How To Fix Your WordPress Site After A Plugin Update Goes Wrong

[@DaveFoy]

Have any horror stories on how a Wordpress or plugin update made you panic? Please share them below!

[@stevecooper3010]

G'day Dave 3 mins live All the way from Australia

[@DaveFoy]

@@stevecooper3010 G'day mate!

[@GrantHawkey]

@@stevecooper3010 Hey Steve 👋 Another Aussie here from the GC 😁

[@grahamcheetham3043]

Another one here from Townsville.

[@chunnr]

I was asked to look at a website which failed to work. One error was the theme, relied on PHP 5.x and some lines of code got deprecated when the ISP moved to PHP 7.2. I had to replace those lines of code. Second error was Media Librrary was not working for large files. I think this was ISP at fault - they had 'post_max_size' with a value greater than 'upload_max_filesize'. I changed this in 'php.ini', and it fixed the problem. I installed phpinfo.php to solve this:

[@sabizulus]

A tutorial has never been this helpful. You saved me from failing a project. I am very grateful for the knowledge. The debugging helped me immensely because I could never understand what is being explained on the official WordPress site, thanks immensely once more.

[@Jim.Hummel]

I've only had the crap scared out of me a couple of times a few years ago, but as you said...Take a deep breath, be calm and work it out. This is a really useful video mentioning some very useful tools. Always indebted to you for sharing your knowledge.

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you Jim. Kind of you to say.

[@MrTvlio]

This is the only helpful video about the matter I have found so far, thanks for helping me. Working even in 2022.

[@risheknarayan1450]

Wow....all problems sorted in 1 video....thank you very much sir

[@thepurpleufo]

This is an amazing video. It's hard to imagine any troubleshooting video that includes anywhere near this much helpful advice presented so clearly as this one. It's AMAZING. It's also amazing (and a bit shameful) that this video has so few likes...if there were any justice in the world, this video would have over a million likes.

[@DaveFoy]

Aww thanks my friend. Best comment I ever had - and I've had some superb ones from you in my time. :) Sorry for late reply, I've only just seen this!

[@thepurpleufo]

@@DaveFoy You're the best, Dave...no doubt about it.

[@suchithramunuswamy5377]

Was struggling quite long time … your video helped me to resolve … keep going

[@DaveFoy]

Glad it helped.

[@paulconway361]

Great to see you again Dave. Another fine video. I've had the 'white screen of death' several times. Many thanks. Paul

[@DaveFoy]

Thanks Paul. Yeah, never a good experience when you have no clue what to do about it.

[@jflagarde]

Awesome video Dave! You always make complex problems way more manageable. I'm glad you are back on KZbin!

[@DaveFoy]

Merci beaucoup mon ami. It's great to be back on the KZbin horse this year. More coming up! :)

[@VerdiHeinz]

He. Is. BACK!! Very well done Dave, you did some upgrades too I see. Cheers!

[@DaveFoy]

Thanks buddy! Yes, one or two little tweaks here and there. :) Lord knows I've had enough practice making videos over the last few years (albeit not publicly).

[@mikesale7690]

A great help to troubleshoot plugin conflicts! So much combined help and up to date solutions and processes! Thank you!

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you Mike. I'm pleased you liked it!

[@grahamcheetham3043]

Welcome back, Dave. We have missed you. Thanks for the great video as always. The list of useful resources is a treasure.

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you Graham. That means a lot. I always appreciate your support.

[@marta.kova.hypnotherapy]

That was excellent! The theme was my problem! You saved me from heart attack! 😅 Thank you 🙌

[@DaveFoy]

Great news! Glad it helped.

[@manuelatjarkinavermeeren]

Amazing coming-to-the-rescue-video by the brilliant Mr. Dave Foy!

[@DaveFoy]

Aww thanks Manuela!

[@Evileneist]

Thank you so much, you saved my day, I was having problems with elementor plugin the button was not working properly, and your tutorial solved the problem, God bless you

[@danielbarbour611]

Wonderful! Great to have you back, Dave!

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you my friend. :)

[@kylevandeusen]

Excellent video, Dave! The production is fantastic!

