There’s nothing to boast on the new features of Wordpress 2.2. Even if upgrades are vital for security fixes, this time do stay with your current version. If you’ve already upgraded to 2.2, continue reading to know how to downgrade to 2.1.3 and why you should imperatively do so.
Features of 2.2 getting on the way
Preview in new tab
2.2 comes with a new feature that opens drafted posts in a new tab/window if we want to preview how it will appear on our site. Now this is really annoying when you’re editing your post since your browser will be damn full of opened tabs of the previewed post, confusing you which could end messy. You could have clicked on a tab which wasn’t that preview and return to your post and edit it when it wasn’t required.
Widget bugs
The widget feature of 2.2 allows you to drag and drop items such as recent posts,categories,etc onto your sidebar and arrange them. This was in the past a plugin which you should have installed for such a feature. But now, with the introduction of it coming out of the box with 2.2, things are messing up. Sometimes you can see your sidebar all fucked up or worse, your complete Wordpress install crashed. That happened to me some days back when I upgraded to 2.2 and was testing how the widgets were.
A quick remedy to the sidebar/widget problem, is to delete the functions.php from your current theme’s folder and that should allow you gain back control.
Nonetheless that’s why I’ll be staying with Wordpress 2.1.3 and encourage you to downgrade if you’re having such problems. I’ll advise you to wait for some time so that the community can come with a really good release before ultimately upgrading.
How to downgrade to Wordpress 2.1.3
Downgrading to a previous version of Wordpress is just like upgrading. Login to Wordpress admin and deactivate all plugins. Using your favourite FTP program(Filezilla is a good choice), login and navigate to your Wordpress install directory which will contain folders such as wp-content,wp-admin,wp-includes,etc.
Delete all the files from your Wordpress install directory except:
- your ht.access file if you’ve got one.
- wp-config.php file
- wp-content if you want to stay with your current theme’s files and plugins
- Any particular file or folder which you may have created
- Download and extract Wordpress 2.1.3 :
Wordpress 2.1.3, see all Wordpress versions downloads here - From the unzipped folder Wordpress, copy all the files and folders(except wp-content if you haven’t deleted it in the above step to preserve your theme’s files and plugins) and upload them to your Wordpress install directory.
- Now open your browser and point it to your blog url/wp-admin/upgrade.php. It will send you the following messages guiding you through the process.
Click Upgrade Wordpress and then login by providing your username and password. That’s it, there you’re on, downgraded to your old boots, 2.1.3
Do note that the Wordpress community won’t be providing further release in the 2.1 branch number. Then perhaps they should reconsider that preview in a new tab feature or probably make it an option that can be turned on and off from the Writing options.
Do tell me how it’s been for you? Did you upgrade to Wordpress 2.2 or are you still waiting for some time? Do you like the new features of 2.2? Take a comment and tell us.
related reading:
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- Download MyJournal : a light,white,3Columns minimal theme
- Quick shooting stats of your Wordpress blog
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There is already a plugin available to restore the preview in the Iframe (I think Carthik mentioned)
Wordpress Widgets in general are bad for SEO unless you use Sidebar Modules which comes with K2
K2 has a fix to turn off Widgets so it can work with SBM. I have tried a plugin which switches off Widgets but that doesn’t seem to work with the current SBM downloads, and I don’t fancy playing around with the K2 Theme files to extract a working copy.
The security problems are said to be real. Aaron at Technosailor say it allows someone to have admin access to your site in 5 minutes and it was the main reason B5Media quickly upgraded to WP2.2
Aaron is more technical on these things than me, I trust his judgement.
Also, I am not sure there were any database changes in 2.2 - upgrading to 2.2 makes any changes, I wouldn’t be confident that running the update in 2.1.3 reverses them.
Perhaps they should provide the security fixes as plugins or for e.g inside your admin, you could check for security updates, download them and install them within your dashboard. I think Wordpress releases are mostly security fixes so why should we each and every time, go through this tedious process of upgrading our installation?
Thanks for this info about the widgets, I didn’t know that this could affect something, do you have any post of yours on this subject?
I also don’t think so about the database changes, I think there was when they put that feature of getting categories for our blogroll but now since any of such file is not being touch, I doubt it.
Thanks indeed for your comment and for bringing in your insights here, they are really appreciated
They were making some major changes for 2.2, and then had to hack them back out again, such as categories and tagging data structures.
There are lots of hacks for upgrading currently available, and there is a recognised need for an easier process.
Some of the hacks are fairly effective. Aaron has gone into some detail and provided a lot of the scripts he uses to upgrade 200 blogs in a few minutes.
You could also check the SVN and run a “bleeding edge” installation if that fixes some of the problems.
The Sidebar Widgets feature has made me nervous about upgrading to 2.2 - I recently uninstalled the Widgets plugin and started hand coding my sidebar, so I’m not sure whether it’d screw things up like you described.
If you still want a copy of WP 2.1.3, Hans, just send me an email
Sounds too scary for me to upgrade, I’ll wait for a week or two
I would say it is scary not to upgrade
bro, i have tagged you!
but i don’t think you will be keen to do it as your blog is becoming more n more techie….
anyways, let me know if you join in!
help!!!!!!!!!! my blogroll is lost!! I can’t find it ???
so, no problem for now
thanks for the offer Yvonne. That would surely be great.
