Many publishers and developers have reported that updating to WordPress 6.4 triggered a fatal error, causing their websites to go down. In the search for solutions, developers discovered a bug in the page builder they were using within hours.
Update:
The developers of the page builder plugin patched the software and fixed the issue causing the crashes.
Sites Crashing After Updating to 6.4
One of the first reports emerged shortly after WordPress 6.4, codenamed Shirley, was released. A post in a private Facebook group for Dynamic WordPress users alerted members that their WordPress site had crashed after the update. One of the initial clues was that all the affected sites had the Oxygen page builder installed. However, this wasn’t the only commonality among the affected sites.
SEO strategist and WordPress developer Brenda Malone noted that having legacy versions of the default theme, even if they were not active, also caused Oxygen-based sites to crash. Default themes are those named like Twenty Twenty One and Twenty Twenty Two. Despite being deactivated, the mere presence of these older themes, combined with the Oxygen page builder, led to site crashes.
Brenda Malone shared her observation:
"It apparently only happens if Oxygen is installed."
The person who initiated the discussion in the private group mentioned that deleting all older versions of the default theme restored their site.
A solution proposed in the official Oxygen page builder User Group was to activate recovery mode, delete all old legacy themes, and then install a copy of the newest default theme, Twenty Twenty Four.
Why Did Updating to WordPress 6.4 Cause Sites to Crash?
A member of the Oxygen user group theorized that any active theme was loading its default style CSS, which could be the root cause of the issues. By deleting the CSS on their "oxygen bare minimum" theme, the problem disappeared.
An admin in the official Oxygen Facebook group mentioned that they were investigating the cause of the crashes. They later posted the following update:
"Oxygen 4.7.1 is now available as an update via the portal or the plugins page. This release resolves the issues reported with WordPress 6.4.
Please update Oxygen on your sites before updating to WordPress 6.4."
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Krakenimages.com
