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Troubleshooting Guide: Why Your AddToAny Share Buttons Aren't Showing

32 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Addtoany share buttons

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One of the most common support issues for the AddToAny Share Buttons plugin is when the icons fail to appear for some or all of your site's visitors. This can be a frustrating experience, but the cause is almost always related to a specific browser setting, plugin conflict, or network configuration. Based on community reports and solutions, this guide will walk you through the most common reasons and their fixes.

Why This Happens

The AddToAny plugin loads its resources from an external content delivery network (CDN). Various privacy tools, browser features, and network-level filters are designed to block content from such external sources, which can inadvertently prevent the share buttons from loading correctly. The issue is rarely a permanent bug with the plugin itself but rather a compatibility or configuration problem on the user's end.

Common Solutions to Try

1. Browser Privacy and Tracking Protection

Many modern browsers, including Firefox, Vivaldi, and Opera, have built-in tracking protection. This feature is often enabled by default in private browsing modes and can block social sharing buttons.

  • Firefox: Check if 'Enhanced Tracking Protection' is active. You can toggle it off for a specific site by clicking the shield icon in the address bar.
  • Vivaldi: Ensure the 'Block Trackers' option is disabled in your browser settings.
  • General: Try viewing the site in a private/incognito window with extensions disabled to rule out browser add-ons like AdBlock, uBlock Origin, or Privacy Badger.

2. Enable Local Caching in AddToAny

A highly effective workaround for many of these blocking issues is to use the plugin's built-in local caching feature. This serves the necessary files from your own server instead of the external CDN, which often bypasses privacy filters.

  1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings → AddToAny → Advanced Options.
  2. Check the box for 'Cache AddToAny locally with daily cache updates'.
  3. Important: If you use a caching or optimization plugin (like Autoptimize, W3 Total Cache, or WP Rocket), you must clear its cache after enabling this option for the changes to take effect.

3. Plugin or Theme Conflicts

Sometimes, another plugin or your theme's CSS/JavaScript can interfere with how AddToAny displays.

  • Temporarily deactivate all other plugins and see if the buttons reappear. If they do, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify the culprit.
  • Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-One) to see if the issue is theme-related.

4. Network-Level Blocking (VPNs, Firewalls)

If users on a specific network (like a corporate VPN) report errors such as ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED for www.addtoany.com, it indicates the network's firewall or filtering system is blocking access to AddToAny's servers. The local caching option (Solution #2) is the best fix for these users.

5. Check on a Different Device

Before making extensive changes to your site, ask a friend or use an online cross-browser testing tool (like browserling.com) to see if the buttons are visible elsewhere. If they are, it confirms the problem is local to the original user's device or browser configuration.

Conclusion

In most cases, the share buttons not displaying is a client-side issue related to privacy and security settings. The 'Cache Locally' option is the most powerful tool to resolve these problems across the board. If you have tried all these steps and the issue persists, describing your specific scenario in detail on a community forum will help others provide more targeted assistance.

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