Last updated: 10th July 2026 for CC Security Essentials version 1.0

What is Diagnostics?

The Diagnostics page provides technical information about your WordPress installation that can help when investigating unexpected behaviour or confirming your website’s configuration.

Unlike the configuration pages, Diagnostics does not make changes to your website.

It simply reports useful information that may assist with troubleshooting, verification or support.

Most website owners won’t need to visit this page regularly, but it’s an invaluable resource when something doesn’t behave as expected.

Why is Diagnostics Useful?

Modern WordPress websites often consist of:

WordPress itself
themes
plugins
web server software
PHP
hosting configuration
caching
security software

When these components interact, identifying the cause of a problem isn’t always straightforward.

Diagnostics helps by presenting relevant information in one place, making it easier to understand your environment and identify potential causes of unexpected behaviour.

What Information Does Diagnostics Show?

The exact information available may change over time, but Diagnostics is intended to provide information such as:

WordPress version
PHP version
active theme
active plugins
server environment
relevant security configuration
verification status where applicable

This information helps you understand the environment in which CC Security Essentials is operating.

Read-Only by Design

One of the guiding principles of Diagnostics is that it is informational.

Viewing the page never changes your website’s configuration.

You can safely use Diagnostics to investigate issues without worrying about accidentally modifying settings.

When Should I Use Diagnostics?

Diagnostics is particularly useful:

after a failed verification test
when troubleshooting unexpected behaviour
before requesting support
after moving your website to new hosting
after updating WordPress
when checking compatibility with another plugin

Even if everything appears to be working normally, Diagnostics can provide reassurance that your website is running in the expected environment.

Diagnostics and Verification

Diagnostics and Verification complement one another.

Verification answers the question:

“Is this protection behaving correctly?”

Diagnostics helps answer:

“Why might it not be behaving as expected?”

For example, if a verification test produces an unexpected result, Diagnostics may reveal environmental information that explains the behaviour.

Diagnostics and Support

If you ever contact support, you may be asked to review information shown in Diagnostics.

Having relevant technical information readily available often makes it easier to identify the cause of a problem.

Because Diagnostics is read-only, you can review the information with confidence.

Troubleshooting

Verification failed

Review Diagnostics for information that may explain the result.

Examples include differences in your hosting environment or other software that may affect the expected behaviour.

Another security plugin is installed

Diagnostics may help identify overlapping functionality.

Although many security plugins can coexist successfully, enabling multiple plugins to manage the same feature can sometimes lead to unexpected behaviour.

Everything appears normal

That’s perfectly fine.

Diagnostics isn’t intended to identify every possible issue.

Its purpose is to provide useful information when you need it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Diagnostics change my website?

No.

Diagnostics only displays information.

It doesn’t modify your configuration or make changes to your website.

Should I check Diagnostics regularly?

Most users won’t need to.

Diagnostics is primarily intended for troubleshooting, verification and support.

Is the information private?

The information shown in Diagnostics is intended for website administrators.

It isn’t available to ordinary website visitors.

Does Diagnostics detect malware?

No.

Diagnostics focuses on the information relevant to CC Security Essentials and your WordPress environment.

It isn’t a malware scanner.

Best Practice

Whenever you encounter unexpected behaviour:

Review the relevant configuration.
Run the appropriate Verification test.
Open Diagnostics.
Review the reported information.
Investigate any differences from your expected configuration.

Following this process often helps identify issues more quickly than changing settings at random.

Continue with: