WordPress Critical Error after updating Plugins

Question

WordPress Critical Error after updating Plugins

Lucy LaDoe 0

I had been logged into my WordPress admin dashboard and was updating plugins as usual. When I went to return to the Dashboard screen, this error popped up. The same one is popping up on the front and back end of the website. How can I fix this issue?

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Answer 1

Disable all plugins by renaming the wp-content/plugins directory through your hosting file manager, SFTP, SSH, or server console, then restore the directory name and reactivate plugins individually to identify the failed update.

Restore access to WordPress

Renaming the directory is reversible and does not delete plugin files.

Connect to the server using the access method supplied by your hosting provider.
Open the WordPress installation directory and locate:
```
   wp-content/plugins
```
Rename plugins to:
```
   plugins.disabled
```
Reload the website and /wp-admin.

If the site now works, a plugin is responsible:

Rename plugins.disabled back to plugins.
Sign in to WordPress. WordPress may have marked the plugins inactive.
Reactivate plugins one at a time, testing the front end after each activation. Start with plugins that were not updated; leave the recently updated plugins until last.
When the critical error returns, rename that plugin’s individual directory—for example:
```
   wp-content/plugins/problem-plugin
   wp-content/plugins/problem-plugin.disabled
```
Obtain a compatible release from the plugin vendor, or restore the previous known-working version from backup.

Disabling plugins by renaming their directory and then enabling them individually is the established recovery method for this symptom.^1^

If renaming the complete plugin directory does not restore the site, rename the active theme’s directory under wp-content/themes to test for a theme failure.^1^

If this WordPress site runs on Azure App Service

The Azure Site Recovery tag does not establish that the website is hosted on App Service. Use these steps only if the Azure portal shows the WordPress site as an App Service resource.

Open Azure portal → App Service → Development Tools → Advanced Tools → Go to open Kudu. On Linux App Service, use SSH if the Kudu file console is unavailable.^2^
Navigate to the WordPress files and rename wp-content/plugins as described above.
Open App Service → Monitoring → App Service logs:
- For Linux or a container, set Application logging to File System.
- Save the setting.
Open Monitoring → Log stream, reproduce the error, and look for the PHP fatal error naming the failed plugin file or function.^3^
Also check App Service → Diagnose and solve problems for platform diagnostics.

Microsoft’s App Service FAQ identifies App Service logs, Kudu, and SSH as the primary WordPress debugging tools.^4^

Enable WordPress debug logging if the plugin is not identified

Edit wp-config.php. Search for existing WP_DEBUG, WP_DEBUG_LOG, and WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY definitions and update them; do not create duplicate definitions. Place missing definitions before the line that says to stop editing:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
@ini_set('display_errors', 0);

Reload one failing page, then inspect:

wp-content/debug.log

Keep error display disabled so stack traces are not exposed publicly. After troubleshooting, change WP_DEBUG back to false. The documented App Service procedure uses these settings to write errors to debug.log without displaying them to visitors.^5^

Also compare the fatal error with the configured PHP version under App Service → Settings → Configuration → General settings/Stack settings. Check compatibility only if the log points to unsupported or removed PHP behavior.

Restore a backup if plugin isolation cannot recover the site

If an App Service backup exists from before the updates, restore it to a new deployment slot or new app first, rather than immediately overwriting production. In App Service → Backups, select the backup, choose Restore, and create a new destination slot/app. Restoring over an existing destination erases and replaces its file-system data, and the destination is stopped during restoration.^6^

If WordPress is instead installed on an Azure VM protected by Azure Site Recovery, use the VM’s SSH/RDP access and operating-system file paths; App Service menus and Kudu do not apply.

References