I resolved this with a little digging.

Though I disabled all plugins to see if there was a conflict, nothing happened when I did. On a hunch, I checked settings in iThemes Security and found it was not allowing Enfold settings to take effect.

The plugin was not a problem before the update but now is. If anyone else has the issue, here’s the workaround.

Go to iThemes Security > System Tweaks, uncheck “Disable PHP in Uploads”. This was the culprit.

Also not that in Enfold prior to v3.x, width you entered in settings was displayed. Now you have to width + padding left (50px) + padding right (50px). So, if you want your boxes to be 1030px wide total, enter 1130px in Enfold > General Layout > Dimensions > Maximum Container Width.

Will deactivating the plugins loose any information I’ve added using them plugins?
Contact Form 7
iThemes Security
WordPress SEO
Media Library Assistant
Media Library Categories

Q- Where are you hosting the site and what is the hosting plan that you’re using if it’s OK to ask?

A – I am with OVH, I was on the very cheap shared hosting plan but a few weeks ago I upgraded to the ‘Pro’ plan specifically due to the site being VERRRRY slow. https://www.ovh.co.uk/web-hosting
I am hosting in France, However I have a ‘semi’ – CDN provided by OVH that caches my website in 3 locations.
GeoCache Accelerator on just 3 PoPs: Paris (France), Frankfurt (Germany), Newark (USA).https://www.ovh.co.uk/web-hosting/geocache.xml

I also have Photon – (by Jetpack) activated and it seems like my images are being served by Jet pack
http://i2.wp.com/shutterliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/shutterLIVING.com-Jamie-A-Cowan013.jpg?resize=800%2C533

Above is an example of an image : I think this is being served by the Photon servers.

Q. The site is loading a little bit slow on my end.
A. I know, I’m really annoyed about it. I’m trying EVERYTHING to speed it up.

Q. Usually minimizing the image file sizes
A. I have saved all my image files at a dimension of 800px wide (one of my posts is at 1200px wide) and I have Smushed them all using the Smush-it plugin.

Q. The number of plugins that you install will greatly improve the performance.
A. Plugins I have tried to keep to a minimum: (11 active)

Akismet : Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order : Facebook : iThemes Security : Jetpack : Pinterest “Pin It” Button Pro : Post Types Order : WordPress SEO : WP Smush.it : WP Super Cache : WP Super Cache – Clear all cache

I have run the P3 plugin profile plugin (then deactivated it after using it) and it tells me :

WordPress Plugin Profile Report
===========================================
Report date: 26/08/2014
Theme name: unknown
Pages browsed: 18
Avg. load time: 0.0839 sec
Number of plugins: 2
Plugin impact: 854.60% of load time
Avg. plugin time: 0.7167 sec
Avg. core time: 0.0002 sec
Avg. theme time: 0.0000 sec
Avg. mem usage: 6.58 MB
Avg. ticks: 13
Avg. db queries : 80.61
Margin of error : -0.6330 sec

Plugin list:
===========================================
P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) – 0.7072 sec – 98.68%
Pinterest “Pin It” Button Pro – 0.0095 sec – 1.32%

So I guess the plugins are not the problem (it only picks up that I’m using 2 plugins? Is this normal. I don’t think they are having too much effect?

These are the things that you can do to optimize the website speed and page load courtesy of the wordpress community:

1. Optimize all images with AI/Photoshop before uploading to server ‘save as web safe’ jpg
A- I did not save as ‘web-safe’ (I will from now on), but I did smush after.

2. Once all images are on the website optimize with ewww optimizer plugin twice 1hr 10mins apart.
A. I did not know about this one – I will research this today, Thanks for the tip.

3. Install wp-smushit run once to remove jpeg extra data, then uninstall.
I have done this (however I do keep it activated, (I will now deactivate it until I need it again)

4. Use BWP minify plugin to minify scripts and stylesheets.
A. I will now do this – thanks for the tip.

5. Install WP-Super cache, select all recommended settings.
A. I have done this already.

6. Logout your website, visit every page at least once to create super cache files.
A. I did not know I needed to do this, Is there anywhere you can recommend reading further about this?

7. Join Cloudflare setup your website on their CDN, Choose options: Full CDN Optimisation save then activate purge files. once done log out.
I used to be with coludflare however I switched to Photon by jetpack TBH I have not seen much of a difference in load times (If it is making a difference I still need to make the site faster).

8. Have a cup of coffee.
A. 2nd cup this morning.

9. Visit your site after 20 minutes or so.
Will do.
10. Don’t forget to smile.

Thanks for your advice: After logging in to OVH I see that my website is 37GB? This to me seems far too big there is no way the core files and my content (with theme) should be this big, is there anything you can recommend to look into this?

Hi Dude,

Thanks form your reply. What about BBpress? I do see a folder in my enfold dir with that?
I got a support ticket at IThemes security Pro People! Looking at the log files – It shows it happened when I updated the Enfold theme?
The settings in BBPress where you set the four control files (regis, groups, activate, members) was just reset along with the pages was moved to the bin
No hacker :-) But password is updated anyway.
Anyway… No harm done but it just strange and the time/log files shows it was me doing it … Hmmm

Dude,

You are correct that the stock Enfold theme handles the empty search string properly but, it appears, that the iThemes Security plugin adds code to the .htaccess file that causes the problem as I indicated. I know you can’t anticipate problems of what every plugin may cause. I was just wondering if what I posted may identify or lead to a possible solution on your end.

It’s not a huge problem. I found the fix as I posted and am also trying to see if the plugin developers have anything to say on their end.

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.

Update: I tried setting the RewriteCond back to original and implementing your suggestion and it did not work. It appears that the fix is with the code added by iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security). I thought what I posted may tip you off to a possible solution on Enfold side. No worries.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 10 months ago by TheMediaman.

*** UPDATE ***
I was brought to think that iThemes Security plugin have been stopping website, since I deactivated in all the websites I developed and noticed “error” alert didn’t show anymore. I think issue was due to it.
This is the right time to add a recommended security plugin to your Enfoled’s official plugins list. :)
What do you think about?
Didn’t you hear about something similar to this issue?

Thanks and best regards.