The Hosting Tools plugin is what connects your WordPress site to Wordify. It's how SmartCache and the CDN are switched on, configured, and cleared from inside WordPress. We install it for you when your site is provisioned, so most of the time you never need to think about it.
Occasionally it loses its connection, usually after a site is restored from an old backup, migrated in from another host, or the plugin gets deleted by mistake. When that happens WordPress shows an authentication error and your cache and CDN settings stop loading. Fixing it takes one click in the Wordify Console.
Where to find it
Open your site in the Console and stay on the Overview tab. Scroll down the middle column to the Hosting tools plugin row. It shows the plugin's real connection status, not just whether the files are present.
A green dot and Installed & configured means everything is working and there's nothing to do.
Installing the plugin
If the row says Not installed, the plugin is missing from WordPress. Click Install and Wordify will install it, activate it, and connect it to your site automatically.
Installing takes a few seconds. When it finishes, the row turns green and shows the version number.
What the plugin controls
Inside WordPress the plugin adds a Hosting Tools menu with three pages: SmartCache, CDN, and Logs. These pages read their settings live from Wordify, which is why they're the first thing to break when the connection is lost.
You don't need to set the CDN up from here. Turn the CDN on from the Console under Hosting, then CDN, and the plugin picks up the settings automatically. See Using the CDN and Using SmartCache for how those work.
What an authentication error looks like
When the plugin can't authenticate with Wordify, a red notice appears at the top of every WordPress admin screen:
Hosting Tools: Plugin is unable to retrieve configuration details due to an authentication issue. Please login to the hosting dashboard to reconfigure the plugin.
The Hosting Tools page stops showing your CDN and SmartCache status, and displays the same message instead:
The Configure Smart Cache page does the same, and so does the CDN page:
This is the plugin telling you it has lost its connection. Your site and its content are fine. SmartCache and the CDN keep running with whatever settings they already had, but you can't change or clear them from WordPress until the plugin reconnects.
Reconnecting the plugin
Go back to the site's Overview tab in the Console. The Hosting tools plugin row will show an amber dot, Needs reconfiguration, and a short line explaining what's wrong.
Click Reconfigure. Wordify issues the site a fresh key, writes it back into WordPress, clears the recorded authentication failure, updates the plugin if it's on an old build, and reactivates it if it had been switched off. It then rechecks the connection and tells you whether it reconnected.
Refresh WordPress and the error will be gone, with your SmartCache and CDN status loading normally again.
What the status messages mean
The line under Needs reconfiguration tells you which check failed. Reconfigure is the fix for all of them.
The plugin API key does not match this site. WordPress is holding a key that Wordify no longer recognises. This is the most common cause, and it's what a restored backup usually leaves behind.
The plugin is not connected (no API key saved). The plugin is installed but has never been given a key, which is typical after installing it by hand.
The plugin is installed but deactivated. The files are there but WordPress isn't running the plugin.
The plugin could not authenticate with the hosting dashboard. The plugin tried to connect and was refused.
The plugin needs updating before it can reconnect. Older builds ignore the address Wordify sends them, so they have to be updated first.
The plugin is pointing at the wrong address. The plugin is trying to reach the wrong endpoint.
A legacy plugin is installed and should be replaced. The site still has the old Wordify Tools plugin from before the migration.
This site is not active yet, so the plugin cannot connect. The site is still being set up. Wait for provisioning to finish, then check again.
If Reconfigure doesn't fix it
If the row goes back to Needs reconfiguration straight after you reconfigure, something is usually blocking the plugin's request rather than the credentials being wrong.
The most common cause is a firewall in front of your site. If you run Cloudflare, or a security plugin with a firewall, a rule may be blocking the automated request the plugin uses to authenticate. Try pausing Cloudflare briefly and clicking Reconfigure again. If that works, the rule is the problem and needs relaxing rather than the plugin needing another repair.
Still stuck? Start a chat with us from the Console and tell us the site and the message on the row. We can see the same status from our side and take it from there.