Are you having difficulty getting your site verified on Pinterest?
Are you receiving an error message, “API method not found“?
The problem could very well be a plugin conflict. Last night I did some troubleshooting for someone in a Facebook group. After checking everything I could possibly think of, I decided to check for a possible plugin conflict.
Well, sure enough there was. She had “Simply Instagram” installed and activated on her website. Simply Instagram has been a favorite Instagram plugin for a long time. As a matter of fact, it is currently installed on over 20,000 websites.
The issue here? The plugin hasn’t been updated and is now rendering an error message that states – “OAuthForbiddenException”, “error_message”: “You are not a sandbox user of this client”. This error means that the Simply Instagram plugin developer needs to update his API so that the plugin will “talk” between your website and Instagram. He has not performed this update and he hasn’t responded to anyone on the plugin support forum.
Now, you are probably asking, “What does this have to do with Pinterest?”
Evidently, if you have Simply Instagram activated on your website with an outdated API, it is interfering with Pinterest’s ability to make the connection to your website. Once Simply Instagram has been deactivated, the site verification process will continue and you will receive a confirmation.
This would also be true of any other plugin requiring an API update and they have not done so.
Rule of thumb…when troubleshooting, always deactivate ALL of your plugins and then activate them one at a time. This way you can narrow down the one causing the conflict. Even if you think one thing doesn’t have anything to do with the other – deactivate them all.
The good thing for the person I was helping…I already had an understanding of what was happening with Simply Instagram which made me have her deactivate that one first.
https://www.pinterest.com/website/confirm/
Just add the tag or upload the file. Log in to Pinterest, then use the link above to confirm everything. She said that should work. If not, you can contact Pinterest support Check out.
Darn, I tried deactivating every plug-in one by one to see if it was causing this error but no luck. Any other ideas of what may be causing this?
I just saw that other scripts that call for the updated AP will render that message. You may need to deactivate them all and then reactivate them one by one. If you have any caching plugins on your site, you need to clear the cache also. If you still need help, use the Support tab up top and maybe I can take a look.
Thank you so much! This worked perfectly for me! It was a plugin I actually new was a little out of date and they are creating a new plugin. I love how descriptive and easy your layout is! I also LOVE your sharing buttons!!!!!
Hi Julia, I am so glad that worked for you. For my theme, I am using the Digital Pro Child Theme by StudioPress which you can find here. And my buttons are called Scriptless Social Sharing and you can get it free https://wordpress.org/plugins/scriptless-social-sharing/.
Anita, I was wondering if you could help me. i’m having the api method issue. but i dont know how to deactivate my accounts. can you help me?
Yes, click Tech Support under my Contact tab and send me an email.