[@DaveFoy]

Aww thanks buddy. :D Can't wait to get RIGHT back on the KZbin horse this year. This is just the beginning.

[@hannujaatinen]

Who's your editor? I need to hire him or her 😉

[@ceesvanstam1963]

Awesome video. Glad you are back on youtube.

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you.

[@thomasstauder696]

While looking for an analysis tool for my Wordpress error "500, Internal Server Error", I "stumbled upon" your video. Cool presentation ;-) And really helped me to isolate the error - and that as a layman - thx / TOP

[@paulpyle60]

Excellent production value! You've upped your game above all the others.

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you my friend. Very kind of you to say.

[@GrantSpoon]

Great info Dave. WordPress scares me at times due to things breaking. This will help...

[@DaveFoy]

That's the idea Grant. Thanks mate!

[@SitampanTampann]

you're the king.. great explanation.... love from Indonesia

[@memphismarkmusic56]

Fab Dave as always. Supplying solutions to problems just when we need them. 🤗

[@DaveFoy]

Cheers mate!

[@MarkAlex]

Super helpful as usual. I like your attitude man👌

[@DaveFoy]

Thanks Mark.

[@kerawelt2008]

Another smashing tutorial of yours. Two thumbs up Dave !

[@DaveFoy]

Two thumbs up to you aussi mon ami!

[@Sashad2003]

Wow... very useful tutorial. Thanks 🙏

[@DaveFoy]

My pleasure 😊

[@DangerNG56]

finally back!!! hope everything is good with you!

[@DaveFoy]

YAY! All's great my friend. I hope it is with you too. :)

[@GrantHawkey]

Funny, I just did this today. Worked a treat 😁👌

[@DaveFoy]

Nice work!

[@cw5986]

Thanks for answering another Elementor question!

[@dbdigitalmediaservices5531]

Plugin Detective is amazing!

[@languedoc121tech2]

Great vid, thanks. I'm sure I'll need it at some point. I'd not heard of the "plugin detective" - top tip!

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you!

[@risheknarayan1450]

Subscribed, bell notification clicked😊😊😊

[@dannyfoo]

Thank you~ Plugin Detective looks really handy to keep in mind 👍

[@DaveFoy]

Yeah it's definitely a good one to have in the toolbox.

[@rvalle13]

Great information as usual Dave!

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you!

[@oweiky]

Thanks for the video, i tried to install "the yoast seo" plugin, I got the error message "installation failed" have you any idea on how I can fix this?

[@formaja1185]

same

[@Investinstocks-co-in]

Thankyou for the help Dave!

[@falameurei]

Dave Foy, estava com muitas saudades dos seus riquíssimos tutoriais!!!!!

[@DaveFoy]

Obrigado meu amigo. :)

[@meteoriteman9356]

Great video thanks, I clicked update as usual on my wordpress site and got the WSOD, later I changed the PHP version to 7 from 5.4, so I’m in quite a mess at the moment

[@markjohnston6678]

Hi Dave, thanks for the great video! Broken code in a recent plugin update I did not only broke the site but brought the server to it's knees in a matter of seconds by flooding it with GET requests from a malformed URL. Not only was the site broken but all other sites went down too. I thought at first I was having a DOS attack! I couldn't even stay logged in long enough to deactivate the plugin - had to remove it manually, I discovered the problem looking at server logging.

[@DaveFoy]

Oooh that IS a nightmare! Yikes. Glad you got it solved. Thank the maker for server logs eh?

[@markjohnston6678]

@@DaveFoy Yes, server logging is definitely a good thing :-). Thankfully this kind of thing is rare and thanks to your video and the plugins you suggested, most issues will be easier to fix now!

[@eurdrizzly]

This is so funny 😂 😂 😂 but super helpful thanks a bunch 😂😂🙌

[@THECUPOLOGYEXPERIENCE]

This saved me money. You Rock! Thanks a bunch.

[@DaveFoy]

BOOOM!

[@JohnT-GNM]

very informative and useful - thank you Dave

[@DaveFoy]

Thank you John.

