The release of WordPress 6.4, codenamed Shirley, has caused a wave of concern among publishers and developers as many reported that updating to the new version triggered fatal errors, resulting in website crashes. The issue was quickly traced back to a bug in the Oxygen page builder, a common tool used by many of the affected websites.
Reports of site crashes began surfacing shortly after the release of WordPress 6.4, with members of a private Dynamic WordPress Facebook group being among the first to raise the alarm. It was soon discovered that all the affected websites shared a common factor – they were using the Oxygen page builder. Additionally, it was found that having legacy versions of the default theme, even if they were not actively in use, also contributed to the crashes.
Brenda Malone, an SEO strategist and WordPress developer, noted that the crashes seemed to only occur when the Oxygen page builder was installed, and that even deactivated legacy default themes were causing issues when combined with Oxygen. Members of the affected community began sharing their experiences and proposed solutions, such as deleting old legacy themes and installing the newest default theme, Twenty Twenty Four.
The root cause of the crashes was also theorized by a member of the Oxygen user group, who suggested that any active theme was loading their default style CSS, potentially leading to the issues. This theory was supported by their own experience of resolving the problem by deleting the CSS on their “oxygen bare minimum” theme. The Oxygen team has acknowledged the issue and has expressed that they are actively investigating the cause of the crashes.
In summary, the release of WordPress 6.4 has led to widespread website crashes for users of the Oxygen page builder, particularly those with legacy versions of default themes. The community has begun to uncover the reasons behind these crashes and has proposed solutions, while the Oxygen team is working to address the issue. Moving forward, affected users are advised to stay updated on developments and apply the proposed solutions to mitigate the impact of these fatal errors.
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