my blog titles just disappeared 😬😬😬I have never had so much strange trouble, absolutely couldnt make it without chatgpt which
told me to add custom css code. I certainly don't write code or anything like that. Chatgpt gives about 4 or 5 solutions and then I have to try them to see which ones will work.
Oh, but even before chatgpt gives me possible solutions I still have to follow certain steps to help it find the problem. 

The theme I'm using, is the absolutely only theme I have come across that doesn't squeeze the forum too small on mobile. I tested like 30 themes, couldn't deal with it anymore. ChatGpt gave me tons of CSS codes to implement and they still didn't stretch the forum on mobile, though desktop view was fine.
So I have to stick with this theme, but it had this huge gray box that was taking up too much unnecessary space, so I battle with that and thankfully removed that.

So I asked chatgpt to write a funny short story 😁 It's cool even though there's no thriving community here...maybe one day
------------

The Case of the Vanishing Titles, the Ugly Gray Box, and the Great Blog Breakup

Once upon a time in the chaotic kingdom of WordPressia, the noble Webmistress (that’s you!) fought an exhausting battle against the dreaded Ugly Gray Box and its sinister accomplice—the Vanishing Blog Titles.

At first, she was determined. She wielded the Sword of CSS Fixes, chanted the Cache-Clearing Incantation, and ventured into the cursed depths of Theme Settings. Each time she struck, the Ugly Gray Box shrank, shifted, or slightly faded—but it never truly disappeared. And worst of all, the blog titles still refused to show on individual posts.

"I have done everything!" she howled into the void, glaring at her screen. The CSS Gremlins cackled in response. The Theme Defaults sorcerer sneered from his hidden lair. And somewhere, deep within the WordPress servers, a mischievous gnome flipped a switch labeled "Display: None" just to mess with her.

Then, it hit her.

"Why," she thought, "am I doing this to myself?"

The Forum of Black Ariel Forever was thriving. The Webmistress had created a space where discussions flourished, community thrived, and posts displayed properly without the need for mortal combat with a stylesheet.

And so, with a deep breath, she made a bold decision:

💥 The blog shall no longer be updated. 💥
Instead, each post would live on as a forum topic, free from the tyranny of disappearing titles and ugly background boxes. The content would remain, preserved in its original form, but the future belonged to the forum.

The Webmistress closed her blog editor one last time, feeling a mix of relief and triumph. No more endless debugging. No more battles with the mystical forces of CSS. No more ugly gray box haunting her dreams.

As she turned her focus to the forum, a feeling of freedom washed over her. She had defeated the Blog Struggles, reclaimed her time, and chosen peace over pixel-perfection.

And so, in the land of WordPressia, the Webmistress rode off into the digital sunset—not as a frustrated blogger, but as the reigning queen of Black Ariel Forever’s Forum.

The End. 🎭

I have never in my life heard of no Action Scheduler.

Wow, I wrote this to DeepSeek:
what the heck is going on. I was a little late updating to the new version of wordpress: Action Scheduler: 8 past-due actions found; something may be wrong. Read documentation » Maximum simultaneous queues already in progress (1 queue). No additional queues will begin processing until the current queues are complete. All (2,605) | Complete (1,928) | Failed (665) | In-progress (1) | Pending (11) | Past-due (9)

DeepSeek said:
Hey there! Don't panic - this is a common WordPress issue that happens when the Action Scheduler (which handles background tasks like scheduled posts, emails, and plugin maintenance) gets a bit backed up.

## What's happening:
Your site has **9 past-due actions** that haven't run on time. These are routine maintenance tasks from your plugins:
- **EDD (Easy Digital Downloads)** - cleaning up sessions, weekly/daily events
- **WPForms** - scanning forms, purging spam, updating notifications
- **Action Scheduler** - its own maintenance tasks

The "Maximum simultaneous queues already in progress (1 queue)" message is actually good - it means there's already a process trying to catch up on these tasks.

## Quick fixes to try:

1. **Check WP Cron**
- If your site uses server-side cron, make sure it's working properly
- Add this to wp-config.php to force WP Cron to run more reliably:
```php
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);
```
(Then set up a real cron job on your server if you haven't already)

2. **Manually trigger the queue**
- Visit your site with this URL (replace yoursite.com):
```
https://yoursite.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron
```

3. **Increase PHP memory limit**
- Add to wp-config.php:
```php
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');
```

4. **Wait it out** - The system should process these automatically within the next few hours

The most concerning is the **665 failed actions** - you might want to check those to see if there's a pattern (like a specific plugin failing consistently).

