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Common problems

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Tip: Before anything else, reload the page with Ctrl+F5 (on a Mac Cmd+Shift+R). Many "it did not change" problems are an old copy of the page kept by your browser.

Your page shows blank space where the menu should be. The line that loads the menu cannot find the file.

  • Use the lines exactly as Frame Setup shows them. They start from the top of your website, so the same line works on every page, however deep it sits.
  • The page must end in .php, not .html.

My website shows the sample DonkeyCMS menu instead of mine

The files blog/header.php and blog/footer.php hold your own menu and footer. If someone uploaded the files from a DonkeyCMS download over the blog folder, those two were replaced by the samples. Run Frame Setup again, or restore Everything from a recent backup, which includes both files. Never upload those two files from a download.

Posts and category pages say "not found"

The blog's homepage works, but every post gives an error page. The small file that makes the short addresses work, blog/.htaccess, is missing on the server.

Files whose name starts with a dot are hidden in most FTP programs and in cPanel's File Manager. Turn on Show Hidden Files, check that blog/.htaccess is there, and if not, upload it from your DonkeyCMS download.

The menu covers the top of my posts

Your site's menu stays fixed at the top of the screen, so it sits over the start of the blog. Open Settings → Frame Tools → Frame Studio and, under Your menu on blog pages, switch on Leave room for the menu, then save. See Frame Studio.

The menu is invisible on blog pages

On your homepage the menu is see-through over a large photo. Blog pages have no photo behind it, so light text on a white page disappears. Open Settings → Frame Tools → Frame Studio and, under Your menu on blog pages, choose Your website's solid menu or Your own colors, then save. Only blog pages change. See Frame Studio.

Links such as #about only work on the page where that section is. Frame Setup and Frame Studio both offer to rewrite them so they lead back to your homepage's section. See Frame Setup.

My site's styles look odd on the blog, or the blog looks odd

Your website's stylesheet now loads on blog pages too, and some stylesheets change every element of a kind, for example every menu or every heading.

  • If the menu looks unstyled on the blog, run Frame Setup again and keep your stylesheets ticked in step 2.
  • On the Pro plan and above, if something looks wrong only on the blog, look at Custom Head Code on Settings → Frame Tools first: a rule pasted there applies to every blog page.

Password reset and invitation emails never arrive

Your blog needs a mailbox to send from. Fill in Settings → Email and press Send test email. Also look in the Spam folder: mail from a new domain often lands there at first. See Email (SMTP).

I forgot my password and no email arrives

On the sign-in page, Forgot your password? emails you a link. If that email never comes because your blog's email is not set up yet, get in touch: a new password can be set through your hosting's database tool (phpMyAdmin), and we will walk you through it.

The comment form or Subscribe button does not show

Both stay hidden until the two Cloudflare Turnstile keys are saved on Settings → Comment settings. See Comments.

An image will not upload

Images must be JPG, PNG or WebP and smaller than 2 MB. Shrink a big photo before uploading it; most phones and photo apps can export a smaller copy.

A shared post shows no picture on Facebook

The first time a link is shared, Facebook reads the page at once but fetches the picture a moment later, so the very first preview can come without it.

  1. Open Facebook's Sharing Debugger, paste the post's address and press Debug, then Scrape Again. Press it a second time if the picture is still missing.
  2. Look at Response Code. 200 means Facebook could read the page, and the picture follows.
  3. If it says 429 (or 403), your hosting company's protection is turning Facebook away: Facebook asks for the page and its picture in one quick burst, which some servers take for an attack. Ask your hosting company to exempt facebookexternalhit from rate limiting for your domain. The post itself is fine.

Also check that the post has a featured image, or that a default share image is set (see SEO & AI visibility).

The License page says my site is not on my license

Add the domain in your donkeycms.com account under Domains, then press Check again. See License and domains.

Still stuck? Write to us — we read every message.