[@russells777]

Great video and a great tip, Dave! Thank you! Just the other day I had a similar issue and had to disable the plugins one by one. Lesson learned, next time - ‘plugin detective’ will be put to work:)

[@DaveFoy]

Yeah, Plugin Detective is really awesome. Thanks Russell - and great to hear from you. It's been a while. ;)

[@russells777]

It has been indeed! All is good here, and your content is still #1 on all my playlists! :)

[@sideshowlol]

Nice one, Dave! You have definitely upped your game. Really informative and well presented, as always, but with an extra sprinkling of pizazz! :D Have a great 2020.

[@DaveFoy]

Yeah, definitely a bit of extra pizazz going on. :) Thanks, and you too.

[@marfnl2]

Financial question: I make and update WordPress website's as my job, people spend a fixed fee of around 25€ per month + our hosting costs. I'm just not really sure what the normal practice is when a website brakes Do you fix it as part of the 25€ fee? or do you revert the site to an older backup and contact the client? or do you try and fix it for 30~45minits and than revert it if you cant fix it? (because if you fix it in that time you don't have time to check the website) and also how do you continue the client relationship after you installed an older backup because now it is a website that cannot be updated without the site breaking. I would love you and your commenters input on this. PS: during the update, I already fix and update WAY More than I should (like installing SMTP mail & mail logging for security, or installing recaptcha. I also do it because it makes my life easier as the system admin)

[@iAmNaomiTamar144k]

Thank you so much for this ! Life saver but also my widgets and side bar didn't come back I hope I have a back up once I installed element or again

[@tortasELtommy]

Superb video Dave. Thanks a million

[@DaveFoy]

Thanks Tommy!

[@SkyinternationalGItrade]

Hi @DesignBuildWeb , I have an issue that I can't solve, I can't do any updates or install any plugin, I always get an update filed or -1. I deleted the .maintenance file and followed the steps in the video but the error persists and I get the same message "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.". what am I not doing right? Would you be able to help me?

[@ba8501]

I have been having a problem with the Woocommerce and Jetpack plugins. They seem to clash with each other on my site. I updated Woocommerce and it caused a fatal error, then I got an email saying that Jetpack was also causing a problem. I always seem to have this issue with just those two plugins whenever there is an update. I deactivated each plugin and reactivated all of them except Woo-commerce and Jetpack. I am trying to figure out what the actual problem is so it doesn't keep happening.

[@DIY-nw9ml]

Thank you, I need help to solve the problem I am having on my site

[@susangemayel-tapper3794]

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing your knowledge

[@DaveFoy]

Pleasure.

[@NawarZarif]

very essential tutorial.thanks

[@onlineclassificationdigita4047]

You r a great professor 😉

[@iwotube]

Great tutorial, thank you! Btw, I thought I heard in the first sentence you said: "(...) if the update brexit" ;)

[@DaveFoy]

Ha haaa. We got Brexit on the brain!

[@iwotube]

​@@DaveFoy If any plugin update will "Brexit" any of my websites I now know the Plugin Detective is out there :) It also looks like fun to run the interrogation. Thanks!

[@testimonialvideo19]

Thanks.....just fixed my problem

[@DaveFoy]

Glad I could help.

[@peterdsb7015]

Hi I stumbled onto this video recently. My website frontend is working real well but few things on the back end isn't working well. The customizer isn't working at all. Teh default post editor is bad too. pls help

[@adammackintosh]

Great tutorial, exactly what I needed. But...I guess watch out if you created your WP site in "multi-site"...:/ Plugin Detective is missing requirements and has been deactivated. Please make sure all requirements are available. Plugin Detective doesn't support multisite (yet) Thanks, Nathan & Natalie

[@Pileyrei]

Great video, thank you for making it. I'm fairly new to WordPress and have successfully broken a website several times after updating plugins. In the end our support company sorted it out but I want to know what to do myself. Ignoring updates is not an option. I do shudder when I see a bunch of them waiting and ask myself "what are you going to break now?". Doing a full backup before hand is a good way to go. You did mention that a few times :) . Recently we had some functionality of the website break from updates that were done in previous weeks. In other words we didn't know anything was broken until we tried to do something weeks later (create a new event in events calendar). Any tips on checkouts to do after updates? Apart from browsing a few pages and perhaps trying a few test regular activities I don't think you can do much.

