🔍 Overview
Some customers have reported two related issues when working with OTTO: a false error stating that no WordPress site was detected during CMS sync, and a PR Distribution job that stalls at 50% progress. This article explains why these issues occur and how to resolve them.
⚠️ What You May Be Experiencing
- OTTO's CMS sync fails with a message like "No WordPress site detected" even though your WordPress site is connected.
- Your PR Distribution job is stuck at 50% and does not complete.
- Your WordPress Connector appears disconnected in the dashboard after a sync attempt that seemed successful.
🛠️ Why This Happens
These issues are caused by a known bug in OTTO's CMS sync process. The system incorrectly triggers a WordPress detection check during sync, which can return a false negative — meaning it reports no WordPress site even when one is properly connected. This false error can interrupt the sync task and cause downstream jobs, such as PR Distribution, to stall mid-progress.
Our engineering team has identified the root cause and a fix is currently in release. Once deployed, the false detection error will be resolved and sync tasks will complete reliably.
✅ Steps to Try Right Now
While the fix is being rolled out, the following steps resolve the issue for most customers:
- Reconnect your WordPress site. Go to Settings → CMS Connectors (or Settings → Integrations) and disconnect your site, then reconnect it using your credentials.
- Re-run the CMS sync. After reconnecting, trigger a new CMS sync from the OTTO dashboard. Wait for the sync to complete fully before proceeding.
- Restart the PR Distribution job. Once the sync completes successfully, cancel the stuck PR Distribution job and create a new one. It should now progress past 50% without issue.
- Verify your connector status. After the sync, confirm that your WordPress Connector shows as Connected in the Connectors panel. If it still shows as disconnected, repeat step 1.
📋 Additional Things to Check
- Make sure your WordPress site is live and accessible — OTTO cannot connect to sites that are in maintenance mode or behind a login wall.
- Confirm that the Search Atlas WordPress plugin is installed, activated, and up to date on your site.
- Check that your WordPress credentials (username and application password) have not expired or been changed recently.
- If you are publishing content, note that articles with a workflow status of Needs Review will not be included in published content lists — only fully approved content is synced.
🚀 What Our Team Is Doing
Our engineering team is actively working on this. Here is the current status of related fixes:
- False WordPress detection error during CMS sync — fix is in release and will be deployed shortly.
- CMS sync failures now surface proper error messages — improved error handling is in progress so you will see clear, actionable feedback if a sync fails in the future.
- WordPress Connector disconnecting after sync — this bug has been resolved in a recent update.
You do not need to take any action to receive these updates — they will be applied automatically to your account.
💬 Still Need Help?
If you have followed the steps above and are still experiencing issues, If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.