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Troubleshooting: Why Your Pretty Links Aren't Showing Up or Saving

41 threads Sep 9, 2025

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If you're using the 'PrettyLinks – Affiliate Links, Link Branding, Link Tracking, Marketing and Stripe Payments Plugin' and find that your newly created links aren't appearing in the list, you're not alone. This is a common issue reported by users, often after migrating a site, updating the plugin, or encountering a database error. This guide will walk you through the most effective solutions to get your links saving correctly again.

Why This Happens

The root cause of this problem is almost always related to the plugin's database tables. When the plugin is activated, it creates specific tables to store your links, groups, and click data. If these tables are missing, corrupted, or weren't generated correctly during installation or an update, the plugin can't save or retrieve your link data. You might see a success message like "Your Pretty Link was Successfully Created," but the list remains empty. In some cases, debug mode might reveal errors like "Table 'wp_prli_links' doesn't exist."

Common Solutions

1. Reset the Database Version (Most Common Fix)

This is the most frequently recommended solution across support threads. A record in your WordPress options table tells the plugin what database version it's using. Deleting this record forces the plugin to re-run its installation routine and re-create the necessary tables upon reactivation.

  1. Deactivate the Pretty Link plugin from your WordPress admin dashboard.
  2. Access your database using a tool like phpMyAdmin or the Adminer plugin (often provided by your web host).
  3. Find your site's wp_options table (the prefix may be different if you changed it).
  4. Search this table for a row where the option_name is prli_db_version.
  5. Delete this row.
  6. Return to your WordPress plugins page and reactivate Pretty Link.

Important Note: This process will regenerate the plugin's tables, but any existing link data stored in the old tables will be lost. This is often the case if the tables were already missing.

2. Check for Plugin Conflicts

Sometimes, another plugin can interfere with Pretty Link's functionality, preventing the admin interface from loading correctly or causing JavaScript errors that break the "Create" button.

  1. Temporarily deactivate all other plugins on your site.
  2. Check if Pretty Link works correctly now (try creating a link).
  3. If it works, reactivate your other plugins one-by-one, testing Pretty Link after each activation, to identify the conflicting plugin.
  4. Common conflicts mentioned in threads include import/export plugins like WP All Import.

3. Check User Permissions

In rare cases, a user role capability issue might prevent access. Ensure you are logged in as a user with Administrator privileges. If the problem persists, try creating a new Administrator user account and testing from there.

4. Review Database Permissions and Health

If the solutions above fail, particularly if you see database errors mentioning access privileges (e.g., "Access denied; you need the SUPER privilege"), the issue may be at the server level.

  • Contact your web host's support team and ask them to verify that your database user has the necessary permissions to create and modify tables.
  • Ask them to check if the database tables (e.g., wp_prli_links, wp_prli_clicks) are present and if they need to be repaired.

Conclusion

The "link created but not showing up" issue can be frustrating, but it's usually resolved by forcing the plugin to rebuild its database tables. Start with Solution #1, as it resolves the majority of cases. If problems continue, work through the other steps to identify any conflicts or deeper server-level issues.

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