Debug wp_redirect() Plugin

Important: It is not recommended you leave debugging enabled when you’re done, the debug information exposes file paths of files as well as PHP arguments passed into functions from the PHP debug_backtrace() which may contain sensitive information.

This is useful for those times when you have a lot of plugins / theme functions interacting that cause an unknown redirect. This tool helps you figure out what is redirecting and where it’s redirecting at in the code.

This plugin outputs information about each wp_redirect() and wp_safe_redirect() call done on the front and in the admin area of a site.

Usage: Enabling with the setting

You can enable redirect debugging by going to Settings > Debug wp_redirect() on your site or in your network settings (if network activated). You have the option to enable debugging for frontend requests and/or admin dashboard requests. You also have the ability to only show debugging if the person is logged in or is an admin.

If you encounter problems with this plugin blocking redirects you need for logging in or being able to disable the redirect, simply rename the plugin or define this in your wp-config.php file: define( 'DEBUG_WP_REDIRECT', false );

Usage: Enabling through wp-config.php

You can define constants in your wp-config.php file to enable redirect handling for frontend / admin dashboard requests. Constants override any options set in the admin settings page.

• To enable redirect debugging on the frontend of a site: define( 'DEBUG_WP_REDIRECT', true );
• To enable redirect debugging in the admin dashboard of a site: define( 'DEBUG_WP_REDIRECT_ADMIN', true );
• To only show redirect debugging to logged-in admins of a site: define( 'DEBUG_WP_REDIRECT_LOGGED_IN_ADMIN', true );
• To only show redirect debugging to logged-in users of a site: define( 'DEBUG_WP_REDIRECT_LOGGED_IN', true );
• To only show redirect debugging to logged-in user ID(s) of a site: define( 'DEBUG_WP_REDIRECT_LOGGED_IN_USER_ID', true );

Usage: Enabling debugging through PHP in your own code

You can enable/disable debugging when you have your own code you want to start/stop debugging after a certain point.

These functions will start/stop debugging the redirects whether it’s on a frontend or admin dashboard request.

• Enable debugging: debug_wp_redirect_enable()
• Disable debugging: debug_wp_redirect_disable()

Usage: As an mu-plugin

Take the debug-wp-redirect.php file and add it to your mu-plugin folder in a location like: /wp-content/mu-plugins/debug-wp-redirect.php

You won’t need any other files. The admin settings page will not show up so you will need to use mu-plugin mode specifically with the constants for wp-config.php as documented above.

Contribute to make this plugin better

You can help to make this plugin better through GitHub or sponsor my time.

1. Unpack the entire contents of this plugin zip file into your wp-content/plugins/ folder locally
2. Upload to your site
3. Navigate to wp-admin/plugins.php on your site (your WP Admin plugin page)
4. Activate this plugin

OR you can just install it with WordPress by going to Plugins >> Add New >> and type this plugin’s name

2.1.2 – September 9th, 2022

• Fixed: Added more checks for is_user_logged_in() function calls to be able to handle earlier redirect debugging.

2.1.1 – September 9th, 2022

• Added: Now you can use debug-wp-redirect.php as an mu-plugin more easily.
• Fixed: User ID setting was not saving properly.
• Fixed: Resolved problems with user-restricted debugging — sometimes redirects could not be debugged when requiring a logged in user because the plugin attempted to check for access before the user functions were available to use.

2.1 – March 11th, 2022

• Added new option to only show debugging if the person is logged in as specific user ID(s).

2.0.1 – March 5th, 2022

• Updated the text on the debug output so that it includes where the debugging is coming from and gives a handy link to admins to disable the debugging output.
• Updated compatibility with WordPress 5.9+

2.0 – June 4th, 2021

• Implemented new functions debug_wp_redirect_enable() and debug_wp_redirect_disable() to easily turn debugging on programmatically.
• Added new functionality to allow showing debugging only to those who are logged in.
• Added settings and network settings pages for the plugin so it’s easier to configure.
• Now requiring PHP 5.6+
• Updated compatibility with WordPress 5.7.1

1.1

• Default for plugin is not to output unless DEBUG_WP_REDIRECT is defined and set to true
• Updated plugin to allow for translations of text
• Cleaned up debugging output

1.0

• Just a simple wp_redirect debug plugin, nothing fancy to see here