SOLVED: phpBB GZHANDLER Compression Error

If you have a phpBB forum you may see a php warning:

[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_acp.php on line 65: ob_start(): output handler ‘ob_gzhandler’ conflicts with ‘zlib output compression’

This is simply informing you that some other system is already compressing (‘zip’) your files  and so the phpBB software cannot compress them again.  It is highly likely that the hosting server you are using is compressing all content, including your phpBB forum so you have to turn off one of them.  It is (nearly) always better to let lower level services (i.e. the server) do as much work as possible and avoid the overhead of software.  So while you could turn off compression on the server, you are likely best to just disable it in your phpBB forum which is easy to do:

1. Log into your forum and then into the ADMINISTRATOR CONTROL PANEL (ACP)
2. click SERVER SETTINGS (on the GENERAL TAB near the bottom of the menu on the left)
3. set ENABLE GZIP COMPRESSION to NO
4. click SAVE
5. Have a nice day