Troubleshooting Jetpack Scan

Having trouble with Jetpack Scan? You can follow these troubleshooting steps to fix issues with Jetpack Scan.

Check the Site’s Jetpack Connection

A working Jetpack connection is required to get Jetpack Scan working properly. Before attempting any other troubleshooting steps, make sure your site’s Jetpack connection is working.

The Jetpack connection is used to facilitate scans of your site. There are times when the connection can become unstable or broken. This may be due to a misconfiguration of your site or hosting.

The first thing to do is check the connection status using the Jetpack Debug page. If it reports any issues with the connection, please see the Fixing Jetpack Connection Issues guide.

1. Check your site’s connection on the Jetpack Debug page.
2. Troubleshoot the connection using the Fixing Jetpack Connection Issues guide.

Add Server Credentials

If your site’s Jetpack connection is working, Jetpack Scan should begin working again. In some situations, your site may still run into errors. If the site’s Jetpack connection is working and Jetpack Scan is still having issues scanning the site, the next step is to add server credentials.

Adding server credentials is required to auto-fix any threats detected by Jetpack Scan, so by adding server credentials you are better prepared if you do need to fix a threat. Adding server credentials is done differently depending on which Jetpack plugin you’re using. See these guides for more information:

• Adding Credentials in the Jetpack Plugin
• Adding Credentials to the Jetpack VaultPress Backup Plugin

Check File Permissions

Ensure your SFTP/SSH/FTP credentials have full read and write file permissions to your WordPress installation directory.

Once your credentials have full read and write file permissions to your WordPress installation directory, you can wait for a new scan to run the next day, or trigger a new scan by clicking the Scan Now button on your Scan page.

Review Security and Firewall Settings

Even with a working Jetpack connection and server credentials, we can still see failed scans.

Web Application Firewalls (WAF) such as Cloudflare or Sucuri can block SSH/SFTP/FTP connections, or a security plugin installed on the site may be blocking certain network requests.

If you are comfortable, please review and adjust any WAF or security plugin settings to allow all communications between your site and Jetpack. If not, we recommend temporarily disabling these services/features while troubleshooting Jetpack Scan.

Generally, this can be achieved by disabling the plugin, but you might also have to disable a feature in the service provider’s dashboard (i.e.: pausing Cloudflare from their dashboard).

Speak to Your Host

Even when everything has been set up correctly it’s still possible to see errors. This is usually due to security settings outside your control.

Examples of this would be hosts who run ModSecurity at a level above what the hosting control panel exposes.

Often this type of security is automated and kicks in temporarily when the server sees repeated requests from a certain IP or too many requests in a given window of time.

The best way to get around this is to have your host allowlist Jetpack. You can direct them to our Hosting Reference Documentation page for the necessary details. See the section titled, “Allowlist IPs”.

If you are not sure about who your site is hosted with you can check using WhoIsHostingThis.com.

Some security and firewall plugins may also block requests from Jetpack; adding the same IP ranges to these plugins may be required. You could also try temporarily disabling other plugins to determine which may be blocking requests.

No Longer Need Jetpack Scan?

If your plans for your site have changed and you no longer need Jetpack Scan, you cancel your Jetpack plan, so you won’t receive these emails anymore.