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Troubleshooting the Cookie Notice Plugin's Corona Banner: Common Issues and Solutions

18 threads Sep 10, 2025 Plugin → Cookie notice & compliance for gdpr / ccpa

Content

The 'Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA' plugin once included a temporary feature known as the Corona Banner, designed to display public health information and statistics. While this feature is no longer part of the plugin, many users encountered issues with it during its active development. This guide compiles the most common problems and their solutions based on community reports.

Common Corona Banner Issues and Fixes

1. The Banner Not Appearing or Disappearing

The Problem: Users reported activating the Corona Banner but not seeing it on their front-end website.

Why It Happened: This could be due to conflicts with other plugins, the theme, or caching. In some cases, the external data API that powered the banner may have been temporarily unavailable or blocked.

The Solution:

  • Clear Caches: Clear any site, browser, or server-level caches.
  • Conflict Test: Temporarily deactivate all other plugins and switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-One) to see if the banner appears. If it does, reactivate them one by one to find the conflict.
  • Check Settings: Ensure the banner was not only activated but also configured to display the desired information (e.g., "Current Cases").

2. Translation and Language Problems

The Problem: The Corona Banner text remained in English even when translations were available or when using multilingual plugins like Polylang.

Why It Happened: The banner's text strings were separate from the main plugin's translation files and were not always picked up by third-party translation plugins.

The Solution:

  • Plugin Settings: Some text, like the title on the close button, was pulled directly from the main plugin's "Refuse consent" button setting. Changing that primary setting would also change the banner's text.
  • Direct Translation: For other text, using a code-based solution with a filter hook was often the most reliable method, though it required custom code.

3. Performance and Security Warnings

The Problem: The banner significantly slowed down page load times (as measured by tools like GTmetrix) or was flagged as "RiskWare" by security software like Malwarebytes.

Why It Happened: The banner fetched live data from an external coronavirus statistics API (coronavirus-tracker-api.herokuapp.com</code]). Some security vendors proactively block connections to certain external domains, categorizing them as potential risks. The constant external request also added to page load time.

The Solution:

  • Disable Live Data: The most effective fix was to disable the "Current Cases" option in the banner's settings, which stopped the external API call and resolved both the performance hit and most security flags.
  • Whitelist the Domain: For users who wanted to keep the live data, they could submit a request to their security software's vendor (e.g., Malwarebytes) to whitelist the API domain.

4. Display and Functionality Bugs

The Problem: The banner did not display correctly on mobile devices, the close button was inaccessible, or the animation (fade/slide) did not work.

Why It Happened: These were typically bugs within the feature's CSS or JavaScript code that could conflict with a theme's own styles.

The Solution:

  • CSS Overrides: Adding custom CSS to adjust the banner's positioning, z-index, or opacity was a common workaround.
  • Disable the Feature: The most straightforward solution was to simply disable the Corona Banner in the plugin's settings, which many users opted to do while waiting for an official update.

Important Note: The Corona Banner Has Been Removed

It is crucial to note that the Corona Banner was a temporary feature. The 'Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA' team has since removed it entirely from the plugin. If you are using a current version of the plugin, you will not see this feature or encounter these specific issues. This guide serves as a historical reference for users who may have been affected while the feature was active.

For issues with the core cookie compliance functionality of the plugin, please consult other troubleshooting guides on BugWP.com.

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