If you have a broken website after updating to the most recent version of WordPress, you are not alone. WordPress 5.5 introduced many feature updates and along with them, many broken websites. Many users are seeing broken header menus, missing images, sliders that don’t slide, and several other problems.
Why WordPress version 5.5 is causing problems
Many themes and plugins rely on jQuery Migrate to make things work, such as menu dropdowns, buttons, popups, and sliders. jQuery Migrate is a javascript library that helped old code in themes and plugins to run on the current version of jQuery. In WordPress version 5.5 jQuery Migrate is now turned off by default which is causing themes and plugins that are dependant on jQuery Migrate to fail.
What can be done to fix your broken site?
If you are noticing your site is broken for the first time, clear any caching and optimization plugins you may have. If that does help, the next step is to make sure all of your plugins and theme are up to date, which is always recommended. However, many users are still reporting issues even with the most up to date versions. If you are using older themes and plugins that are not receiving updates any longer then it’s time to look at replacing those items with more modern versions. If you are still receiving updates and still have issues then installing a plugin called jQuery Migrate Helper may solve your problems. Many WP bloggers and site owners are reporting that this has solved most of their issues. Please note: this is only intended to be a temporary fix to give your theme/plugin developer more time to update and test their code.
The good parts of the 5.5 update:
- XML Sitemaps are now built into WordPress by default. No need for an extra plugin.
- Lazy-loading of images is included in the core.
- Auto-dates for plugins and themes is now an option.
- Many new features added to the Blocks Editor (Gutenberg).
Website still not working properly?
If you have tried everything and still can’t get your site to work, reach out to one of our expert WordPress detectives. We can analyze the clues in your case and get your site up and running quickly.
