WordPress update broke my site: what to do in the first hour

By Alleo Gordon, founder of WonderlandSites

Not long ago, on a coach’s website I look after, the contact forms stopped showing. Where a visitor expected a form, they saw a line of code instead. A plugin the site relied on had been switched off. I switched it back on, then checked every page to make sure nothing else was broken.

It took minutes to fix. But I know how it feels from the owner’s side. You update something, or something updates itself, and suddenly the site you rely on looks wrong. Your stomach drops. You start clicking things.

Please don’t start clicking things. Here’s a calm plan for the first hour, in plain English, for coaches, therapists, tutors and anyone else running a small service business on WordPress.

First, breathe: most broken updates are fixable

When WordPress, a plugin or your theme updates, lots of separate pieces of software have to keep working together. Sometimes one of them doesn’t. It’s not a sign anyone did a bad job, and it rarely means your content is gone. Your words, photos and pages are almost always still there, just hidden behind the problem.

So the aim for the first hour isn’t to fix everything. It’s to stop things getting worse, work out what changed, and get back to a site that works.

Minutes 0 to 10: see what’s actually broken

Before you change anything, have a proper look. Write down what you see, with the time. It sounds fussy, but it helps whoever fixes it, even if that’s you.

Check these, on your phone and on a computer:

1. Does the home page load at all? A blank white page, or a message saying the site is “experiencing technical difficulties”, is a bigger problem than a page that looks a bit off.
2. Do your money pages work? Your contact page, booking link and any page where people pay you.
3. Can you still log in to WordPress? Try your usual login page.
4. Is it the whole site, or one part? A broken layout on one page points to a different cause than a site that won’t load anywhere.

Also, check your email. Since WordPress 5.2, when a plugin or theme causes a serious error, WordPress sends a message to the site’s admin email address with a special link to something called recovery mode (WordPress 5.2 recovery mode notes). Recovery mode lets you log in with the broken plugin or theme paused, so you can see what went wrong. If that email has arrived, it often names the culprit.

Minutes 10 to 20: work out what changed

Something changed just before the problem started. Find it.

• Which updates ran? In your WordPress dashboard, go to Dashboard › Updates, then Plugins. If you see a plugin that updated today, that’s your first suspect.
• Did WordPress itself update? Minor WordPress updates install automatically by default, so the site can change even if you didn’t press anything.
• Did your host change something? Hosts sometimes move sites to a newer version of PHP (the software WordPress runs on). An older plugin that doesn’t like the new version can break the site. This is what people mean when they search “website not working after PHP update”.
• Did anyone else log in? A helper, a VA or a past developer may have changed something.

You’re looking for the one thing that changed. Nine times out of ten, the timing gives it away.

Minutes 20 to 40: get back to a working site, safely

Now you have two sensible routes. Pick one. Don’t try both at once.

Route 1: restore a backup from before the update

If you have a backup from before the problem, this is usually the cleanest way back. Many hosts offer backups in their control panel; so do many backup plugins. WordPress’s own guidance is to back up regularly, and always before an upgrade (WordPress backups guide).

A word of warning: restoring takes the whole site back in time. If someone sent an enquiry or booked through your site after that backup was taken, that information may disappear from the site when you restore. Check your inbox first, and note anything recent.

Route 2: pause the plugin that broke it

If you can log in (normally or through the recovery-mode link), go to Plugins and deactivate the one that updated just before the problem. Then reload your site in a private browser window.

• If the site comes back, you’ve found it. Leave that plugin off for now and check whether its makers know about the problem.
• If it doesn’t, turn it back on, so you don’t leave things half-changed, and try the next suspect.

Be careful with plugins your site depends on. If you deactivate your forms or booking plugin, those features will stop working until it’s back on. That’s the trade-off: a site that loads with one feature paused is usually better than a site that doesn’t load at all.

What not to do in the first hour

These are the moves that turn a small problem into a big one:

• Don’t delete plugins. Deactivating is reversible. Deleting can remove settings you’ll want back.
• Don’t run more updates “to see if it helps”. You’ll make it harder to know what caused what.
• Don’t edit theme or plugin files unless you know exactly what you’re doing.
• Don’t reinstall WordPress from scratch. It’s rarely needed, and it’s easy to lose things along the way.
• Don’t panic-hire the first “website fixer” you find without asking what they’ll do, how they’ll back up first, and what it will cost.

After the hour: make sure it’s really fixed

A site that loads isn’t the finish line. Before you relax:

1. Send yourself a message through your contact form and check it arrives.
2. Click your booking link and payment buttons.
3. Look at your key pages on a phone.
4. Check that no plugin has been left switched off by accident.

That last one matters. On the coach’s site, the problem wasn’t dramatic. Nobody’s site “went down”. A plugin was simply off, and the forms quietly stopped showing. That kind of break can sit unnoticed for weeks.

How to stop it happening again

Updates still matter: older versions stop getting security fixes. So the answer isn’t to stop updating. It’s to update with a safety net:

• Back up before every update, and keep backups somewhere separate from your site.
• Update on a set day, not whenever a notice pops up, so you know when things changed.
• Check your key pages and forms after every update. An update with no check afterwards is only half the job.
• Know who fixes it if an update breaks something, and whether that costs extra.

That last point is a big part of what a care plan is for.

Not sure what broke, or what to check next? Start with a free Website Check

If the site is working again but you’re not sure everything is right, send me your link and I’ll look it over.

Your free Website Check I look over your website and tell you in plain words what’s working and what’s holding it back, with your top 3 fixes, most important first. It arrives within 24 to 48 hours, Monday to Friday. No jargon, nothing to sign, and nothing changed on your site. Get your free Website Check

Then you decide what happens next. What would you check first on your own site today?

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Frequently asked questions

Why did a WordPress update break my site? Usually because two pieces of software stopped agreeing: a plugin and the new version of WordPress, a plugin and your theme, or an older plugin and a newer version of PHP on your hosting. Your content is normally still there; something in front of it has stopped working.

Should I roll back the update or restore a backup? If you have a clean backup from before the problem and nothing important has happened on the site since, restoring is often the simplest route. If you can log in, pausing the plugin that changed is quicker and keeps recent enquiries on the site. Pick one route at a time.

Is it safe to turn off automatic updates? Turning them off doesn’t remove the risk; it delays it, and leaves known security holes open for longer. A safer approach is regular updates with a backup first and a check of your key pages afterwards.

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About the author Alleo Gordon, founder of WonderlandSites. IT technician at a sixth form college in Bethnal Green for 3 years; looking after websites since 2018.