How to (really) fix “Failed to save” and “JSON error” in WordPress


I recently had a blog crash and had to reinstall a new theme to my WordPress. However I couldn’t make many changes to a theme it would give me “Updating failed.” followed by a “The response is not a JSON response.” I did so much Googling and nothing helped me I did all of the things and then I decided to open up a ticket with my server and pay the $50 so they could go in there and fix it.

I highly suggest this if you’ve exhausted everything else you’ve found on Google.

Here’s what the GoDaddy customer service tech explained to me after he fixed it and I wanted to share it so you can either try to fix it yourself, or if you don’t know how, just pay the extra credit fee so they can go in there and make the adjustments. It’s worth the headache and time!


We have identified that the issue you encountered was caused by JSON requests being blocked by the firewall.

JSON is used to handle requests and responses between the front-end and the back-end, particularly for actions like saving posts, updating pages, or interacting with plugins. When the firewall blocks these requests, the system is unable to communicate properly, resulting in the error you experienced.

One of the causes can be related to the firewall’s security settings, which may mistakenly flag these JSON requests as potential threats or unauthorized traffic. In your case, these requests were being blocked, preventing WordPress from processing updates correctly.

To solve the issue, I whitelisted the needed JSON paths in the firewall settings.

Developer Notes:

  • Troubleshoot the JSON error
  • Whitelisted JSON path in the firewall settings
  • Made test updates for the page and template

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