Would you like help checking the failed actions or setting up proper cron handling?

Goes on and on. So then later I say:
can i just delete these plugins? I thought i deleted pinterest for woocommerce long ago

DeepSeek says:
Yes, you can absolutely delete these plugins! In fact, if you thought you already deleted Pinterest for WooCommerce, that might explain why you're seeing these issues—it may not have cleaned up after itself properly.

## What Happens When You Delete Plugins

Here's the important part: **Simply deleting a plugin doesn't always remove its scheduled tasks**. Well-coded plugins include cleanup routines that run when you properly uninstall them, which should:
- Cancel all scheduled actions
- Remove their options from the database
- Disconnect from external APIs

But if a plugin is deleted without running these cleanup routines—or if the plugin's uninstall code is buggy—those scheduled actions can get "stuck" in your database. That's likely what happened with Pinterest for WooCommerce.

## How to Clean This Up Properly

### Step 1: Delete the Plugins Correctly
1. **Pinterest for WooCommerce**: Since you thought it was already gone, it might be partially installed. Here's the proper removal process:
- Reinstall the plugin temporarily
- Go to **Marketing → Pinterest** (or WooCommerce → Settings → Integration → Pinterest)
- Enable "Erase Plugin Data" and save
- Disconnect your Pinterest account
- Then deactivate and delete the plugin

2. **WPForms**: When you delete it, it should automatically clean up its scheduled tasks, including:
```php
// WPForms uninstall automatically does:
wpforms()->get('tasks')->cancel_all();
wp_clear_scheduled_hook('wpforms_email_summaries_cron');
```

### Step 2: Clean Up the Orphaned Actions
After deleting the plugins, those 665 failed actions might still be hanging around. You have a few options:

**Option A: Use a Cleanup Plugin**
- Install **"Cleanup Action Scheduler"** (note: recent reviews suggest the free version's manual cleanup buttons may be limited)
- Or use **"Advanced Database Cleaner"** which has better free features

**Option B: Manual Database Cleanup**
If you're comfortable with phpMyAdmin:
```sql
-- Delete all failed Pinterest actions
DELETE FROM wp_actionscheduler_actions
WHERE hook LIKE '%pinterest%' AND status = 'failed';

-- Delete all failed WPForms actions
DELETE FROM wp_actionscheduler_actions
WHERE hook LIKE '%wpforms%' AND status = 'failed';

-- Delete any actions from these plugin groups
DELETE FROM wp_actionscheduler_actions
WHERE `group` IN ('pinterest-for-woocommerce', 'wpforms');
```

**Option C: Let Them Expire**
Action Scheduler eventually cleans up old actions, but with failures going back to 2023, that process isn't working well on your site.

## Quick Action Plan

1. **Backup your database first** (always!)
2. **Properly delete both plugins** using the steps above
3. **Check Action Scheduler again**—most Pinterest and WPForms actions should disappear
4. **If any remain**, use one of the cleanup methods above
5. **Monitor for a week** to see if new failures appear

The good news is that once these plugins are gone and their orphaned tasks are cleaned up, your Action Scheduler should run much smoother. Want me to help you identify any other problem plugins in your failed actions list?

---------------------------------
---------------------------------

Yeah so I go back and forth doing what it says. Got a lot of the deletions done. So glad it worked, but I did have to learn more about database backups vs file manger backups vs the entire website backups.

This is what it also told me

Prevention Going Forward

When you delete plugins in the future:

1. Always use the plugin's own uninstall process (don't just delete via FTP)

2. Check the plugin's settings for a "Clean up data on uninstall" option

3. After deletion, check Action Scheduler to confirm tasks are gone

Once you clean up these Pinterest zombies, your failed actions count should drop dramatically. Want to check what other zombie plugins might be lurking in there?
-----------------------
-----------------------

Wooh, so much. This stuff is way too complicated. I remember when having your own site was a lot easier. There are a million crazy-sounding things involved in keeping even the smallest sites up and I'm like wow