[@DaveFoy]

Glad it was helpful. Yep, nothing you can do apart from visiting pages and checking expected functionality still works. A good idea to keep a checklist of things to check, maybe? That way it's just a process to follow each time.

[@dumpmuch]

Could you also make a tutorial for dark mode users?

[@infinitewholistics4851]

ive tried this and when it restores the page fully and ask "is the problem fixed", i say yes but when it gets to the end there is no culprit, & if there is 1, i deactivate & reactivate & this still does not restore my pages. Can you help me?

[@darshangurjar413]

My website showing same error as you said conflict with plugin woocommerce, recently my website got wordpress update automatically, after that this problem developed, I got email from wordpress that the error is due to woocommerce that conflict with latest version of wordpress, please help me how to resolve the issue.

[@glhutchman]

Hi, anyone having trouble with plugin detective? After installing it I get a white screen when I click on "Troubleshoot Plugin Conflicts" I am running WP 5.3.2 with latest Elementor and Hello Theme.

[@fgbowen]

I used the detective plugin - no solution found. I installed the convertkit plug in - then sent myself a subscribe test - got nothing in my inbox. What do I do to fix this? (yes - I checked spam, and trash folders).

[@omaracelys3217]

GREAT VIDEO, very well done.

[@shubhangimahajan3320]

i was trying to add a landing page where i selected a theme but it changed the whole theme of my website how do i retrive my previous website

[@GGNEOM]

i have mobile version problem the theme i am using mobile friendly but somehow it doesnt work correctly

[@talmar8324]

Tnx ,this helpt me out ❤

[@medieye6313]

What is drop ins pluging error mean. Can you explain how to fix that

[@wgm247]

Been a while!!

[@DaveFoy]

It has! Lots more videos this year. I'm back in the KZbin horse. ;)

[@mica20244]

Hi cold u help with a problem? I would wanna restore thehome directory of my website, but in th restaruration i got this wordpress Error: SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0 and my website is crash, and i dont get to restore it please hel p me

[@mamendragupta2151]

WITH WOOCOMMERCE UPDATE , DUE TO SOME REASON MY WOOCOMMERCE PLUGIN IS MISSING FROM PLUGIN SECTION AND ALL MY WOOCOMMERCE FEATURES INCLUDING PRODUCTS ARE GONE .BUT WHEN I AM UPLOADING ANOTHER WOOCOMMERCE PLUGIN ,IT SAYS DESTINATION FOLDER ALREADY EXISTS. PLEASE HELP ME TO FIX THAT !!

[@1302laurena]

Last week, I upgraded my website from WP 5.2.14 to 5.9.1. My hosting company, Bluehost, said they were updating servers. In preparation for this, I did a site backup on BH, then checked all my themes and plugins to make sure they were updated. I checked them all to make sure everything was compatible with 5.9.1 and they were. The only thing remaining, was a request to update WP 5.2.14 to 5.9.1. Since all looked good, I did the update via the button within my WP Dashboard. Seemed everything went well. After the process was done, I went back through my website. Although almost all parts of the website are fine, the home page, which has photos and text, shows everything for a nanosecond, then goes white. Panic attack. I had done everything that I thought was correct, only to have this failure which is freaking me out. Now I'm half afraid of trying anything else for fear of causing more damage. What started all of this was because with the move of the servers, they are saying my PHP on my website needs to be updated to 7.4 (I currently have 7.3.32). Normally, in the past, I have not done the WP update myself, I've just received an email from WP saying my site was upgraded. When that has happened, I check the site and everything has been fine. This time, doing it myself, disaster. Your presentation is really good (although for us not quite techies, really fast) but I'm not quite following everything to tackle this. Would love to hear your thoughts.

[@anakatrinaaparicio]

Thank you sooo much!

[@DaveFoy]

You're welcome!

