4.6 OMGWTFBBQ Draft Post

Here’s a rough draft of the 4.6 OMGWTFBBQ thread, adapted from the one for 4.5.

Thread Title: READ THIS FIRST WordPress 4.6 Master List

Hooray! FIX TITLE AND URL is here! But OMGWTFBBQ!? WordPress 4.6 broke everything?

Don’t Panic!

Before you go any further, make sure you’ve updated your plugins and themes to the latest versions, clear your browser’s cache and cookies and re-log into your WordPress dashboard.

Still having problems? Okay, read on!

This thread contains the known issues with plugins and themes found in 4.6. Please read this WHOLE topic and come back and check again later, as it will be updated.

Remember to be calm, be patient, and be respectful. Volunteers are out here to try and help you, but we need your help too. All of the normal forum rules still apply. Remember, you are just as important as everyone else.

If your post doesn’t show up right away, please be patient. With the higher than normal post volume, more posts get flagged as spam by our auto-spam tool. We’re working hard to keep the queue clear, but making multiple posts slows us down, as we have to go back and check if you already posted. Post once.

• Do use proper capitalization in post titles and body. Punctuate your sentence properly and humanely, it helps us read.
• Do use descriptive subject lines. “All permalinks broken since 4.6” is much better than “Augh! Help ASAP! This version is terrible!”
• Do describe the problem clearly. Explain what you’re seeing, include error messages and link to screenshots if needed. Linking to your site, if the problem is on the front-end, also helps.
• Do be patient. We know it sucks to be down, but posting multiple times doesn’t get you help any faster.
• Do make your own topic unless you are using the exact same version of WordPress on the same physical server hosted by the same hosts with the same plugins, theme and configurations as the original poster. You may find it weird, but it will be easier for us to help you specifically if you have your own topic.
• Do mark your topic as resolved when it’s fixed so we know not to come looking there anymore.
• Do remember you’re not alone.

Also keep in mind that not liking the direction of WordPress’s design is a not a bug. If you don’t like a feature, please don’t make a series of posts complaining about it. Look and see if someone already did, and post there, or consider joining the process earlier on (like in Beta or even test via SVN). What you’re seeing today is the result of thousands of hours of work and testing, and unless something is outright broken, it’s highly unlikely to be changed.

Again, before you post:

Make sure you’ve read this entire thread and FIX URL New Features in 4.6 Codex Article.

Go to your own install’s about page – `example.com/wp-admin/about.php` – to see what’s new.

And then make sure you’ve tried…

• Flushing any caching plugins you might be running, as well as server and/or browser caches. Not just your browser, but any op cache or content network cache as well such as Cloudflare. That will solve many weird JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. issues.
• If your host provider has a “Purge Varnish” option or if you can ask your provider to flush memcache on your server.

• Troubleshooting with your browser. Your browser can help you identify JavaScript issues or conflicts and this article can assist you in doing that diagnosis. This could help identify Visual Editor issues as well.

• Deactivating all plugins (yes, all) to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party(s). If you can’t get into your admin dashboard, try resetting the plugins folder by FTP or PhpMyAdmin (read “How to deactivate all plugins when you can’t log in to wp-admin” if you need help). Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems. Also remember to deactivate any plugins in the mu-plugins folder. The easiest way is to rename that folder to `mu-plugins-old`
• Switching to the Twenty Sixteen theme to rule out any theme-specific problems. If you can’t log in to change themes, you can remove the theme folders via FTP so the only one is `twentysixteen`. That will force your site to use it.
• Manually upgrading. When all else fails, download a fresh copy of the latest.zip file of 4.6 (top right on this page) to your computer, and use that to copy up. You may need to delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folders on your server (NOTE: do not delete the `wp-content` directory or your `wp-config.php` file) Read the Manual Update directions first.

Next section, posted as a reply:

CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Changes

In addition to new features highlighted in FIX URL the release post:

This Crazy Change: To be filled in later based on the release post.

This Other Crazy Change: Will there be more? Who knows?!

Next section, posted as a reply:

Not a Bug

The following features changed behavior.

My Dashboard Fonts Look Different: It is true that WordPress used to have one font across all operating systems and browsers. It did this by basically downloading Open Sans from Google Fonts on every single Dashboard page load. Default system fonts have improved dramatically over the years, and the developers have decided to cut Google out of the mix and simply use the default system font of whichever device you’re currently using. Along with a new font, you should be noticing a slight speed increase and less data usage from your Dashboard pages.

While every attempt has been made to ensure that there are no breaking issues with this change, if you notice that the font in your Dashboard is unreadable, please open a new thread in these support forums listing your operating system and browser (and versions of both), and a screenshot (which you can upload via Media -> Add New in your site’s Dashboard, click on the new file in the Media library, copy the File URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org to the right, and add that File URL to your new thread’s content).

Words from my theme/plugins have changed: Some plugins and themes still include their own translations, with WordPress 4.6 we made changes to how translations are prioritized. This means translations submitted by the community now get prioritized over ones submitted by the authors them selves, and may in some cases mean that words have seen some changes.

The categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. and tags screens look strange: The ordering of elements on these pages were changed to be more intuitive as well as to improve accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility). Some plugins may rely on the ordering, or add their own output here, which may look out of place or not work as intended after the update. Make sure you’ve updated your themes and plugins, and if it’s still looking strange, consider contacting the author to have them updated for the latest version of WordPress.

I can’t link to malformed URLs: As a convenience feature, the Insert Link button in the Visual editor tab now prevents adding malformed URLs (links which would never work). We do understand that people use WordPress in surprising ways, so you can still link to malformed URLs in the Text editor tab.

Next section, posted as a reply:

Known Issues

• There are no known consistent or reproducible known issues in the final release of WordPress 4.6 at this time.

Next section, posted as a reply:

Plugin and theme issues

• Genesis users may experience a fatal error if they have not updated their theme yet, updating to version 2.3.1 or later ensures compatibility with WordPress 4.6

The final release of WordPress 4.6 is scheduled for August 16, 2016, so the content of this post may continue to change until then. Please use the comments below to suggest any alterations.