Can’t update WordPress
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Hi all.
This is a continuation of this post:
https://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/topic/site-using-old-php-but-not-sure-theme-will-work-with-update/
I’ve just not had the opportunity to get round to updating and rebuilding this site (moved house recently etc).
So today I’ve jumped back in and as a step 1 have updated the PHP to 8.3 (the recommended upgrade).
However, for some reason when i’m in the WordPress dashboard as soon as I click “WordPress 6.7.1 is available! Please update now.” it changes the URL to: https://lalki.co.uk/wp-admin/update-core.php – then mentions cookies and after I agree I get taken to pretty much a blank page (blue header with lalki.couk on the left and “this domain has been registered” message on the right (not sure if I can add screenshots in here).
This is currently in recovery mode but same thing happened in non recovery mode.
I’m trying to update wordpress then add a new theme (as the previous one is outdate as discussed on that linked thread above).
Any ideas folks?
Many thanks!!The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]
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Further details.
I’ve received this email from WordPress (after I updated to PHP 8.3) but seems to relate to one plug in (Events tickets):
“When seeking help with this issue, you may be asked for some of the following information:
WordPress version 6.4.5
Active theme: Oshin Child Lalki (version 6.6.4.1550534927)
Current plugin: Event Tickets (version 5.1.1)
PHP version 8.3.14Error Details
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An error of type E_ERROR was caused in line 20 of the file /homepages/43/d740665852/htdocs/clickandbuilds/Lalki/wp-content/plugins/event-tickets/common/src/Tribe/Utils/Date_I18n.php. Error message: During inheritance of DateTime: Uncaught”
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Not sure if related to One click update so I had a quick look at manually updating WordPress but that seems like quite a task 🙁
https://ww.wp.xz.cn/documentation/article/updating-wordpress/I ended up phoning Ionis and explained this and they very kindly updated it for me (those stepped instructions, although doable, would have meant more time spent on this (and I’d like to get everything updated and rebuilt for sometime over the next week!).
The issue I was having with updating with one click was likely down to one of the plug ins (none of which had been updated for some time too).
So – PHP and WordPress are both up to date so I guess next steps is updating to a new theme.
Not 100% sure how the old plug ins with the old Oshine theme fit into all this workflow – I guess if I update the theme some will either work with the new theme or not?
Thanks!In theory any plugin should not conflict with any theme. The issues you encountered with the Event Tickets plugin are most likely due to the PHP upgrade more than WP or theme versions. That plugin likely needs to be updated for compatibility with your PHP version. If no adequate update is currently available, you could try prompting its devs to issue an update by seeking support through their dedicated support channel.
Your alternative is to either patch the plugin yourself to be 8.3 compatible, or to find an alternative plugin that works with 8.3 and the latest WP version.
FWIW, if you had deactivated the problem plugin prior to attempting to update WP, I believe the one click update button would have worked and a manual update would be unnecessary. Also, a manual update is likely easier than it may look, assuming you have some experience uploading files via FTP. The instructions are very specific and thus the process looks more complicated than it really is. But better safe than sorry if you can get someone else to do it for you 🙂
Thanks – yeah, I had backed up via FTP and perhaps the steps looked more daunting than they were.
Wrestling with time atm hence asking so many Qs on here (and I’m massively grateful for all the support btw!!).
I did see that deactivate mention btw and would’ve gone ahead and tried that (before manually updating) but Ionis offered to do the update over the phone which saved me time.
With regards to the next steps (and I’ll just have to do bits in the evenings when I get the time) a case of looking for a new (similar theme), installing, moving the content around (as I suspect it may look a little janky) and then seeing if any of the plug ins (once updated) work with the new theme?
I feel I’m missing something with the existing plug ins!
Many thanks.Also, I can see the home page but when I try and enter the Dashboard etc I’m now getting this error message:
There has been a critical error on this website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions. If you continue to have problems, please try the support forums.Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.
This may or may be due to me exiting recovery mode (thought now WP and PHP were both updated I’d be ok to come out of it?
So I can’t seem to get to the WP dashboard atm.I actually received an email from WordPress regarding this error (auto generated).
There’s a link in there to enter recoverey which I’m now back in.
In updates, there are around 23 updates one of which is the Oshine Theme (stating the following):
Oshine CoreYou have version 1.5.5 installed. Update to 1.6.1. View version 1.6.1 details.
Compatibility with WordPress 6.7.1: Unknown
But I believe from support on here this theme isn’t compatible with WP 6.7.1 (hence my need to find a new theme).I’m sorry you’re still having difficulty. The critical error message is likely because the active theme or one of the active plugins are incompatible with PHP 8.3. You can review your server’s PHP error log to see what and where the error was. Unfortunately, the error message might not reveal the true root cause of the error. It sometimes requires a debug back trace to discern the true root cause.
