The site stopped working after an update

When the site stops working right after an update, a new version of a plugin, a theme or WordPress itself is incompatible with the rest of the site. Find out what was updated, and run the previous version until the bug is fixed.

The error can show up as a critical error, a white page or a page where styles and scripts fail to load. A form or a payment gateway can also stop working.

Find out what was updated

If you ran the update yourself, you know which plugins got a new version. Otherwise, sort the folders in wp-content/plugins by modification date in your FTP client or file manager. The most recently updated plugins come first.

If plugins were updated automatically, WordPress sent an email to the administration address with the subject "Some plugins were automatically updated". The email lists each plugin with "from version … to …", so you can see which version to go back to.

If you got the email "Some plugins have failed to update" instead, the update failed. If it caused a fatal error, WordPress has already rolled back to the previous version.

Deactivate the plugin

If you can log in to wp-admin:

1. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
2. Click "Deactivate" under the plugin that was updated last, and reload the site.
3. If you don't know which plugin it is, deactivate them one by one and check the site after each.

If you can't log in, open wp-content/plugins over FTP or with the file manager in your hosting panel and rename the plugin's folder, for example to forms-off. That deactivates the plugin. If WordPress has sent you an email with a link to recovery mode, you can also log in through that link and deactivate the plugin there.

Go back to the previous version

Most plugins on wordpress.org have earlier versions available for download:

1. Open the plugin's page on wordpress.org and click "Advanced View".
2. Under "Previous Versions", pick the version you had before and click "Download" to get a zip file.
3. In wp-admin, go to Plugins → Add Plugin and click "Upload Plugin". Choose the zip file and click "Install Now".
4. Since the plugin is already installed, WordPress shows the current and the uploaded version side by side. Click "Replace current with uploaded".
5. Activate the plugin and check the site.

With SSH and WP-CLI, one command installs a specific version. Replace forms with the plugin's folder name and the version number with the one you had before:

wp plugin install forms --version=5.8.1 --force

For paid plugins, download the older version from your account with the vendor. If wp-admin is down, unzip the file and replace the old folder in wp-content/plugins with the new one over FTP.

Once the site works again, click "Disable auto-updates" next to the plugin under Plugins, so it isn't updated automatically again. Keep an eye on the changelog and update when the bug is fixed. Old versions can have known vulnerabilities, so don't stay on one longer than you need to.

When the whole site has to be restored

Some plugins, such as WooCommerce, also change the database when they update. The old version may then not work with the updated database. The same applies if WordPress itself was updated, or many plugins at once. In those cases the safest route is to restore both the files and the database from a backup taken before the update.

When you're stuck

If the site still fails after the plugin is rolled back and you have no backup from before the update, a developer has to find the error in the error log and fix it in the code. The same goes if you need the new version because it patches a vulnerability. This requires FTP access, access to the hosting panel and experience with WordPress.