WordPress Plugin of the Week: WP Downgrade
By day I’m a tech support goddess troubleshooting plugin issues for WordPress websites. By night, I’m a mom, wife, and WordPress enthusiast. If you haven’t heard of the WP Downgrade plugin I highly recommend checking it out! It is a must-have plugin that is part of my troubleshooting toolbelt.
What do I need it for?
I was looking for a plugin that would allow me to change versions of WordPress ( quickly ) for my development environment as I was trying to replicate a plugin bug found in a specific version of WordPress. That is when I happened upon WP Downgrade. WP Downgrade allows you to change the core version of your WordPress website to any version you want with the intent to assist you in testing or troubleshooting your site.
FYI – This is a testing / troubleshooting plugin and should NEVER be used in production
How do I use it?
- Navigate to https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-downgrade/ or look in the Plugin section of your WordPress website, keyword, ‘WP Downgrade“
- Install & Activate then head to Settings > WP Downgrade
- Enter the WordPress target version & click ‘Save’
- Next, you will see a notification that says, ‘In order to perform the upgrade/downgrade to < WordPress Version > please go to Update Core‘
- Click, ‘Update Core’ which redirects you to the WordPress Update screen.
- Click, ‘Update Now’
- If you entered an older version of WordPress click, ‘Re-install Now’ otherwise you are good to go.
Tip – Testing WordPress 4.9 will most likely cause errors for plugins that have some type of Gutenberg functionality. If that happens you will need to temporarily disable the plugin by renaming the plugin file.
