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What a Journey to Update From PHP 7.4 to PHP 8.4 on MyPR.co.za

MyPR runs on WordPress. In turn WordPress on my server exists within a LAMP environment – Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.

In the context of WordPress, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is the foundational server-side scripting language that powers almost every aspect of the platform. Think of it as the engine under the hood that makes your WordPress site run.

I have successfully upgraded most of my other sites to PHP 8.0 and above.

MyPR has been especially vexing for me to upgrade – until today.

In order to troubleshoot using my method you need to have access to your web site Control Panel on your server, know how to use an FTP programme like FileZilla, know where to find your WP-Config.php file and how to make changes to it PLUS you will need a bucket load of patience.

How I troubleshot the Failed Upgrade process to Success:

  1. Made sure that all themes, plugins and WordPress core files were updated to the latest version.
  2. Accessed the WordPress Plugins folder on my server and renamed it – basically that de-activates all the plugins at once.
  3. Upgraded to PHP 8.4 and the site loaded successfully.
  4. Reversed the above process and downgraded to PHP 7.4.
  5. Accessed the error log on my server via the Control Panel and downloaded that.
  6. Checked the error log for FATAL ERRORS.
  7. If you are unable to download your error log but can access your web site’s root files (public_html) then do the following: Look for the wp-config.php file in your public_html folder, Open that file and look for the line (around 81) that reads: define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false); and change it to define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);. Then upgrade to PHP 8.4 or later and look on the front end (index.php) of your site in your browser for the error codes.
  8. In my case the Fatal Error referred me to the ‘anchor_utils plugin’ – the PROBLEM is that MyPR does not have such a plugin installed (or so I thought).
  9. The next step was to download the entire MyPR Plugins folder (all 36 plugins) to my local machine and then search for any files or lines in files that refer to ‘anchor_utils’.
  10. From there on it was actually a quick fix as anchor_utils was being utilised by a naughty plugin called ‘Auto ThickBox Plus’ – rather descriptive I thought of just how THICK I had been up to this point.

Anyway – I de-activated the plugin and now MyPR is running 100% fine on PHP 8.4.

So, what is all the fuss about PHP 8.4?

  • It is the latest version
  • Greater Security
  • Many newer plugins do not support PHP versions lower than 8.0
  • And the site runs faster

Faster – means better indexing of your Press Release Submissions by the Search Engines which should be of much greater benefit to you and your clients.

Visit MyPR.co.za

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