Check for conflicting RSS plugins using this shortcut

Sometimes issues that appear to be caused by Featured Images In RSS plugin are related to a conflicting plugin.

Some common issues we've seen:

  • Our free plugin adds one image to the RSS feed - but there are duplicate images in the RSS feed.
  • Our premium plugin adds an image in a media tag and/or enclosure tag, and adds the top-level media attribute - but there are duplicate media attributes, which can cause the RSS feed to no longer validate.

Double images or double media tags happen when another plugin is also sending the same data. The only way to know for sure is to deactivate other plugins (while ours is active) to identify the conflict. Once you identify the conflicting plugin keep it deactivated or investigate the settings to see if you can turn off RSS features while keeping it active. 

Conflicting Plugins

Known conflicting plugins:

  • RSS Link
  • Feedzy
  • Open Graph and Twitter Card Tags: It can create duplicate media attributes, and you may see double images in the feed. Turn off the enclosure and media:content options.
  • GN Publisher: It can create duplicate media attributes, and affect images added to the RSS feed. It should not be needed when using our plugin.
  • Rank Math SEO: it can break feeds by adding image title tags in the RSS feed incorrectly, and it also has a basic RSS images checkbox (with no formatting options), we recommend turning this option off when using our plugin.
  • Yoast SEO Video Optimization: it can affect the RSS feed via it's "Media RSS Enhancement" option, we recommend turning this option off when using our plugin.
  • Any other plugin that adds Media attributes to the RSS feed, and/or adds images to the RSS feed.

Found a new one? Please contact us so we can add it to the list!

Manual Deactivation Method

Try deactivating other plugins, a few at a time, clear your cache and check the raw feed after each time, to see if it goes away. 

  1. Keep Featured Images In RSS plugin activated.
  2. Deactivate other plugins a few at a time.
  3. Clear the website cache, if applicable.
  4. Check the feed after each time to see if the double image disappears. Use the RSS Image Checker tool (with the cache busting feature on) or view the raw feed URL.
  5. Once it does, reactivate those plugins one at a time, checking the feed each time, and see which one causes it to be added back.
  6. When the conflicting plugin is identified, deactivate it completely or turn off the RSS feature if there is an option to.

Advanced Shortcut Using SSH

Rather than blindly going through plugins, try this shortcut from our dev team.

A more advanced method is to use SSH (you'll need be familiar with SSH and have SSH access), and use the grep command to find code relating to the RSS feed, 'the_excerpt_rss' is one good way:

cd wp-content/plugins/
grep -r 'the_excerpt_rss' *

For my site as an example, it displays:
# grep -r 'the_excerpt_rss' *
featured-images-for-rss-feeds/featured_images_in_rss.php: 'the_excerpt_rss',
featured-images-for-rss-feeds-premium/includes/premium/premium.php:add_filter( 'the_excerpt_rss', 'firss_insert_ads', 15 );
featured-images-for-rss-feeds-premium/includes/premium/premium.php:add_filter( 'the_excerpt_rss', 'firss_featured_images_in_rss_first_image', 1001, 1 );
featured-images-for-rss-feeds-premium/featured_images_in_rss.php: 'the_excerpt_rss',
feedzy-rss-feeds/includes/feedzy-rss-feeds-feed-tweaks.php:add_filter( 'the_excerpt_rss', 'feedzy_insert_thumbnail' );
wordpress-seo/src/integrations/front-end/rss-footer-embed.php: \add_filter( 'the_excerpt_rss', [ $this, 'embed_rssfooter_excerpt' ] );
wp-piwik/classes/WP_Piwik.php: add_filter ( 'the_excerpt_rss', array (

From that result, I see that plugins with these folder names have code affecting the RSS feed:

featured-images-for-rss-feeds
featured-images-for-rss-feeds-premium
feedzy-rss-feeds
wordpress-seo
wp-piwik

Then narrow down which one of these is causing issues or conflicting with our plugin. In this case, it's the Feedzy plugin also adding image thumbnails to the RSS feed, so we would find and turn off that option in the plugin's settings.

The SSH commands just help find the plugins to target for deactivation, there’s no editing going on.

Get Our Help

If you’d like help finding the plugin and you’re a Premium user, you can use the contact form to submit a tech support request. Login to your WordPress dashboard, visit the Featured Images In RSS plugin page, and click "contact us". We will require an admin login to your WordPress site to help. Use the "technical support" form to securely send the login info. 

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