Several publishers and developers have encountered a critical issue after upgrading to WordPress 6.4, resulting in website outages. In the quest for solutions, developers swiftly identified a bug within the commonly used page builder.

Website Disruptions Following WordPress 6.4 Update

The initial reports surfaced shortly after the release of WordPress 6.4, also known as Shirley.
A post within the exclusive Dynamic WordPress Facebook group raised the alarm, notifying members that their WordPress sites experienced a crash following the update.
The initial hint pointing towards the issue was the consistent presence of the Oxygen page builder on all the affected sites. However, users of the Oxygen page builder shared another common factor.
Brenda Malone, an SEO strategist and WordPress developer (check out her LinkedIn profile) disclosed that the presence of legacy versions of the default theme, whether activated or not, was another trigger for crashes on Oxygen-based sites.
These default themes bear names like Twenty Twenty-One and Twenty Twenty-Two. Surprisingly, even when the old legacy default themes were deactivated, their mere existence alongside the Oxygen page builder led to site crashes.

Brenda Malone shared her insight with me:
“It seems to occur exclusively when Oxygen is in the mix.”
The individual who initiated the conversation in the private group mentioned that deleting all previous versions of the default theme resolved the issue and restored the site.

Quite peculiar

A suggested remedy in the official Oxygen page builder User Group was to enable recovery mode, remove all outdated legacy themes, and install the latest default theme, Twenty Twenty-Four.

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