Are you sure you want to do this? 📝 WordPress

WordPress: Are you sure you want to do this? Please try again. (nonce check failed)

A WordPress security nonce didn’t validate — the page was open too long, cached, or a plugin/theme form is broken.

Seen on: WordPress

Meaning

Nonces expire after 12–24 hours and are tied to the user session. Cached admin pages, logging in again in another tab, or plugin bugs (missing nonce field) trigger it.

Common causes

  • Page left open past nonce lifetime
  • Admin/frontend page cached with an old nonce
  • Logged in/out in another tab
  • Plugin/theme form missing the nonce

⚡ Quick fix

  1. Reload the page and try again
  2. Exclude admin and logged-in pages from caching
  3. Update/deactivate the plugin causing it

Detailed fix by platform

WordPress

  1. php
    // In a form
wp_nonce_field('save_settings', '_mynonce');
// When processing
check_admin_referer('save_settings', '_mynonce');

How to diagnose

  1. Timing — How long was the page open?
  2. Cache — Page cached?
  3. Plugin — Which action triggers it?

🔧 Still not fixed?

Many errors look alike. If the steps above didn’t solve it, one of these is probably what you’re facing:

🧠 Still stuck? Analyze your error

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