Change Detective is the change log that answers the question “what changed just before this started?”. Errors rarely appear out of nowhere – they follow an update, an activation, or a setting that changed. Detective keeps that timeline for you.
What it records
- Every install, update, activation and switch of a plugin, theme and the WordPress core – with the version before and after.
- Changes to important options (for example search-engine visibility, home URL and permalinks).
- A daily environment snapshot, so even manual FTP edits and host-side PHP upgrades are noticed – the kind of thing that otherwise leaves no trace in WordPress.
Why it matters
Changes are not problems in themselves – but when an error starts, the change right before it is where you start looking. A setting that changes “by itself” is how a site ends up suddenly noindexed or redirected; a theme file that changes without a theme update is worth a serious look. With the timeline you stop guessing and go straight to what actually changed.