Resolving problems with license validation

This article contains information about how to troubleshoot problems with WP Rocket license validation.

When you install and activate WP Rocket, the validation of your license happens in the background.

If license validation does not happen automatically, you will see a screen like this:

It is not an issue that your license info is greyed out. You are not expected to edit these fields, they are automatically detected.

General troubleshooting

Save changes

First, simply try clicking Save Changes. In many cases, that’s all that is needed. If that doesn’t help, move on to the next steps. 

Check the status page

It’s there: https://wp-rocket.me/status/

Add our IP address to your allowlist

Ask your web host to allow list this IP address:

  •  185.10.9.101

Note: Adding this IP address to your allow list solves the issue in 99% of cases!

Check wp-config.php

Our server needs to contact your site to do this. If your site is blocking external HTTP requests we will be unable to validate your license and you will see a message in your dashboard asking for your API key. Here's how you can resolve this. 

Check your wp-config.php file and see if this line is present: 

define( 'WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL', true );

If so, it is blocking the license validation.

This may be a good idea for security reasons, but it's better to allowlist approved hosts like us: *.wp-rocket.me

So you can delete the above constant, or set it to FALSE, and use the WP_ACCESSIBLE_HOSTS to allowlist us (and any other necessary domains via a comma separated list). For example:

define( 'WP_ACCESSIBLE_HOSTS', 'wp-rocket.me,*wp-rocket.me,*.wordpress.org,localhost' );

Deactivate security plugins

Some security plugins, depending on their settings, may also block the validation process. Please temporarily disable them while attempting to validate your license. Also, if you uninstalled a security plugin, please check your .htaccess file and clear any leftovers.

Download and reinstall

In rare cases, you may need to download WP Rocket from your account page, reinstall and activate it. Particularly if the validation screen shows an email address not associated with your account or generic license information.

Staging sites

An issue can occur if you have cloned your site from production to staging using a tool that performs domain replacements in your database. This can happen when you use the built-in staging features of managed hosts like WP Engine, Kinsta, Flywheel etc. 

In these cases, if your WP Rocket account email is: name@yourdomain.com

It will be updated on your staging site to: name@yourstagingdomain.com

Then it will no longer be recognized by our validation system. In such cases, you will see the incorrect email address on the WP Rocket Settings screen. 

The solution is to define the correct license information by adding the following lines to your wp-config.php file:

define( 'WP_ROCKET_EMAIL', 'INSERT CUSTOMER EMAIL');
define( 'WP_ROCKET_KEY', 'INSERT CUSTOMER API');

Replace "insert customer email" with the correct email associated with your WP Rocket account.
Replace "insert customer API" with the API key seen on the Settings screen:

After updating your wp-config file, visit WP Rocket's dashboard, and click the "Validate License" button. Your license should be validated. 

If you are not able to see the API key and email on the settings screen, you can find this information in the licence-data.php file, from the plugin ZIP file you downloaded from your WP Rocket account:


Troubleshooting validation error notices

  • License validation failed. Our server could not resolve the request from your website.

    • Please try the general troubleshooting steps. If the issue persists, please contact support.

  • License validation failed: Your license is not valid.

    • You may not have an active license of WP Rocket. Please purchase one on our website.

  • License validation failed: You cannot add more websites. Upgrade your account or License validation failed: You have added as many sites as your current license allows. 

    • The number of websites allowed for your license has been reached. You will need to upgrade your license to add more websites from your account.

    Heads up! If you have validated your license on a localhost website first, you may need to transfer your license to the production website too.

  • License validation failed: This website is not allowed.

    • Your website is not allowed. Please contact support for more information.

  • License validation failed: This license key is not recognized.

    • First, try re-installing WP Rocket on your website. If the issue persists, please contact support.

  • License validation failed. You may be using a nulled version of the plugin.

    • Your plugin may not have been purchased and issued from our website. Please make sure it is official or purchase a license.

    If you are certain you have purchased an official version of the plugin, check if the API fields are blank, like this:

If so, you can define your license key in the wp-config.php as described here.

  • License validation failed. This user account is blocked.

    • It’s possible your account has been blocked due to unusual activity, such as when a license has been publicly shared or violates our terms of service. Please review your account and make sure that you recognize all of the websites listed. Contact support if you believe this notice is in error or you discover your license has been compromised.

  • License validation failed. This user account does not exist in our database.

    • The user email associated with the license isn’t in our database. Please contact support.

  • Curl error 28

    • This is usually related to a security restriction from a plugin, a firewall or your host. Make sure that the IP addresses above are added to the relevant allow lists. For further details about this error, please see this guide: cURL error 28

  • PCLZIP_ERR_BAD_FORMAT

    • If, when trying to update WP Rocket, you see this error: The package could not be installed. PCLZIP_ERR_BAD_FORMAT (-10) : Unable to find End of Central Dir Record signature, you can try adding your license information at the wp-config.php file, as described in the Staging Sites section of this same doc. Then, try updating WP Rocket again.

  • Curl errors related to SSL

    • If you receive cURL error 60, this is related to an issue with the SSL certificate on your server. You should ask your host to resolve that error. To validate your WP Rocket license in the meantime:

    1. Install and activate the following helper plugin:

      đź“Ą  Download (.zip): WP Rocket | Disable SSL Certificate Validation
      Developers: You can find the code for this plugin on GitHub.

    2. Go to WP Rocket > Settings
    3. Click “Save Changes” to re-try the license validation
    4. Deactivate the helper plugin

    If the helper plugin doesn't fix the issue, you can try the following (require root access to server):

    1. Download the latest cacert.pem from https://curl.haxx.se/ca/cacert.pem
    2. Add the following line to php.ini or .user.ini file:
      curl.cainfo="/path/to/cacert.pem"

    Another possible cause of the cURL error 60 is using an outdated version of cURL on the server side.

    Updating cURL version to the closest possible to 7.81.0 (released in early 2022) should help fixing it.

License validation for Bedrock

Please check our doc: How to use WP Rocket with Bedrock WordPress Boilerplate

License validation for Docker

If you are running WordPress on a Docker installation you may receive a  License validation failed. You may be using a nulled version of the plugin message when trying to install WP Rocket on the site.

This might happen in certain installations that use the official Docker WordPress image, or a variant provided by some specific hosting environments, such as Cloudways, which place the if statements below in the wp-config.php file, and these interfere with WP Rocket’s license validation process:

if ( ! defined( 'WP_ROCKET_KEY' ) ) { define( 'WP_ROCKET_KEY', getenv_docker('WORDPRESS_WP_ROCKET_KEY', '') ); }
// Your email, the one you used for the purchase.
if ( ! defined( 'WP_ROCKET_EMAIL' ) ) { define( 'WP_ROCKET_EMAIL', getenv_docker('WORDPRESS_WP_ROCKET_EMAIL', '') ); }

To fix this, you’ll need to replace the lines above with the following ones in the wp-config.php file:

define( 'WP_ROCKET_EMAIL', 'INSERT CUSTOMER EMAIL');
define( 'WP_ROCKET_KEY', 'INSERT CUSTOMER API');

You can see how to retrieve the customer email and API key in this section of the article.

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