Scheduled WP posts - show up on social media with "page not found"

[pttony@gmail.com]

Blog2Social is having issues with any WP post that I schedule to post at a later date.

It does share these to social media when they are posted, but it pulls the wrong image (pulls a generic site image, not the featured image of the post). Furthermore, on facebook (page), instead of posting the page title is shows "page not found" (this is infuriating as the link to the page still works). [https://www.facebook.com/PeaceEdCampaign]

There is a similar issue on LinkedIn - while it doesn't say "page not found", it does not post the featured image. [https://www.linkedin.com/company/70915790/]

FWIW - it seems to post fine to Instagram.

Everything works just fine if I don't schedule the WP post (ie I post it in real time). However, 90% of our site's posts are scheduled - so this broken functionality with Blog2Social is very problematic.

This problem has been going on since at least September - although the earlier issues seemed more random (some scheduled posts showed up as they should, while others didn't).

This is my site: https://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello,

Thanks for getting in touch.

There are a few reasons this might happen. If images aren’t showing up right on social media, it’s usually because some metadata (like Open Graph tags) is missing or conflicting. Please be aware that Blog2Social just shares your link and the social media networks pull the preview info straight from your website’s source code.

For example, Facebook looks for the “og:image” and “og:description” to create the preview. To help it grab the right info, here are a few tips:
-Stick to one plugin for setting your metadata.
-Check your security settings. Some plugins might block Facebook from seeing your content.
-Make sure your image meets the network's size and format requirements so it loads properly.

I’ve attached some helpful guides for you:
Why is my image not displayed in my social media posts?
What are open graph tags and what do I use them for?

If this issue, as you mentioned, only occurs with scheduled posts, there must be a difference in how you are creating or scheduling them compared to sharing published posts instantly.
Have you changed anything on your website since September?
Are you scheduling your posts via the Auto-Poster in Blog2Social?
If so, it’s possible that not all required information is available at the time the post is scheduled.

Please also note that sharing to Instagram works differently compared to Facebook or LinkedIn. While those platforms allow link posts, Instagram only supports image posts.

Best regards

Benedikt

[pttony@gmail.com]

Thanks for the response Benedikt.

This remains mysterious. Since it works just fine when I post something live, it has to be an issue related to scheduling the publication of posts. I have Blog2Social set-up for auto-posting with a 5 minute delay, so all info should be available.

I did some troubleshooting, and it seems Wordfence is the culprit. If I disable it, the scheduled posts work without any error.

I turned it back on and tried to whitelist your IPs - that didn't seem to work. Is there another Wordfence setting we should be looking at? I don't want to turn off Wordfence as the firewall has been very helpful for our site's security.

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

Just to make sure I understand correctly: You schedule your WordPress posts for a specific date and use the Auto-Poster to share them automatically.
Does the issue occur only when you schedule the WordPress post, or also when you publish it directly and let the Auto-Poster share it?
I’m assuming the issue does not occur when you take an already published WordPress post, schedule it manually in Blog2Social, and share it from there. Is that correct?

Is the latest version of Blog2Social (8.7.0) installed on your website?
Please ensure that it is.

Best regards

Benedikt

[pttony@gmail.com]

Hi Benedikt,

Yes, that's correct. Here's the full set-up for the scenario under review:

1. I schedule a WordPress post for a future date & time
2. I use the Blog2Social Auto-Poster to share these automatically when they are posted to WP. (Auto-Poster is set with a 5 min delay)
3. Auto-Poster shares the posts when they are posted - however, it doesn't pull the featured image, and also posts a "page not found" response [although the social media post does link to the WP post)
4. I'm using Blog2Social 8.7.0 / WP 6.8.3 / PhP 8.3.27 / SQL 8.0.43 / WP MEMORY Limt set at 512M

Additional details/troubleshooting notes:

• The issue only occurs when I schedule a WordPress post.
• It seems to work fine when I publish a WP post directly - the Auto-Poster includes the correct image and other meta info.
• When I manually post using Blog2Social it also works fine...

WordFence issue?

• My best guess is this is an issue related to WordFence.... as...
• yesterday I disabled WordFence and a scheduled post worked as it should with the Auto-Poster
• Going further, I re-enabled WordFence and tried to whitelist your IPs in the firewall protection settings - hoping this would fix it. However, this did not work.
• Is there maybe some other setting in WordFence that is causing the issue? Is this a known problem?