If reviewing the error log is not proving fruitful, you can deactivate all plugins via FTP by temporarily renaming the /plugins/ directory. If you still cannot access the dashboard with all plugins inactive, the error is almost certainly within your theme somewhere. You can force WP to use a different theme by renaming your current theme’s directory via FTP.
Once you regain dashboard access, restore the proper directory names. You can then reactivate your plugins. WP will refuse to activate any plugin or theme that would cause a critical error.
Ahh – no need to apologise – it’s me being a bit out of the loop with all this (I built it several years ago and haven’t really dipped back in WordPress for some time).
I’m back in recovery mode and can see 23 updates (plug ins and the Oshine theme).
So I guess my next question is do I go ahead and update and all and see what happens – then choose a new theme that’s compatiblewith PHP 8.3 (and WP 6.7.1) as I’m fairly certain my theme isn’t.
So with it looking like Oshine (Brand Exponents) either arne’t active or are not supporting for PHP 8.3 I’m going to have to grab a new theme.
This doesn’t look particularly difficult (as per my other post on this board) but I’ve a feeling a added a few low level code snippets which I may lose if I’m not careful.
And also the chance the current plug ins I’m using with Oshine won’t be compatible with the new theme.In an ideal world we can freely switch themes and plugins without concern since everything is inter-compatible. Back here in the real world it’s not so simple. Switching themes should only change the appearance of your site and functionality should not be affected. However, if you’ve implemented some theme specific features, these will not be available with your new theme. Removing such features may require editing your site’s content.
Usually, if everything is has been more or less up to date, updating to the latest versions should be trouble free. Sadly, problems can crop up during updates. I recommend downloading via FTP back up copies of your theme’s and the /plugins/ directories and their contents so you can easily revert back in case any update goes poorly.
It’s recommended that you also backup your DB since some plugins could alter parts of your DB. There are plugins that can help you make backups, or a DB backup can be done manually via the phpMyAdmin app, usually accessed through your hosting account.
Reverting is not ideal since you could miss out on important security fixes. If any update causes errors, it’s always better to patch the error where possible instead of reverting.
If you have some custom code snippets on your site, the best way to preserve them depends on how they were initially added. Customized templates should be kept in a child theme. Other custom code can be kept in a child theme’s functions.php file or in a simple custom plugin. If there are custom snippets elsewhere, attempt to locate them and move them to a more proper location. If you have backups of your theme and plugins, presumably any custom code you might have missed will still be available in the backup.
If your site has customized any WP core code that’s not in a theme or plugin, that was not a good way to customize your site. Any such changes should be identified and some way of doing the same from a theme or plugin should be attempted. Best of luck in your efforts.
Yeah, part of me is thinking the client might be better off employing someone who does this for a living.
I’ve told her this if this is a relatively straightforward process I’d have a look at updating this (but this was before I found out the theme was no longer compatible with the latest PHP/WP versions and as such a re build is necessary.
I’ve not been involved in this side of web dev for a few years and although it’s not like I’m needing to learn code etc it’s not particularly straightforward.
In saying that (and I’d already backed the site and DB up via FTP btw) there is no commerce on the site and it’s more an advertisement for her services – the enquiry form was the most important element to her (but she has aquired a lot of business through the site).
I do recall placing the code snippets in the Oshine Child theme (but I’ve forgotten how I did all that if I’m honest!).
Wondering if it’s going to be easier to just install a new theme (I’ll make a copy of all the content and images just in case) and do a grunt edit of a new site.
She wanted a couple more pages adding anyway.
Does that sound relatively do able from my point of view?That’s a difficult decision that I cannot make for you 🙂 I don’t feel that I have adequate understanding of the situation or you skill level.
There’s no shame in declaring some of this stuff is beyond your capabilities and that hiring a competent consultant would be better for everyone. You don’t necessarily need to turn the entire thing over to a consultant. Identify aspects you’re not comfortable with and let the consultant handle that part. Retain the aspects you’re comfortable working on. One possible resource for professionals knowledgeable of WP is https://jobs.wordpress.net . FYI, it is against this forum’s guidelines to solicit paid help here.
If the site is driving business her way, investing in professional help to make the site the best it can be sounds like a reasonable strategy to me.
BTW, changing a child theme over to some different theme is in theory simple. You only need to change the parent theme name in style.css. However, if the added snippets integrate with the old theme’s functions, they will likely need to be re-worked. Once again, theory and real world practice do not match.