[@1sickhemi_92hemi_movement2]

After I updated my website the contact form 7 plugin is failing to load ?

[@jaimebondoza3710]

haha holy crap thank you very much. somehow wordpress managed to automatically roll back everything, must be a 6.0 deal. definitely backing this up better from here on in. if anyone's using easywp with namecheap they have a free backup and as well i ran into some strange issue where the sftp access they give me kept on throwing permission errors when trying to edit wp-config.php but they're bogus.

[@a.naturalchannel2733]

hi i need help i did something and all my shares are gone i backed it up and they are still not showing what do i do to get it back please?

[@jasoncarpenter7950]

Very good video Thank you

[@DaveFoy]

Thanks Jason.

[@thegospelforU]

All plugins are missing in the wp admin dashboard but they in the plug in folder in the wp content. How can I retrieve them. Thanks

[@iTechAndTuT]

Thank you so much!! I accidentally broke my corp companies website and was shitting myself! Life saver!!!

[@shirley988]

installed the plugin and click the troubleshoot , even try to go to the link but it shows "Error establishing a database connection" X( i don't know where to go next...

[@be3w]

you saved my site god bless you

[@Mrskess]

i'm just trying to set up my blog and got this problem. I called my host provider and they cant help. do you have any videos how to fix this or any advise please. Background updates are not working as expected. Background updates ensure that WordPress can auto-update if a security update is released for the version you are currently using. Error A plugin has prevented updates by disabling wp_version_check(). Passed No version control systems were detected. Passed Your installation of WordPress doesn't require FTP credentials to perform updates. Error Some files are not writable by WordPress: xmlrpc.php wp-blog-header.php readme.html wp-signup.php index.php wp-cron.php wp-config-sample.php wp-login.php wp-settings.php license.txt wp-mail.php wp-links-opml.php wp-load.php wp-includes/class-wp-user-query.php wp-includes/l10n.php wp-includes/date.php wp-includes/class-wp-oembed.php wp-includes/images/w-logo-blue-white-bg.png wp-includes/images/blank.gif wp-includes/images/down_arrow.gif

[@awakeningmind9903]

I got theme and plugin error. Unfortunately, I can't access to Cpanel, wp-admin and I don't have FTP account. So, how I can do now? Please, help me.

[@habibsherazi8232]

I am facing this problem right now. I don't have FTP file software in on my server they are asking me to download it. pHp files didn't contain the plugin option.i am stressed(

[@pleiadesmoonstarprofession133]

Thanks! Appreciate your help! :-)

[@kurniawanagunga991]

I just follow and try to copy the link with our website upfront, cant access the login :( help me please

[@nevergiveup6536]

yoast plugin missing from plugin area after updated ,how to get back yoast plugin

[@nativeventuresltd256]

Thanks for the video but my problem still not solved. It still bring the a critical error message

[@online24hsales76]

Where can to go code of Elementor and fix it

[@nikhildandge4240]

There has been a critical error on your website. I am getting this error on my website after I attempted to update plugins and WordPress. please help.

[@kaylynn3583]

I couldn't install plugin troubleshooter it said could not create directory.

[@JeanForthright]

i can not upload detective plugin it comes up as this site can not be reached

[@school674]

Try to plugin and website go down, and it shows that, " There has been a critical error on this website. Learn more about debugging in WordPress ". How to solve this problem?

[@marknasri1201]

thanks, great help

[@bluefuzecom]

you rock Dave

[@DaveFoy]

You also. :)

[@candacemccurry6883]

The plug in won't work for me I keep getting error message "403 Forbidden You don't have permission to access this resource" :(

[@hiddenballadslegends9478]

Omg lol, you have the same accent than "M. Poonch" Tony Jeffries 😂 But thanks for the tutorial

[@DaveFoy]

😂😂😂 No idea who that is.... but thanks! (I think...)

[@rpgui]

You saved my life :D

[@DaveFoy]

That makes me very happy. :)

[@gamru8731]

got a problem with my website, it shows " Error establishing a database connection "

[@doctorshabir1424]

I install plugin as you told but now my website is not opening