Frequently Asked Questions

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General

Does Dobsie affect site performance for visitors?

No. The toast overlay and SAVEQUERIES are only enabled for administrators. Regular visitors see no overlay, no extra queries, no impact.

Do I need to configure anything?

No. Activate the plugin and it starts working. The toast appears automatically, and the profiler page is ready at Tools > Dobsie.

Can I use this on a production site?

Yes, with caveats:

• The toast overlay: this is the ongoing one. While it is on, every page you load as an administrator records its queries, front-end pages included. Leave it on while you are diagnosing and switch it off at Tools > Dobsie when you are not
• Overview tab: reads data that already exists, no extra load
• Deep Scan and Debug: record every query with its call stack, which is the whole point of them. That cost lasts as long as you are on the tab
• Server Health: counts and measures the files in your uploads folder, so on a media-heavy site it takes a moment. Nothing afterwards

Does Dobsie store any data?

No database tables, no log files, no historical data. Dobsie reads data that already exists in WordPress (queries, options, cron events) and presents it. Deactivate the plugin and it’s like it was never there.

The only data it stores is a single WordPress option for the toast enabled/disabled setting.

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Toast Overlay

How do I hide the toast?

Several options:

• Click the X button: sets a cookie, toast stays hidden until the cookie expires
• Add ?perf=0 to any URL: hides for that page load only
• Disable in settings: go to Tools > Dobsie and uncheck “Enable performance toast overlay”

How do I get the toast back after hiding it?

Go to Tools > Dobsie and check “Enable performance toast overlay”. Or clear your browser cookies.

Where do I see every query with its SQL?

The Debug tab at Tools > Dobsie. It lists every database query with its SQL statement and the plugin that triggered it. Visit the Deep Scan tab once first, then come back to Debug to see the full list.

There used to be a ?perf=debug URL that replaced the whole page with this view. It was removed, because taking over a page’s output from a URL parameter is a pattern security scanners flag as a backdoor, however innocent the intent. The Debug tab does the same job from a safer place.

The one URL parameter that remains is ?perf=0, which hides the toast on a single page load.

The toast shows on admin pages but not the frontend?

Check if you have a page caching plugin serving cached HTML to logged-in users. Some aggressive caching configurations serve cached pages even to administrators, which means the toast’s PHP code never runs. Check your caching plugin’s settings for a “don’t cache for logged-in users” option.

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Profiler

What’s the difference between Overview and Deep Scan?

Overview reads data that WordPress already has available: memory usage, plugin count, autoloaded options, cron events. No extra overhead.

Deep Scan enables SAVEQUERIES, which tells WordPress to record every database query with its full call stack. This gives you the detailed per-plugin query breakdown, slow query analysis, and worst offenders list, but it adds overhead because of the call stack recording.

Why does Deep Scan show different numbers than the toast?

The toast measures a frontend or admin page load. Deep Scan measures the profiler page itself, which includes the overhead of rendering the profiler UI. They’re measuring different pages, so different numbers are expected.

For the most accurate comparison, use the Quick Page Test on the Overview tab to measure a specific URL.

What’s a “good” number of queries?

There’s no universal answer, but as a rough guide:

• Under 50: Typical for a well-optimised site
• 50 to 100: Normal for sites with several plugins
• 100 to 200: Getting heavy, worth investigating the top consumers
• 200+: Something is probably doing more work than it needs to

Remember: query time matters more than query count. 50 queries taking 2 seconds total is worse than 200 queries taking 100ms total.

What does “autoloaded” mean?

WordPress has an options table that stores settings. Options marked as “autoloaded” are loaded into memory on every single page request, whether they’re needed or not. This is efficient for small, frequently-used settings, but wasteful for large data that’s only needed occasionally.

The Autoloaded Options table shows the biggest offenders.

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Troubleshooting

The profiler page is blank

Check your PHP error log. The most common cause is a memory limit that’s too low. The profiler needs to load WordPress plus its analysis, which can push memory usage higher than normal admin pages.

Try increasing your memory limit in wp-config.php:

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

Deep Scan says “SAVEQUERIES not enabled”

Another plugin or your wp-config.php might be setting define( 'SAVEQUERIES', false ) before Dobsie can enable it. Search your wp-config.php for SAVEQUERIES and remove or comment out any existing definition.

I see “WordPress Core” as the top query source

That’s normal. WordPress core handles basic operations like loading options, checking user sessions, and setting up the page. Core queries are usually fast. Focus on plugins that show unexpectedly high query times instead.

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More Resources

• The Toast Overlay: real-time performance panel
• The Profiler Page: deep analysis with four tabs
• Common Performance Issues: what Dobsie finds most often