Using Safe Mode to troubleshoot issues with themes and plugins

[Discourse]

This guide explains how to use Discourse’s Safe Mode to troubleshoot issues with themes and plugins.

Required user level: All users

Discourse offers a “JavaScript Safe Mode” that allows any user to isolate the root cause of JavaScript issues caused by plugins, themes, or theme components. This feature is particularly useful for troubleshooting problems on your Discourse site.

Accessing Safe Mode

To access Safe Mode, follow these steps:

1. Open a new browser tab.

2. Enter the following URL in the address bar, replacing [your-site-name](http://discourse.example.com) with your actual Discourse site domain:

   http://discourse.example.com/safe-mode
   

   For example, the Safe Mode URL for the Discourse demo site is:
   https://try.discourse.org/safe-mode

3. Click the ‘Enter Safe Mode’ button:
   

   

Safe Mode options

When entering Safe Mode, you can select from the following options:

• Disable all themes and theme components
• Disable unofficial plugins
• Disable all plugins

By default, all three options are selected. However, you can enter Safe Mode multiple times with different combinations to isolate the specific component causing issues on your site.

Using Safe Mode

1. Select the desired options on the Safe Mode page.
2. Click “Enter Safe Mode” to apply your selections.
3. You will see a banner indicating that Safe Mode is enabled.
4. Browse your site to check if the issue persists with the selected components disabled.

Exiting Safe Mode

To exit Safe Mode, simply close your browser tab.

Important notes

When sharing a Safe Mode link for your site, be aware that it needs to be opened in a new tab or added directly to the address bar; otherwise, it may not work correctly.

Safe Mode currently only disables the JavaScript portions of plugins. To disable the server-side portion of a plugin, you must rebuild your container with the plugin commented out.

Troubleshooting

If you cannot load the initial Safe Mode selection page, try visiting the following URL, which will skip the page and load Safe Mode directly:

https://discourse.example.com/?safe_mode=no_themes,no_plugins

For example: https://try.discourse.org/?safe_mode=no_themes,no_plugins

On Discourse versions 2.9.0.beta8 and below, you need to use ?safe_mode=no_custom,no_plugins instead.

Last edited by @hugh 2024-07-30T05:32:08Z

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