Hostgator warning message: Imagick was compiled against Image Magick version 1654 but version 1650 is loaded

On Hostgator I noticed in my site logs the following error message.

PHP Warning:  Version warning: Imagick was compiled against Image Magick version 1654 but version 1650 is loaded. Imagick will run but may behave surprisingly in Unknown on line 0

I don't know what Image Magick is and I don't think I've done anything to invoke Image Magick. I can only think this is something that's been done on Hostgator's end and may fix itself over time.

I regularly check for error logs in case something I didn't expect/plan for, is occurring on my site. The error.log file only occurs if there's an error, so usually I just have to check for the existence of the file. Once checked I can delete the file. The error.log file then doesn't exist until another unexpected error occurs. Having an error like this means there's always an error.log file and checking every error.log file on every site I maintain, potentially every day, isn't practical.

A bit of research revealed Hostgator support for one person made the following change to their system to suppress the error message. Of course this shouldn't be necessary, but may be required as a short term fix.

https://forums.cpanel.net/threads/getting-an-imagick-error-after-update-to-php-7-3.672365/

The solution according to this post is:

Create a file called .user.ini

Type the following into the file.

 imagick.skip_version_check=true

Save the file in the top level folder for the site.

I ran this suggestion on my site www.5kmradius.com.au and it worked to remove the warning message for Imagick.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au