OptionTree "Trying to access array offset on false" in class-ot-settings.php

With OptionTree active on modern PHP, the error log gets a pair of warnings on admin requests, including background admin-ajax.php calls.

PHP Warning:  Trying to access array offset on false in <wordpress-root>/wp-content/plugins/option-tree/includes/class-ot-settings.php on line 395
PHP Warning:  Trying to access array offset on false in <wordpress-root>/wp-content/plugins/option-tree/includes/class-ot-settings.php on line 396

Cause

This is a bug in the plugin, not bad data in the database. get_sections() returns false for a settings page with no sections, and add_sections() loops over the result with an array cast:

foreach ( (array) $this->get_sections( $page ) as $section ) {

Casting false to an array gives [ false ], not an empty array. The loop runs once with $section set to false, then reads $section['id'] and $section['title'].

Fix

Use a must-use plugin so that the fix survives plugin updates. Must-use plugins load first, and OptionTree only defines ot_register_settings() if it does not already exist, so this version takes its place. It uses an anonymous subclass that returns an empty array instead of false.

Create wp-content/mu-plugins/optiontree-fixes.php:

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: OptionTree fixes
 * Description: Stops OptionTree warnings in the PHP log without editing the plugin.
 */

defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

if ( ! function_exists( 'ot_register_settings' ) ) {
    function ot_register_settings( $args ) {
        if ( ! $args || ! class_exists( 'OT_Settings' ) ) {
            return;
        }

        new class( $args ) extends OT_Settings {
            public function get_sections( $page = array() ) {
                return parent::get_sections( $page ) ?: array();
            }
        };
    }
}

Verify

Confirm that WordPress is using the replacement function:

wp eval 'echo (new ReflectionFunction("ot_register_settings"))->getFileName(), PHP_EOL;'

The output should end in mu-plugins/optiontree-fixes.php. Then trigger an admin request and check that the log has no new warnings. An anonymous POST is enough, because admin-ajax.php runs admin_init:

curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' -X POST -d 'action=noop' https://<your-domain>/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

A 400 response is expected here. Run the same request before adding the fix to confirm that it reproduces the warnings on your site.

Notes

• The fix depends on OptionTree’s function_exists guard around ot_register_settings(). If a future version removed that guard, PHP would stop with a fatal redeclare error. Deleting the must-use plugin would resolve it.
• If nothing on the site uses OptionTree, deactivating it is simpler. Check the theme and other plugins for ot_get_option calls first.
• Tested with OptionTree 2.7.3 and PHP 8.5.