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Wish I'd Known This Before Upgrading to WordPress 4.7

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268

Upgrading to WordPress 4.7 with W3 Total Cache Installed

Yesterday was one of those days. You know, the kind of day when something routine that should take a couple of minutes, (or less), ends up taking hours out of your day. What did I do? I hit the button to upgrade my WordPress Website to WordPress 4.7. 90 seconds later I was looking at the white screen of death. My website was fine to the outside world, but I could not access the admin panel. 

Not one to panic, I figured a Google search would soon have me up and running again. There's no way I could be the only one with this problem. Wrong! After a good long time searching for a solution I decided nothing really fit my particular scenario and that I should call my hosting company and ask if this was a known problem. The Customer Service Person at A2Hosting was most helpful. In fact, if you're looking for a Hosting Company that offers top of the line customer service, check out A2Hosting. 

It turns out that it was the W3 Total Cache Plugin that was the problem. It needed to be removed and re-installed before the site was up and running again. He said he'd had lots of practice doing this yesterday and I was definitely not his first call!

Sooo... The moral of this story is, if you have W3 Total Cache installed, uninstall it and reinstall it before upgrading to WordPress 4.7. Deactivating may also work, but since I'm the one who spent way too long  dealing with the fall out of this failed upgrade, I'm going for not cutting corners on this one!

This particular solution worked for me for the particular scenario of having W3TC installed. The white screen of death is not exactly unheard of in the upgrading process on WP websites. The following article gives some pointers on what to do before upgrading to WordPress 4.7. Hindsight being what it is, I might have known what to look for sooner if I'd read this first!

 

 

Posted by

Denise Hamlin, Realtor®

Broker/Owner

CARDINAL Realty, Coralville IA 

Licensed to Sell Real Estate in the State of Iowa

 

Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices 

Iowa City Area Real Estate Services

 

Please remember that opinions expressed in my blog are just that - opinions - not fact
For legal or accounting advice please consult with a professional
Although the information provided is deemed reliable, it's not guaranteed

 

Comments (29)

Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner
Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268 - Iowa City, IA
Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices

If I save just one person from wasting hours of their time like I did, I will be happy! :) Thanks for stopping by Les & Sarah Oswald 

 

Dec 09, 2016 04:54 PM
Kathy Streib
Cypress, TX
Home Stager/Redesign

Denise- I agree- thank you for sharing this, and if it helps one person that's always a plus. 

Dec 09, 2016 05:51 PM
Kathy Streib
Cypress, TX
Home Stager/Redesign

                        Thank you Denise Hamlin 

Dec 10, 2016 05:41 PM
Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner

Thanks for including me in your weekly post Kathy. That increases the chances exponentially of me achieving my goal of helping at least one person. :)

Dec 11, 2016 09:08 AM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

Oh wow, thx for the heads up.  Just yesterday, I created a new site w/ 4.7 and hoping today to migrate the old site over (the site is just 8 pages, so hopefully it won't be a big deal.  I uploaded w3 after, so I didn't have a problem.

However, at some pt, I will be upgrade my main site, and I now know to be careful w/ this.  I've been afraid to upgrade it from the last one as I have a premium plugin that may not be compatible with it...and it's a plugin that generates income.  Will need to research that at the end of month.

Dec 11, 2016 04:42 AM
Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner

Yes, those pesky plugins Debbie. They are almost always the reason an update fails. I included a link at the bottom of the post to "best practices" that might help before you upgrade your main site. 

Dec 12, 2016 09:46 AM
Nina Hollander, Broker
Coldwell Banker Realty - Charlotte, NC
Your Greater Charlotte Realtor

Thanks for the heads up, Denise. I will say this... to me WordPress has always been a mystery and difficult to navigate.

Dec 11, 2016 05:09 AM
Nick Vandekar, 610-203-4543
Realty ONE Group Advocates 484-237-2055 - Downingtown, PA
Selling the Main Line & Chester County

Good advice, as mentioned by Lou Ludwig, life sends the test first then we learn the lesson....

Dec 11, 2016 05:13 AM
Barbara Todaro

Amen to that!!!

Dec 11, 2016 05:53 AM
Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner

Yep. I definitely agree with that. I had a friend who always said you pay for your education. He didn't always mean money either!

Dec 12, 2016 09:48 AM
Barbara Todaro
RE/MAX Executive Realty - Happily Retired - Franklin, MA
Previously Affiliated with The Todaro Team

Denise Hamlin thanks for the post....and I passed it along to the person in charge of the "techy stuff".... Greek to me!!