I recommend creating a staging site to work on. It can be migrated to production once everything is working correctly. This can be done manually, but the WP Staging plugin makes the process easier. Since the contact form sounds like an important element, do whatever is necessary to get that part functioning on the current production site ASAP. There are numerous contact form plugins you could use to help with this.
Right now it appears that the contact page is missing entirely. There may be other issues, but having the menu item take people to an actual page is better than the current nothing found experience. Even if a contact form isn’t feasible ATM, a page with phone and email is better than nothing. I know the same info is in the footer, but a lot of people never look at that part of a page.
Staging site seems like a decent solution.
For the record, I don’t foresee too many problems doing this stuff from a technical perspective, more a case of my time (and I’m not sure this can be done in the space of an hour).
I built the site (and added the odd bit of code snippets etc) in it’s entirety, but that was a few years back. To be fair, the site has remained pretty much maintenance free and stable during those years!
With work and this time of year generally being busy I feel like if it becomes rather a prolonged process I simply cannot dedicate that much of my time to it. But the alternative would be a bit of a cost for the client to draft a consultant to do this (which she’ll have to weigh up).
I did say I would try and help here (thinking the aforementioned PHP/WP updates plus some site updates would suffice) but I suspect this isn’t a quick fix (but then again, maybe do able in a couple of hours over xmas?)
With a staging site, is it possible to update the old theme to a staging site (new compatible theme) or is it a case of starting from scratch? That would add to the time spent on this a fair bit I’d imagine.
But would allow a slow migration due to time constraints.
In practice could I choose a new theme and use the staging plug in to build the site in the background?
It’s that or pop the site in maintenance mode then update to a new theme (using the block editor compatible themes someone shared in here for me).
Anything that turns out a little ‘janky’ I can just move around/edit as I go along.
May turn out a new theme eradicates the need for some of those code snippets anyway (I’ve long since forgotten what I needed them to do!!)It sounds like you’re donating your time for a friend? Or at least working at a steep discount. You’re a good friend to have!
Whether you are working pro bono or not, it’s fair to tell her a certain part of site development takes more time than you are able to contribute and if she needs the site updated in a reasonable time frame it’s in her best interest to hire a consultant.
With a staging site you can start from scratch or clone the existing site, whichever makes the most sense. You can use the old theme if it’s not throwing errors, or choose a new theme. Your choice. The WP Staging plugin clones the existing site, but you can change themes afterwards. If you decide to start over, upload the core WP files into a subdirectory of the server. Create a wp-config.php file from wp-config-sample.php. Provide DB credentials in the file for a new DB you would have already created, or use the same DB but assign a different table prefix. Run the /wp-admin/install.php script, then the nearly blank staging site will be up and running.
Personally, I dislike maintenance mode for anything more than a quick fix. No site owner wants their site in maintenance mode for an extended period of time and I dislike the resulting time pressure. Even with a staging site, people want it ready yesterday, but developing on a staging site makes it easier to ask for their patience.
When the staging site is ready for prime time, it can be migrated to replace the existing production site (backing up the old site somewhere first). Or you can alter the hosting account settings so that domain requests go directly to the staging subdirectory, bypassing the current public root directory where presumably the current site resides. Either way, there will be a bunch of URLs in the DB that will need to be updated from staging to production. The Better Search and Replace plugin makes this easy to do.
Apologies for late response – the holidays got in the way!
Yeah, the original build of the site took some time but i did charge with a hefty discount. That was a few years ago, and although I work in a similar field, I don’t do this day to day so I’m a bit rusty. On top of that my own job and stuff outside work takes a lot of my time out (and as I work at a screen all day I like to have a break from all this).
It was a great learning curve for me at the time tbf, so worked out well.“You can use the old theme if it’s not throwing errors, or choose a new theme. Your choice. The WP Staging plugin clones the existing site, but you can change themes afterwards.”
This seems like the solution for me. I’ll clone the existing site then I’ll highly likelty change the theme (not compatible with the updates or indeed supported). But first step is to see what that looks like.
From there a case of seeing what a new theme does to the site (a reccy on what breaks, incompatible plug ins etc). If this seems like a doable job (hours spread whenever) then I’m happy to go ahead.
If it’s going to be more more time consuming then that’s when I’ll have that conversation with the client/friend.
If it’s the former then I feel she’ll be happy with any downtime. She doesn’t sell anything through the per se, more an dedicated site to what she does, what she’s about with the contact form being key.
Using the staging plug in (and updating the theme) is the process to push this to live relatively straightforward? Wasn’t sure if your last paragraph was more related to rebuilding from scratch?
Many thanks!!
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