Troubleshooting & FAQ
Common messages
"Full Name is required."
Shown when saving a researcher or co-author without a name. Nothing is saved — fix the name and submit again.
"Could not save — please check your input (e.g. a field may be too long) and try again."
Shown if a save fails, most often because a field (like Affiliations) is longer than the database allows. Shorten the field and try again; nothing was changed until the save succeeds.
"This researcher was added manually and has no linked Scholar ID, so it cannot be synced."
Expected for any researcher added through Add Manually rather than search. There's no automatic source to sync from — edit the profile directly whenever their details change.
A sync completed but nothing changed.
Not an error — it means the researcher's publications were already up to date.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add authors manually without using the sync service?
Yes — use Add Manually on the Add New screen. There's no limit on how many manually-added researchers you can have.
Can I display only certain authors together?
Yes — create a Group and choose exactly which researchers belong to it.
Does the plugin store data locally?
Yes. All imported profile and article data is saved in your WordPress database, so pages keep working even if the Scholar Sync service is temporarily unavailable.
Does Scholar Sync work with WordPress Multisite?
Not network-wide. Activating it network-wide only sets it up on the main site; each subsite needs to activate it individually from its own dashboard.
What data is sent to the Scholar Sync service
To look up and sync researcher data, the plugin sends the researcher's identifier (or the name used to search for them), your site's identifier, and the page/article range being requested. No personal data about your site's visitors is ever sent.