Title: Updated Plugin = Critical Error.
Last modified: July 30, 2023

---

# Updated Plugin = Critical Error.

 *  [bmullings](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bmullings/)
 * (@bmullings)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/)
 * Helloo! I need some urgent help please. WordPress core was severely outdated,
   as were plug ins on the website, so I began with updating plugins but when coming
   out of maintenance mode, a critical error showed up. It stated emailed instructions
   to admin email, but I have not received anything yet. I am a little uncertain
   of next steps. Can anyone help please? I can’t access admin to check what other
   email it may have gone to at this point.
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fupdated-plugin-critical-error%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16933609)
 * Try [manually resetting your plugins](https://wordpress.org/support/article/faq-troubleshooting/#how-to-deactivate-all-plugins-when-not-able-to-access-the-administrative-menus)(
   no Dashboard access required). If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one
   individually until you find the cause.
 * If that does not resolve the issue, access your server via [SFTP or FTP](https://wordpress.org/support/article/ftp-clients/),
   or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel (consult your hosting
   provider’s documentation for specifics on these), navigate to /wp-content/themes/
   and rename the directory of your currently active theme. Hopefully, this will
   force the default theme to activate and rule out a theme-specific issue (theme
   functions can interfere like plugins).
 * —
 * As for the email not arriving, once you’ve fixed the above and updated WordPress,
   it sounds like your hosting provider has disabled PHP’s `mail()` function, which
   WordPress uses to send you email notifications and is also used by contact form
   plugins and more.
 * This is a common safeguard employed by hosting providers when they suspect that
   another customer on the same server is sending spam emails directly from the 
   server.
 * Another alternative is that PHP’s `mail()` function is still active, but spammer
   activity from the server has already caused any email sent from it to be blocklisted.
   This would result in the emails being sent but never received by any email address
   with basic anti-spam capabilities.
 * You can check this by leaving a comment on your site and checking if you receive
   an email. Another alternative would be to use the [Health Check](https://wordpress.org/plugins/health-check/)
   plugin and send yourself a test email from the plugin’s Tools tab to see if it
   works.
 * If you didn’t receive a test email, you could try using an [SMTP plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/smtp/)
   to configure your WordPress site to use your email’s outgoing mail server instead
   of PHP’s `mail()` function.
 *  [Heateor Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/heateor/)
 * (@heateor)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16933655)
 * You can enable WordPress debugging to check the exact error.
 * To enable WordPress debugging, search for following code in the **wp-config.php**
   file in the root folder of your website
 * **define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);**
 * and replace with the following:
 * **define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
   define(‘WP_DEBUG_LOG’, true);define(‘WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY’,
   true);
 * Save changes, refresh the web page and see what errors are displayed on the screen.
 *  [Heateor Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/heateor/)
 * (@heateor)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16933689)
 * Please note ’ in above mentioned code is single quote. Single quote is being 
   replaced with this when posting here. You need to replace it with the single 
   quote after pasting the code in the file.
 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16933768)
 * That is for the addition [@heateor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/heateor/)!
 * FYI, next time use the Code block to preserve formatting. 😉
 *  Thread Starter [bmullings](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bmullings/)
 * (@bmullings)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16933769)
 * Thanks I am just now able to access host, so I will try and figure out how to
   turn the plugins off.
 *  Thread Starter [bmullings](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bmullings/)
 * (@bmullings)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16933815)
 * [@heateor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/heateor/) i did this, but nothing
   showed up.
 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16933873)
 * Any luck with the plugins and theme reset?
 *  Thread Starter [bmullings](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bmullings/)
 * (@bmullings)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16933901)
 * well i was able to put all plug ins on hold! I don’t know which plug ins are 
   issues, though. Core is out of date, so I am hoping that updating that will fix
   the plug in issues? Thoughts ? and how do i go about finding the specific plug
   ins I may need to reinstall?
 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16934161)
 * At this point, I’d start with updating WordPress.
 * After that, if you renamed the plugins directory to deactivate them, create a
   new /plugins/ directory, then move them over and activate them one by one until
   you find the one causing the problem. If you deactivated them in the database,
   then all you need to do is reactivate them one by one.
 * Hopefully all you needed to do was update WordPress without the plugins in the
   way, but it pays to be sure. 🙂
 *  [Heateor Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/heateor/)
 * (@heateor)
 * [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16934695)
 * [@macmanx](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/) Ah, sorry, missed the
   code block.

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

The topic ‘Updated Plugin = Critical Error.’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [critical error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/critical-error/)
 * [plug-in issue](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/plug-in-issue/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 10 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Heateor Support](https://wordpress.org/support/users/heateor/)
 * Last activity: [2 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/updated-plugin-critical-error/#post-16934695)
 * Status: not resolved

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