Convert With Ben

Category: technical

  • Chrome Not Downloading Attachments – Virus Scan Failed

    Chrome Not Downloading Attachments – Virus Scan Failed

    Not sure why this suddenly started happening, but very annoying when started to affect all downloads including images!

    Going to tell you what I tried first in case this did have an effect:

    2. Disable Browser Extensions

    Some extensions, particularly security or download managers, can interfere with downloads.

    1. Open chrome://extensions/.
    2. Disable all extensions by toggling them off.
    3. Retry the download.
    4. If successful, enable the extensions one by one to find the culprit.

    3. Check Your Antivirus or Security Software

    Your antivirus software may block the download.

    1. Temporarily disable your antivirus:
      • Right-click the antivirus icon in the system tray.
      • Select Disable Protection or similar.
    2. Retry the download.
    3. If successful, whitelist the file or website in your antivirus settings.

    4. Disable Windows Defender SmartScreen

    Windows Defender SmartScreen can block downloads it considers unsafe.

    1. Press Windows + S, type App & browser control, and press Enter.
    2. Under Check apps and files, select Off (temporarily).
    3. Retry the download.
    4. After the download, re-enable SmartScreen to stay protected.

    However, still didn’t work until got this sage advice from ChatGPT:

    5. Check Windows Attachment Manager Settings

    Attachment Manager may block downloads.

    1. Press Windows + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
    2. Navigate to:
      • User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Attachment Manager.
    3. Double-click Do not preserve zone information in file attachments.
    4. Set it to Enabled and click OK.
    5. Retry the download.
  • SOLVED: Websites Not Loading and Pages Also Not Fully Loading

    SOLVED: Websites Not Loading and Pages Also Not Fully Loading

    I recently had a very strange problem where I was using a website similar to Teachable, and the list of courses wasn’t loading properly. I was getting a spinning wheel, which never disappeared.

    For various technical reasons, developer tools weren’t showing an error, and I couldn’t work out what the problem was.

    This was one of the pages where I just had a spinning…

    …and perhaps more importantly, neither could ChatGPT…

    The other symptom that I had was that a few websites weren’t appearing, but I just had a blank page on sites which didn’t seem offensive in my mind.

    I tried everything, including:

    • clearing cookies and cache
    • turning off firewall
    • turning off virus control
    • playing with weird settings in Windows which probably shouldn’t ever be touched

    Other PCs on the same network worked.

    There weren’t other users complaining of the same problem with this site.

    I was having the problem on both Edge and Chrome.

    I created a new profile on Windows where the site worked properly, but without an error message, it was difficult to know what was going on.

    I thought the problem could have been caused by NordVPN, which I had installed but wasn’t working. So, I shut that down and then found that there was also a network adapter that had Nord in it, so I shut that down also.

    I also cleared and flushed DNS, etc.

    Anyway, without further ado, this was the problem…

    I found that even though NordVPN was shut down fully and wasn’t in the bottom left of the screen either (what’s that called?!), processes were still running.

    So, a Ctrl+Alt+Delete later, I was in task manager.

    I did a search for nord, and found that there were 4 background processes that showed up even though the App itself was shut.

    When I shut down all 4, I could access all sites properly. The offending process was Threat Protection Service. However, if I didn’t shut down the others also then this would also be reactivated.

    Interestingly, when I restarted NordVPN manually, it says that the background processes aren’t running and did I want to restart them.

  • Using Google Authenticator on Chrome on Desktop

    Using Google Authenticator on Chrome on Desktop

    For many sites nowadays, you need to enter a code for authentication. I am using Google Authenticator on my phone, which works well, but it is kinda a pain when wanting to enter on your desktop as I need to open the phone first and then find the site, and then remember the number, etc.

    So, was looking a way to do it directly via my browser on windows.

    Here’s how

    Go to:

    https://authenticator.cc/

    Clikc on add to chrome to add authenticator to your chrome

    Click on Add to |Chrome

    Once added as an extension, in Chrome, click on the 3 dots at top and click on extensions/manage extensions. Find authenticator, and click on Details. Click on

    Pin to the toolbar and Allow it in incognito.

    Click on the icon as circled above.

    Click on Settings/Backup.

    Import QR Image Backup.

    Go to Google Authenticator on your phone. Click on three lines at the top left. Transfer Codes. Export Codes. Put in your pin for your phone if it asks. Select all the codes and click on next. Take a screenshot of your QR code generated. Transfer that to your desktop by email or otherwise.

    Upload that QR code as the QR Image Backup.

    And all your transfer codes will be transferred

  • Use Webhook from Mailpoet when a new subscriber is added

    Took a bit of trial and error to get this code to work. Definitely not perfect, as I am using the subscriber id to get the subscriber email and then sending it…

    Basically, just replace the URL for $webhook_url.

    You can put this within a plugin or functions.php in order to work. However, it may get overwritten when wp or a plugin updates so better to create one on your own.

