugin for a few reasons:

The plugin generated xxxx characters of unexpected output during activation.

1) There was an error that occurred at activation time on your server (try to capture and output the error message from your PHP script)

2) The PHP files have characters outside the <?php ?> tag

3) Some files got corrupted when you uploaded the plugin.

4) There was some MySQL error on your server.

Try deactivating and reinstalling the plugin. Sometimes characters can get appended to a file when you use the standard FTP transfer. Please transfer using binary mode or just use the WordPress plugin uploader (see the video tutorial from the following link):

WP eStore Quick Setup and Usage Video Tutorial

Sometimes it could be that the error was shown from a minor warning message. So if you find the plugin to be working as you expect just ignore the message.

[johnzena]

One good thing to remember is to get the above error to stop showing (because it will prevent some functions from working like installing other plugins) is to log out then log back in. The error will then disappear and wordpress will function as normal.

[itzco]

I was getting this error and went in to debug it, the plugin generates a number of notices here and there, mostly reading $_POST vars that are not set. Of course in most hostings it’s not a problem but on yours might be if you are here.

My specific fix:

My case (localhost, affiliate plugin) for a weird reason $wpdb was unset so lines 16-22 generated a lot of notices.

Fixed by adding this line before any use of var $wpdb (line 16)

if (!isset($wpdb)) $wpdb = $GLOBALS;

How to find what’s causing yours:

In the file: wp-admin/includes/plugin.php add to the file at the end (Change the path(wp-content/uploads/2012), this is just an example):

add_action(‘activated_plugin’,’save_error’);

function save_error(){

file_put_contents(ABSPATH. ‘wp-content/uploads/2012/error_activation.html’, ob_get_contents());

}

If you prefer to store the data in DB, check out this page and follow the complete instructions on debugging activation errors: http://hungrycoder.xenexbd.com/wordpress-2/how-i-have-solved-the-the-plugin-generated-xxxx-characters-of-unexpected-output-during-activation-problem.html

[Ivy]

Thank you for sharing your fix with us.

[Flashpaper]

It concerns me that this fix was posted over a 2 years ago, yet the error still happens on WordPress 3.6.1. as of November, 2013 on a site I’m building. I just purchased this plugin after having used an old version of it without problems on another site years ago. Any patches or updates available that address this problem? Perhaps my concerns are unwarranted, but as a QA professional stuff like this really raises red flags since my own plug-in developers would not get paid if their plug-ins resulted in warnings like this.

[admin]

It would be concerning if the error was actually a result of some coding issue in the plugin. You activate a plugin and you see an error so you instinctively think that it came from this plugin but thats not the case for this error. This error is a little misleading due to the way plugin activation is handled in WordPress. Right that moment when you activated the plugin a lot of things that happens on the server could have triggered it.

Without going too much into technical stuff, the bottom line is that there is no issue in the plugin for this. Simply deactivate the plugin and activate it again to see if you still see the error.

[dawnfarias]

Thank you. I deactivated, deleted, and reinstalled (don’t know if the deletion was necessary, though) and that error message went away.

[Kim]

I received the following error (message) when I installed WP eMember on my WordPress site.

**********

The plugin generated 190 characters of unexpected output during activation. If you notice “headers already sent” messages, problems with syndication feeds or other issues, try deactivating or removing this plugin.

**********

I would like to know if there is a reason and also should I consider this a bad install that will cause issues on my site later down the road.

[wzp]

Please try this:

https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/re-install-or-load-a-fresh-build-of-the-plugins

[casasalsa]

I followed the link and still get the message > i just purchased this so I’m assuming i have a fresh link

still get

The plugin generated 193 characters of unexpected output during activation. If you notice “headers already sent” messages, problems with syndication feeds or other issues, try deactivating or removing this plugin.

how do i fix?

as a side not, this is also a fresh install of wordpress, no other plugins are installed

[admin]

What happens if you deactivate and then re-activate the plugin? Do you see the issue after you do that couple of times?

[Author]

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