How to downgrade WordPress to a previous version, Updated 7th January 2021 – In this easy tutorial I am going to show you how to downgrade WordPress to a previous version.
You will learn how to downgrade WordPress to a previous version manually and by using a plugin.
You should downgrade WordPress to an earlier version if you experience a conflict with a plugin or theme.
Generally speaking, downgrading to an older version is not recommended as this might expose your website to known vulnerabilities that have been fixed with the most recent version of your WordPress core files.
However, some plugins or themes might not be 100% compatible with the new version (yet).
When that happens, you might want to consider temporarily downgrading WordPress to a previous version.
How to Downgrade WordPress
There are two main ways to downgrade WordPress to a previous version: manually and by using a plugin.
When downgrading it’s recommended that you install the second most recent release of WordPress, provided it works well with your themes and plugins.
Access your website through FTP and download a backup copy of your site
Delete both wp-admin and wp-includes folders. DO NOT delete the wp-content one
Upload both wp-admin and wp-includes folders from the release you have just downloaded
For a cleaner installation, I would recommend that you also delete all the WordPress files at root level, with the exception of the wp-config.php one. You might also consider deactivating all the plugins before proceeding to a downgrade.
Select and download the older version of WordPress that you were looking for
How to Downgrade WordPress with a Plugin
To downgrade WordPress by using a plugin:
From your WordPress admin, mouse over on ‘Plugins‘ and click on ‘Add New‘
Search for ‘Wp Downgrade‘
Download and activate the plugin
Mouse over on ‘Settings‘ and click on ‘WP Downgrade‘
In the WordPress Target Version field, enter the release you want to downgrade to
Click on ‘Save Changes‘ and, when prompted, click on ‘Update Core‘
Please note that when downgrading from WordPress 5.5 to WordPress 5.4.2 by using WP Downgrade I had to take an extra step for the older release to be fully active:
Pasquale is Founder at Increasily.com, a digital strategy agency based in Dublin, Ireland; and Co-Founder at luxury ecommerce marketplace Thesidebe.com. Pasquale has +15 years of experience in Digital Marketing and Account Management. He currently lives in Dublin with his wife, stepdaughter and cat.
Hi tahviehnegar, and thanks for the comment. Downgrading to an earlier WordPress version should have no impact on your visuals, unless you are using a theme or plugin that doesn’t work well with the WP version you downgraded to. This is what I would do: 1) from the dashboard I would click on Updates and make sure I have the WordPress version I want 2) Disinstall the plugins one by one (if you have access via FTP you can just rename the plugin folder in wp-content 3) Settings > Permalinks > Save 4) If the problem still occurs and you believe it’s only a visual issue, you can try a plugin like Regenerate Thumbnails. I hope it helps and have a great holiday break!
Thanks for the post, You’ve saved my life. After recent WP update my page was working ok on mobile but did not load at all on desktop browser. Using the downgrade plugin put everything back to order. Thanks a lot once more!
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Pasquale Mellone