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello,

Thanks for your detailed feedback.

I also noticed something else about the links where this issue occurs. The links contain the “slug” of your WordPress post (see attached screenshot).

If a WordPress post has not yet been published, WordPress assigns a unique technical URL (internal ID) ending with “?p=012345” as the link to your post. This happens because the final permalink (or SEO slug) can still be edited before publishing. The final permalink is created at the moment of publication and is then associated with this technical URL. The technical URL will always direct to your post, regardless of the permalink you eventually choose.

If you schedule your social media posts before the WordPress post has been published, Blog2Social can only assign the available technical WordPress URL to your social media posts, as this is the only reliable link at that point.
As soon as your WordPress post is published, Blog2Social automatically accesses the permalink (friendly URL) of your post. All social media posts that you schedule after your WordPress post has been published will be shared with the final permalink.

Please note:
If you make any changes to the permalink in your original post before it is published, it is important to update the scheduled social media posts (in Blog2Social under “Scheduled Posts”) accordingly to ensure your links continue to work correctly.

Since you have activated 4 WordPress users with your license key on your website, I would recommend checking whether this issue occurs only for specific users and whether certain users follow a different process when creating or scheduling posts compared to the others.

Best regards

Benedikt

[pttony@gmail.com]

Interesting... what do you think would cause Blog2Social to post the slug, and not the friendly URL? We are not making any changes to the permalinks, so this shouldn't be the issue.

Further I looked at the social post that worked successfully (when I disabled WordFence) and even that post used the slug.

Do you think if I set the auto-poster with a 10 min delay (currently at 5 min) that it might address this?

The other users registered with Blog2Social only use the plugin for direct scheduling.

I'm still convinced the WordFence is the culprit - as disabling it seemed to fix the problem. Are you familar with any other setting there that might conflict with Blog2Social?

[pttony@gmail.com]

FYI - I tried using an alternative security plugin (Siteground) and it produces the same problem. When the security is off, the posts work as they should.

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

We are currently reviewing this further with our technical team.

Best regards

Benedikt

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello,

Thanks for your patience.

Please try the following steps to resolve the issue:
1) Wordfence -> Firewall -> Rate Limiting / Advanced Settings (Names may vary slightly depending on your version)

The following options can interfere with Facebook and LinkedIn link previews if Wordfence misclassifies their requests:
“Block crawlers that are not a real browser”
“Immediately block fake crawlers”
“Block access to unknown bots”

Solution:
Try loosening or temporarily disabling these settings. In particular, avoid applying strict rules that block or throttle legitimate crawler traffic.

2) Add Facebook crawlers to the Wordfence allowlist
Go to Wordfence -> Firewall -> Blocking / Allowlisted Services (or a similar section depending on your version).

Where possible, explicitly add the following Facebook crawlers to the allowlist:
“facebookexternalhit”
“Facebot”

Please let us know if this has solved the problem with scheduled posts via Auto-Poster.

Best regards

Benedikt

[pttony@gmail.com]

Thanks... before I do this, can you also provide the name(s) of the linkedin crawlers that should be added to the allow list?

I'm a bit hesitant to open up the site to all crawlers as we've been shut-down by invasive bad-bot crawlers in the past.

[pttony@gmail.com]

Upon reflection - I know this is not the issue.

I did some troubleshooting last week, where I turned off the firewall in WordFence completely and the problem persisted.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

So again, the problem seems to occur only when I have WordFence or another security program (Siteground) enabled. What other settings might stand in the way?

[pttony@gmail.com]

I think I may have found the culprit through some additional troubleshooting.

There is an option for "optimizing the wordfence firewall" "that allows the firewall to be loaded before any other code loads." (See here: https://www.wordfence.com/help/firew...-the-firewall/).

This set-up changes the the wordpress “.htaccess”, “.user.ini”, and/or “php.ini” files.

I reverted to "normal" protection (reverting the “.htaccess”, “.user.ini”, and/or “php.ini” files) and it seems to have fixed the problem.

I'm going to continue to test it for a few days to make sure - so please don't close this thread until I can verify the fix.

[Blog2Social Support]

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback, that’s great.

Feel free to let us know whether this adjustment in WordFence has resolved the problem.

Best regards

Benedikt