Dec 11, 2016 05:54 AM
Dorie Dillard Austin TX
Coldwell Banker Realty ~ 512.750.6899 - Austin, TX
NW Austin ~ Canyon Creek and Spicewood/Balcones

Good morniing Denise Hamlin ,

I'm so glad Kathy Streib featured your post in her "Ah-ha" moments for the week! Great information and will be sure to pass it on to my assistant.

Dec 11, 2016 06:01 AM
Jeff Dowler, CRS
eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA
The Southern California Relocation Dude

Thanks for sharing an important lesson, Denise. Glad that Kathy featured this so that others could benefit. I also have a WP blog but if I have issues I call my web developer

Dec 11, 2016 04:10 PM
Gayle Rich-Boxman Fishhawk Lake Real Estate
John L Scott Market Center - Birkenfeld, OR
"Your Local Expert!" 503-739-3843

Denise, oh, a frightful experience! I have a Wordpress site that is not hosted, persay, free and I won't be touching it. Unlike you, I wouldn't have anyone to call, as this one I signed up for and created myself many moons ago. And how nice of you to give us words of wisdom on avoiding the white screen of death. Is that what they actually term it??

Dec 12, 2016 06:42 AM
Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner

.White screen of death is absolutely what they call it Gayle. No prizes for guessing that they "stole" the phrase from Microsoft's blue screen.. :) 

Dec 12, 2016 09:51 AM
Sheri Sperry - MCNE®
Coldwell Banker Realty - Sedona, AZ
(928) 274-7355 ~ YOUR Solutions REALTOR®

Hi Denise Hamlin - It is good that Kathy Streib featured this so that others may see it as well.  

Dec 12, 2016 07:26 AM
Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner
Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268 - Iowa City, IA
Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices

Thank you all for taking the time to stop by and comment. As I said before, if this post helps just one person to avoid wasting hours of their life chasing down a solution for this problem, my work is done. :)

Dec 12, 2016 10:01 AM
Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
Real Estate Broker Retired

Wow, I'm sure I would have had an almost heart attack also. Luckily (or not) I've had that happen before & the hosting company corrected it. I'll keep this info in the back of my mind just in case. Glad your up & running.

Dec 13, 2016 04:17 PM
Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner

You're right there Lyn. It was not a fun moment when it happened. I had to remind myself not to panic. :) I will be a lot more cautious in the future that's for sure!

Dec 13, 2016 04:51 PM
Endre Barath, Jr.
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties - Beverly Hills, CA
Realtor - Los Angeles Home Sales 310.486.1002

Denise now this explains why my Web designers were working on a few days to get some bugs corrected on my Website...all they told me was it was a problem with the latest update...Glad they are doing these things rather then me, Endre

Jan 09, 2017 07:13 PM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

For me the upgrade put a sidebar on my pages that was only intended for the blog posts. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it and had to call in my Wordpress guru to fix it.

Jan 09, 2017 10:06 PM
Georgie Hunter R(S) 58089
Hawai'i Life Real Estate Brokers - Haiku, HI
Maui Real Estate sales and lifestyle info

I always dread those "updates" and have learned to do them on a Sunday evening or some time when it's not critical should everything crash or be held hostage for hours.

Mar 15, 2017 08:06 PM
Debe Maxwell, CRS
Savvy + Company (704) 491-3310 - Charlotte, NC
The RIGHT CHARLOTTE REALTOR!

Oh WOW! I didn't have that with this particular plug-in but, have had this kiss-of-death upgrade before and it's horrifying! Glad the customer service at A2Hosting was so wonderful - and see, you weren't alone in having this happen either! Thanks for sharing, Denise!

Sep 09, 2017 06:36 PM
Endre Barath, Jr.
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties - Beverly Hills, CA
Realtor - Los Angeles Home Sales 310.486.1002

Hope all is well now and you are making a killing in real estate hence no blog posts:))Endre

Oct 25, 2017 10:59 PM
Joan Cox
House to Home, Inc. - Denver Real Estate - 720-231-6373 - Denver, CO
Denver Real Estate - Selling One Home at a Time

Denise, I don't have WP, but sounds like many do.   Great info to share, and hope you return to AR to write new posts.

Dec 13, 2018 07:57 AM
Roy Kelley
Retired - Gaithersburg, MD

I was looking for your current posts. I hope all is going well for you.

Have an outstanding summer.

Jul 24, 2020 06:16 AM