Troubleshooting a connection

The key is refused for this site

The key is tied to the address you entered in WP Foreman. Check the site’s address under Settings › General in WordPress matches (a www. difference is fine). If not, fix the address in the site’s Site settings in WP Foreman, then click New connection key.

The key has expired or was already used

Keys work once and expire after 24 hours. Open the site in WP Foreman and click New connection key.

The site says 401 or 403

• A security plugin or firewall (Wordfence, Cloudflare WAF, host firewall) may be blocking requests to /wp-json/wpforeman/v1/. Allow that path.
• The server clock may be wrong. Requests are only accepted within 5 minutes of the real time. Ask your host to enable time sync (NTP).

The site says 404

The WordPress REST API is disabled or blocked. WP Foreman tries both /wp-json/ and ?rest_route=. If both fail, check for a plugin that disables the REST API.

Timeouts or 5xx errors

The site was down or overloaded when WP Foreman called. Refreshes and backups retry a few times automatically. If it keeps happening, check the host’s error log.

Still stuck? Click Support in the menu and send a request about that website, with the error shown in WP Foreman. See Get help from the WP Foreman team.

Updates fail on WP Engine

The website connects fine but updates and installs fail with “Could not copy file”. WP Engine needs to add a rule for WP Foreman once per account. See Websites on WP Engine.