One server, two phplist, one works, the other super slow

ℹ️ Support
1

I have a very strange problem.

In one server, I have two phplist. Both are the same version, phplist 3.6.15.

Both were working for a long time. Now one is super slow. So slow that I have to add php.ini configs to allow php to run longer and nginx to timeout much later.

These are checks done.

  • both nginx configs the same
  • both php-fpm 7.4 configs are the same
  • did a mysql check on the databases and are ok

What else can I check?

To make the slow one ‘work’ these are the settings used in php

php_admin_flag[display_errors] = on
php_admin_value[memory_limit] = 128M
php_admin_value[request_terminate_timeout] = 300

the display errors are not showing anything on the webpage.

On nginx did the following config so that it will not timeout.

fastcgi_read_timeout 300s;

Debian 11
php 7.4
phplist 3.6.15

I would really appreciate some advice on how to find the problem or even fix it.
I just do not understand that both phplist are on the same server with the same php 7.4 and one is working but the other is super slow.

2

I have just restarted the debian server and the same super slow phplist is still the same super slow phplist.
I must be missing something.
Is there some kind of debug setting?

I checked the config but the debug setting is for some other thing.

Really do not understand what is going on.

3

@pvanthony Does this current problem with the Updater plugin apply to the slow phplist?

4

Thank you very much for replying.

I have just renamed UpdaterPlugin.php to UpdaterPlugin.php.txt in the plugin folder.
Unfortunately it is not working. Still very slow.

Any other things I can try? The strangest thing is that it is working on another install on the same server.

I just don’t get it. Stressed out.

5

@pvanthony Is anything reported on the Event Log page?

Also, disable the phplist updater functionality by adding or changing this line in config.php

define('ALLOW_UPDATER', false);
6

@duncanc I had scary moment today 06/30/2026 my install slowed to a crawl giving 502s and logs (nginx) saying socket errors.

Started by chasing mysql 2006 errors but the DB (maria behind maxScale) was working fine from the CLI.
php-fpm was alive but not answering so using slow log (like mysql) found by disabling line 573 admin/index.php we could get back to work.

=== TLDR
working through a process of elimination: put php-fpm into slow debug mode I used my local robot dog to summarize:

phpList admin becomes unusable because checkForUpdate() blocks in curl_exec()

Stack:
curl_exec()
fetchUrlCurl() /var/www/html/lists/admin/lib.php:1341
fetchUrlDirect() /var/www/html/lists/admin/lib.php:1303
fetchUrl() /var/www/html/lists/admin/updateLib.php:14
getResponse() /var/www/html/lists/admin/updateLib.php:27
checkForUpdate() /var/www/html/lists/admin/index.php:573

Workaround:
Commented:
$updateNotif = checkForUpdate();

Replaced with:
$updateNotif = ‘’;

hope this helps :slight_smile:

-est2

3 Likes
7

Thank you for sharing this solution.

After doing the fix as mentioned above, phplist is working again.

Thank you again for helping. Thank you.

1 Like