How to fix “Are You Sure You Want to Do This” Error in WordPress

Errors are like speed breakers on a smooth road. You just hate them. Who wouldn’t love a smooth journey? Similarly, in WordPress, you often experience speed breakers (Errors).

Not all errors are the same. Some errors are helpful (funny right?), as they tell you what exactly the problem is. PHP limit (memory exhausted) error and Error Establishing a Database Connection are some of those helpful errors.

But, what if you get an unhelpful error such as “Are You Sure You Want to Do This.” This might be the vaguest possible error.

Let me tell you, clicking on ‘Please try again’ won’t help.

The error is displayed so because there might be many different factors that might lead to this error.

We’ll show you how to investigate the “Are You Sure You Want to Do This” error and fix it.

Why do you get an “Are You Sure You Want to Do This” error?

Before we tell you why you might be getting this error, let’s talk about while accomplishing which task do you get this error. This error can occur on several occasions such as,

• While Inserting an image into a post
• Customizing a theme
• While Creating tags or categories
• Uploading a theme or plugin
• Publishing posts or pages
• Updating WordPress core
• Updating WordPress themes or plugins

There are many more tasks, but these are the primary ones. Now, let us take a look at why you could be encountering this error.

Following are some of the most common reasons for encountering this error:

• You’ve reached your PHP memory limit
• Your theme or plugin is not properly coded
• Choosing an incorrect file while uploading a theme or plugin
• There is a security issue

Let us go through the possible reasons for this error and see how to fix them.

Investigation of theme and plugins

Plugins and theme installed on your site are the most common reason for this error to occur. To know which plugin is causing this error, you’ll have to deactivate all the plugins.

After successfully deactivating the plugins, install and activate them one-by-one until the error comes up again. When you see the error again, you’ll know that the last plugin you installed is the culprit. You’ll have to report the plugin to its developer to resolve the issue.

In a similar manner, you can investigate your theme by deactivating and then activating it to see if the error occurs. Go to Appearance > Themes page in your WordPress admin area and you will see a notification that ‘The active theme is broken. Reverting to the default theme’. WordPress will now start using the default theme like Twenty Sixteen or so for your website.

Clear your browser cache and cookies

Sometimes the reason of error is nothing but your browser cache. Try clearing your browser cache and cookies to see whether you’re getting the error.

PHP memory limit reached

PHP memory exhaustion may also cause this error, go through our article on How to fix WordPress PHP memory limit error to increase your PHP memory limit.

Security issue

Many times, this error pops up when you’re trying to complete an action that requires certain user permission, but the problem is, WordPress isn’t able to verify that you have the access.

The mechanism is as follows, WordPress uses security tokens called as nonces to validate a user to validate that they are the owner of their account. If WordPress isn’t able to verify the nonces (security tokens), the error is displayed.

“Are You Sure You Want to Do This” error can occur if your site is the subject of an attack. Especially in cases of cross-site forgery (CSRF) or cross-site scripting (XSS). If this is the cause, you’ll have to install a security plugin immediately and make sure that you keep your WordPress admin area secured at all times.

Conclusion

There can be many reasons why the “Are you sure you want to do this?” error is displaying on your site. The error can be from your side, a security vulnerability or from the plugin/theme developers sides. You now know some of the important ways to troubleshoot these errors.

If you know any other method to troubleshoot these errors, please share with us in the comment section 🙂