I think what you’re seeing is the cPanel’s upgrade button for your WordPress. That must have been a feature of that earlier cPanel. I think that message is warning you that a future update of your cPanel probably won’t have that feature. And it seems that the feature quite working for you before the 5.X version came out.
You should also be able to login to WordPress as admin and update from there anytime. Here’s a document to help you do this…
https://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/article/updating-wordpress/
Now, if you want or need to update then consider this first… the 5.0 update will bring in a new editor experience with the Block Editor (Gutenberg) which you might find a little worrisome. You can install and activate the Classic Editor plugin to stay with your current editor for a while. That’s a different subject but I thought this info might help you.
You might also update to the 4.9.10 version and stay with what you are used to with some good changes to the security issues.
Here’s one of many good discussions on ‘minor updates’ to 4.9.X…
https://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/topic/wordpress-4-9-10-update/
I’m a bit concerned about your PHP version… I think PHP 7.4 is the latest, greatest while you are probably running something earlier. Same with your MySQL.
I’m just slightly curious about your cPanel itself being dated but you’ll need to talk to the cPanel people about that or ask somewhere like StackExchange. I mostly see the cPanel as something to be ignored once the WordPress is running but that’s not true for many site owners who depend on the cPanel for day to day adjustments and information.
Hope I’ve helped without overburdening you with details but I thought the things I’ve mentioned might be important.
Thread Starter
jeh35
(@jeh35)
Thanks very much for your very useful guidance. I doubt if I’ll get to this today but wanted to first acknowledge your help, particularly about cPanel. The site shows the old version of cPanel, different from the updated cPanel associated with another, much older site using pure html, site that I also maintain. Both sites are hosted by the same provider.
Thread Starter
jeh35
(@jeh35)
I’ve only just got back to this task. I followed the links given by JNashhawkins
and upgraded to WP 5.3. That required an update to PHP7.1. I now have an error I can’t get past:
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function wp_recovery_mode() in
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-includes/load.php:811 Stack trace: #0
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-includes/load.php(695): wp_is_recovery_mode() #1
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-includes/load.php:811 Stack trace: #0
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-includes/load.php(695): wp_is_recovery_mode() #1
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-settings.php(301): wp_get_active_and_valid_plugins() #2
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-config.php(104): require_once(‘/home/mysite/…’) #3
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-load.php(37): require_once(‘/home/mysite/…’) #4
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-blog-header.php(13): require_once(‘/home/mysite/…’) #5
/home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/index.php(17): require(‘/home/mysite/…’) #6
{main} thrown in /home/mysite/public_html/wordpress/wp-includes/load.php on line 811
As far as I can see from this the whole problem revolves around the lack (loss?) of function wp_recovery_mode().
The thread “https://ww.wp.xz.cn/support/topic/another-call-to-undefined-function-wp_recovery_mode/” discussed this about eight months ago. The thread is locked even though the final post was a question. I tried the advice given by Brayne, but without success.
I’m well out of my experience range here and am baffled. Does anyone have any suggestions?
With thanks
Jeh35
Thread Starter
jeh35
(@jeh35)
Problem fixed by a complete manual reload of V5.3.2. I should have tried that in the first place! Ticket closed.
