WordPress 5.5: Successes and Challenges
WordPress 5.5 is being hailed as a successful update, although numerous conflicts arising from themes and plugins have caused some sites to break. The most significant issue is due to WordPress’ decision to remove the outdated jQuery Migrate.
The first step in modernizing WordPress involved removing jQuery Migrate 1.x in version 5.5, leading to some sites breaking. Some WordPress themes and plugins still utilize older jQuery scripts, which is causing various issues.
jQuery Migrate Removal Impacts
According to the WordPress page for the jQuery Migrate Helper:
"With the update to WordPress 5.5, a migration tool known as jquery-migrate will no longer be enabled by default. This may lead to unexpected behaviors in some themes or plugins that run older code."
As of now, over 80,000 WordPress publishers have downloaded the WordPress plugin designed to stop these "unexpected behaviors."
Plugin and Theme Conflicts
Over 2,000 Plugins with jQuery Conflicts
Research indicates that a search of the plugin directory found over 2,000 plugins with potential conflicts due to the removal of jQuery Migrate.
"This results in ~2400 plugins with the potential to break when jQuery Migrate is disabled upon upgrading to 5.5."
This list was created two weeks ago, and the number of problematic plugins should be smaller by now.
Over 200 Themes with Conflicts
The research also discovered over 200 themes that broke due to the update.
"For themes, these changes to the search bring the results from ~2600 themes to ~250 themes, with only 5 having more than 10k active installs."
Some issues are caused by outdated themes or bundled plugins, such as premium page builder and slider plugins that may not be updated as frequently.
If updating to the latest version of a theme doesn’t solve your problem, you can install the WordPress Enable jQuery Migrate Helper to restore functionality. However, this is only a temporary solution. It is advisable to troubleshoot your site to identify the problematic functionality and find updated replacements.
Troubleshooting WordPress 5.5 Update
One way to troubleshoot is to use the Chrome Dev Console by pressing F12 on Windows or accessing it through the browser’s More Tools > Developer Tools menu.
Here’s an example of what an error would look like:
Clicking on the file will show another screen with the error, where you can then click the red X icon to see the specific issue.
For more tips on troubleshooting JavaScript errors in WordPress, refer to the official WordPress tutorial linked at the bottom.
Common Issues After Upgrading to WordPress 5.5
Many publishers face significant issues post-update, including:
- Classic Editor doesn’t work
- "Add Media" and "Set featured image" buttons don’t work
- Text view is not working in 5.5
- Block Editor showing blank
- Missing database update
- Image Slider doesn’t work
- Mobile Menu disappears
- Search bar stops working
These are just some of the problems users are experiencing.
Fixing WordPress 5.5 jQuery Problems
WordPress has released a plugin to restore the jQuery Migrate library. While this will make your site functional again, it doesn’t fix the underlying issues caused by outdated plugins or themes.
For example, if your image slider isn’t working, updating the plugin could solve the problem. If there’s no available update, you may be using an abandoned plugin. Abandoned plugins typically haven’t been updated for over a year and can pose security risks.
It’s best to stop using such plugins and find actively maintained alternatives.
The Enable jQuery Migrate Helper plugin can restore functionality but only temporarily. Diagnosing and fixing the actual problems will ensure better security and user experience for your site visitors.
Citations
Using Your Browser to Diagnose JavaScript Errors
Descriptions on how to use your browser to diagnose JavaScript errors are available on the official WordPress support page.
Enable jQuery Migrate Helper WordPress Plugin
Instructions for using the jQuery Migrate Helper plugin can be found on the WordPress plugins directory.