     

    <?
    function send_webhook_on_new_subscriber($subscriber_id) {
    // The URL of your webhook receiver
    $webhook_url = ‘Put URL Here’;

    // Check if MailPoet API class exists
    if (!class_exists(\MailPoet\API\API::class)) {
    error_log(‘MailPoet API class does not exist.’);
    return;
    }

    // Get MailPoet API instance
    $mailpoet_api = \MailPoet\API\API::MP(‘v1’);

    // Try to fetch subscriber details using the API
    try {
    // Now, we’ll fetch subscriber data using the subscriber ID
    $subscriber_data = $mailpoet_api->getSubscriber($subscriber_id);

    // Send the entire subscriber data to the webhook
    wp_remote_post($webhook_url, array(
    ‘body’ => json_encode($subscriber_data),
    ‘headers’ => array(‘Content-Type’ => ‘application/json’),
    ));

    } catch (\Exception $e) {
    error_log(‘Failed to fetch subscriber details using MailPoet API: ‘ . $e->getMessage());
    }
    }

    add_action(‘mailpoet_subscriber_created’, ‘send_webhook_on_new_subscriber’);

    ?>

  • [Fix] Google Search Console: Page isn’t usable on mobile

     

    Error message telling me my page is not usable on mobile.

    If you have spent the last few hours/day/weeks/months trying to fix the Google Search Console message that your WordPress page isn’t usable on mobile, then you have hopefully come to the correct place to fix it.

    The classic message says:

    Why it’s not usable

    Content wider than screen

    Clickable elements too close together

    Text too small to read

    And when you know that this just isn’t true, it’s extremely frustrating.

    There are many on the internet who say just to ignore it, if you know that your page is showing, but I’m not in that school as I don’t like to give Google even a chance to reduce my rankings and if mobile usability has an effect on my rankings then that is not a good thing.

    At the end of the day, the message isn’t appearing there for no reason. So why doesn’t Google see the page as usable even if it looks fine to me and every single mobile and screen-tester that I look at. Even on the screenshot that Google shows you of your site, it still looks good!

    So, realize that if there is any chance that what Google says is true then fix that first. Hopefully that goes without saying.

    The next thing to do and this is BIG is to see if you are getting javascript errors according to the Google Search Console.

    When you click on View Crawled page, or View Tested page it should show you.

    Especially look at the Javascript console messages and page resources. If things aren’t being loaded, then this could change the way that Google is looking at your page. The fix for this is to turn off javascript in your browser and see if you can find the error.

    How I Fixed It

    So, here is how I fixed it. Quite possibly not the reason why you have the error but definitely worth it as it fixed it for me. I am using Elementor which may or may not have something to do with it. I also have created some pages in the Classic editor rather than the block editor.

    What I did, was to convert the post to be edited with Gutenberg rather than Elementor or Classic Editor.

    The way to do this is simply open the post in block editor and find a setting where you can convert it to blocks. Mine was on the left hand side. Make sure that you save it after. If this doesn’t work then try opening it in block editor and then saving it after. Make sure that you clear your cache and test again.

    If you are trying to do multiple pages, or can’t find out how to do the above, then you can use a plugin called Bulk Block Converter. I was able to convert 100s of posts at a time without having to open each post.

    If for any reason, this still doesn’t work, but you feel you are upon the right track (ie. you didn’t use block editor to create the post), then make sure that the cache is cleared so that Google is seeing the latest version of your site. One way to achieve this may be just to make a small edit on the post itself and update it.

  • Using Aweber and Zapier Errors

    Using Aweber and Zapier Errors

    Sometimes the most simple of tasks can also be the most annoying and tedious. Something that should take about a minute can go into hours.

    A previous boss, Charlie, told me that if you are having a technical problem, then someone else has already had the same problem and you will find a solution using Google.

    He was wrong in this case, but after I write about it here, he will be correct…see what I did there?!

    Here is what I wanted to do:

    When someone subscribes to a list on aWeber, Zapier will then be used to connect to Clearout. Clearout will check if it is a valid email and if so, will do nothing. If it is not, then Clearout will tell aWeber to unsubscribe.

    How the zap looks. Note that I used only continue if the result contains the text invalid.

    Nothing particularly complicated, but didn’t work 🙁 and got an error message that meant very little. After a search, it seemed to mean that you can not add a lead to AWeber unless the settings on that list allow someone to be subscribed without confirming.

    That shouldn’t be the case here, because I wasn’t trying to subscribe someone, but unsubscribe someone.

    Also, shouldn’t have been a problem because I already enabled single-optin to this least.

    Make sure that API double confirmation is also switched off.

    There was a suggestion on a forum to search by id rather than email address. Same error.

    Final solution was to change a setting under list settings so that double optin was disabled both for the form and admin AND also for the API.

    ON another note, it really should be so hard to achieve what I was trying to and a direct integration really would make far more sense. Would also mean that I could actually ‘clearout’ a whole list in aweber that already exists rather than just when a new subscriber is added.

    And for this to take 3 tasks in Zapier also seems a bit of an overkill…