A recent update from WordPress has removed support for jQuery Migrate, which may cause interactive features to stop working, as well as, made changes to internationalization JavaScript. Combined these have impacted millions of websites.
What’s the issue?
WordPress 5.5 has been released and has removed support for older versions of jQuery, the most popular Javascript library. This may cause issues with some plugins and themes. We have run into this with websites auto-updating and wanted to make sure that this got out.
Additionally, WordPress 5.5 updated Javascript related to internationalization. This has impacted MILLIONS of websites. It is recommended that sites update to 5.5.1 as soon as possible.
To be clear this is NOT an issue with WordPress.
Plug-in and Theme Developers who do not keep their software up-to-date and that do not use best practices are the root issue. For this reason, we recommend turning off auto-updates and using a staging environment to test major updates. Unfortunately, some hosts do not provide either of these options. We will be release a quick guide soon on this subject. In the meantime, if you need help with this issue, please let us know.
How do figure out if there is a problem?
For jQuery Migrate, this will likely present itself in your menus, carousels/sliders and other interactive features.
If you or your web hosting company use auto-updates on your website, we recommend testing your menus & other interactive features, as your users may already be affected.
What can I do myself to fix it?
To be up front, you may not be able to “fix it” but you can patch and restore functionality of your website
Step One
If you haven’t already update to v5.5.1. While this won’t fix the issues with unsupported Javascript due to the internationalization changes, but it will allow Javascript to run properly.
Step Two
WordPress has released a plug-in patch to allow you time to update your themes and plugins. You can download Enable jQuery Migrate Helper from the WordPress website.
Or from your Plug-ins page in your WordPress Admin, you can click you “Add New” and search “Enable jQuery Migrate Helper”. Click Install and Click Activate.
This doesn’t fix the issue, but it does reactivate jQuery Migrate which will allow you time to update your Themes and Plugins.
It’s patched! What do I do now?
For this reason, we recommend turning off auto-updates and using a staging environment to test major updates. Unfortunately, some hosts do not provide either of these options.