If you’ve been keeping up with our industry alerts, you’re probably aware that in the last half of the year, WordPress has been rolling out a couple updated versions automatically. Though these updates are generally for the better, rocky adjustment periods tend to go along with these updates. Updates can cause security vulnerabilities or functionality breaks on a site as different plugins and other code sources need to be updated as well.
WordPress announced that their next automatic update is scheduled for early December, and we’d like to try to get ahead of any issues this may cause for co-op members. When the last update happened in August, millions of sites either broke or were attacked with malware due to security vulnerabilities.
Many co-op member sites were built using “themes,” which are essentially layouts for the design. These themes often come packaged with things like page builders or slider layouts. Unfortunately, when WordPress updates, unless a site is fairly new (built within the last 6 months), the support licenses for these items may be expired. The Kanan developers are recommending that anyone who is concerned about the next update make sure they have licenses ready to go for page builders (ex. Elementor, WP Bakery) or other plugins (Rev Slider) to ensure they can be updated along with the WordPress version. Anyone who is concerned can reach out to have them make the updates and purchase licenses on his/her behalf.
Here’s an article for more information about the suspected issues that will arise: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-5-6-update-may-break-sites-december-2020/386780/