Nice job on the blog’s redesign, I’ve been following it since some time. But aren’t you over doing in the graphics area
? They are indeed good, but I’m guessing how much energy are you investing in that? Don’t tell us you’ll take another vacation lol *just joking*
yo bro,
tags always make me happy. Don’t ya worry, if you tag me, then it’s my blogging responsibility as a citizen of the blogosphere to accept it and tag you in return whenever an occasion offers to me(revenge,revenge 
lol). Hide your back, I’ll get back to you soon 
Have you upgraded to Wordpress to 2.2? Also the blogroll section with myJournal is on a page. Perhaps you’ve deleted that page? Nonetheless here’s a code to put in your sidebar if you want your blogroll there :
Do tell whether that worked? Also, it would be great if you could upgrade to myJournal supareal for the revamped new header image.
don’t you upgrade when they release new versions? They are indeed vital you know, security fixes most of the time so that hacker don’t take care of your exploits as Andy pointed out.
What version are you currently on? 2.12. or 2.1.3?
I have 2.2 as of now and no problems… well except for the functions.php breaking my site the other day… Jeez, i hope that thing isn’t important, cuz it’s gone now…
Heh, you’re right. But I get perfectionist about these things.
Anyway, check your email …
Thanks for the info but perhaps I’m going to switch to a traditional theme found on word press sites. Perhaps this is where to begin in creating custom themes.
What’s this cryptic info:
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/bsquare/public_html/wp-content/plugins/SK2/sk2_second_chance.php:2) in /home/bsquare/public_html/wp-content/plugins/what_would_seth_godin_do.php on line 86
Thank you. Your comment has been approved.
yo bro, check out this fresh blogmarking service: bvibes. it’s from Ramani (Hackosphere). you may be interested to review it!
btw, where do we hop to inorder to read more about your contributor(s)?
nice to know it worked out well for you
thanks very much Yvonne. Perfectionist
I think it got to that old tradition of getting lost in every details of one’s design 
as you wish. There are lots to choose from, feel free to get you one that you’re well acquainted with
As for those errors popping up, I was upgrading from 2.1.2 to 2.1.3. Plugins were deactivated giving those pesky errors
sure bro, there are things to get in order first and he’ll let you have his whole bio
thanks so much for the link bro, I’ll get to that soon
btw are you liking the new way things are getting up on BlogoSquare? You’re indeed one of my precious visitors and asking you this and getting your feedback is indeed important to me
I mean the new topics BlogoSquare will be touching, productivity + blogging news. Getting a bit more serious,etc
Sure, even I’m still with 2.1.3. I’m not planing to upgrade till 2.2.1or 2.2.2 comes out.
I installed 2.2 on my local server, and even I came across a few bugs. I hope they fix it in their next release.
why wouldn’t you consider upgrading even when they fixed the errors
? The updates are indeed vital for security holes.
yo bro, I checked out. That type of site is becoming popular nowadays
Some time back I was thinking of having something like that so that we could submit Mauritian-related news, so that for e.g you don’t have to look around from blog to blog to find that info, for e.g about the waves that struck our coast you’re were eager to learn on.
The site is built on something just like Wordpress, you see you install the package on your server and it opens a bookmarking/voting system just like digg. The only reason I didn’t implement it was that it would weigh on my server. For the time being, there’s already UBSquare. That’s why I did take down USpeak too
Perhaps it would have been great though since most of the crucial news on found on blogs through posts and pictures and voting to get those news at the top could be a great thing.
Would you have a particular name that you would like such a Mauritian-related site have?
it is irresponsible to continue to leave this post up. 2.2 is a security release. not upgrading leaves you vulnerable to attack. recommending other people do the same is not cool. as mentioned above, there’s a plugin for the inline preview. there’s another plugin to disable widgets.
From what I understand there are security issues with 2.1.3 that will pretty much force everyone to upgrade at some point. Your points are valid, however. There are issues with 2.2 and some people might be better off to wait a while before upgrading.
sure Adam, but my point wasn’t to discourage people to upgrade, I indeed suggested them to do so. Infact I posted this to let people the wordpress 2.1.3 until the Wordpress community can come with a good release of 2.2. It isn’t just about the features, it’s about some bugs too. So like many of us who upgraded but wanted to revert back and wait(before ultimately upgrading to 2.2), there they are, WP 2.1.3
Perhaps it would be great if the Wordpress developers could be considering that in a future release : providing options within the admin panel to turn on and off the widget and preview in new window/tab features.
I was infact thinking, why should we be upgrading just for security fixes? I think it would be better having an option within the admin section, checking regularly for security fixes and allowing us to download it from there, without the need for a whole upgrade. Don’t you think so?
I think that would make sense, but I don’t know if it’ll ever happen. It could be, also, that the security upgrade is too intensive and involves too much of the program to upgrade just part of it.
wordpress 2.2 is fine. no problems. =)
yup…WP 2.2 no problem for me
Older versions of WordPress can be found here
http://wordpress.org/download/release-archive/
Thanks for this buddy, that surely will help me and lots others reverting to old versions if needed. I’ll update the article to point to this link
I just downgraded because of the integrated widgets which broke one of my favorite plugins called Sidebar Modules which does a much better job which wasn’t supported in 2.2 and up.
@ Mark Krynsky
Hi Mark, if in the future you want to get on 2.2, I think there’s a plugin that removes the sidebar functionality of 2.2. allowing you to use your Sidebar modules function without a hassle. check it out here
Thanks for your visit, see you back soon.