How to Update to WordPress 5.3

ByMaAnna Stephenson

How to Update to WordPress 5.3

See what order to do your updates to avoid issues with upgrading to WordPress 5.3.

NOTE: If you have a specilaty theme that has its own functions plugin, or you have other speciality integrations, check with your designer/developer first before you do the updates. Follow their directions if they differ from those given below.

If you have issues after updates, leave a comment to let us know. I do not support individual themes and plugins, but the whole BlogAid village will want to know about any conflicts and fixes that any of us find.

Reported Issues So Far

See the issues that I’ve heard about.

Editor Conflicts

Some site owners have reported getting a white screen if their Gutenberg plugin was active during the update. I updated a test site under this condition and had no issues. But, now that the Gutenberg plugin has updated again, my advice is to delete it first, then update to WP 5.3.

Some site owners have reported getting a white screen when using the Classic Editor plugin that was set to allow you to chose either Classic or Gutenberg editing on a post/page.

The TinyMCE Advanced plugin had a notice in the plugins repository that it could not be installed on a site running WP 5.2.4 or lower. It has been updated to only function on WP 5.3 and higher at this point.

TinyMCE Advanced WordPress 5.3 Update Notice.

This is why the order below reflects updating WP first, then your plugins, as others may have this same condition.

Known Bugs

Some updates froze and/or locked the site into maintenance mode.

  • For freezing, you may get this message:
    “The authenticity of wordpress-5.3-new-bundled.zip could not be verified as no signature was found.” You may need to unlock the update, as it cannot do another attempt while in that state. There are plugins to help with this, including the Fix Another Update in Progress plugin. I had this happen on one site and after unlocking, I tried the update again and got the same message, but the update completed.
  • If it locks into maintenance mode, you’ll need to remove that maintenance file from the host side, using something like File Manager, if you have control panel access.

Some folks have reported that the captions under images and videos are no longer center aligned. Hopefully this will be fixed in WP 5.3.1.

Update Order

See the order of operations I recommend.

Take a full backup

See this Backup Checklist to ensure your backup includes everything you may need.

Update MainWP

If you are using that plugin, update it first.

You will need to log into each child site and update the MainWP Child plugin too.

Delete the Gutenberg Plugin

If you are using it, delete it first.

Update WordPress

There are multiple code changes in the core that your plugins may be dependent on.

During the update, I saw the notice below.  

You may or may not see it.

Database Update Required Notice WordPress 5.3.

After clicking the Update WordPress Database, I saw this notice. If you didn’t see the notice above, you will not see this one.

Database Update Complete Notice WordPress 5.3.

After clicking the Continue button I was taken to the splash page for what’s new in WP 5.3.

Do Initial Site Check

Check your site after the update to ensure all is well.

To check your site:

  • Poke around the front side (as a visitor would see the stie) while logged in.
  • Try to create a new page – this will ensure your editor works.
  • Open the site in a new browser and poke around the front side.

Update Plugins

READ: this post on the new process to use when updating with the WP Rollback plugin installed.

Check your site by the methods above.

Check Gutenberg Posts

Check a post where you have a feature that makes use of the Gutenberg plugin.

Purge All Cache

READ: How to Purge Cache Everywhere

Ensure you get your

  • Browser
  • Local caching plugin
  • Cloudflare or other CDN

Do Deep Checks

Open your site in a new incognito window.

Poke all over it and ensure all functions work.

Log into your site and try to create a page and/or other functions you do while logged in.

Check Again Tomorrow

It could take a full 10 hours for all cache to deeply purge.

Check your site again the next day to ensure all is well.

Email Authentication

The next time you attempt to log in, you may also see a notice asking you to verify that your admin email address is correct.

If it is not, click that it is anyway, so you can finish logging in.

And then go to your admin User and update the email to the correct one.

WP will send an email to the old address asking for confirmation, so be on the lookout for that and follow the steps to confirm it.

Delete TwentyTwenty

Be sure you delete the new TwentyTwenty theme that was added along with the update. It’s just one more security hole you don’t need.

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MaAnna is a geek who can still speak in plain English. She helps DIY site owners plus webmasters and designers create sites that are secure, perform well, and get noticed by search engines and readers.

21 Comments

  2. It went so fast I wasn’t sure if it was hung up, but all went well. All plugins updated without issue. I am using Tiny MCE for classic editor. IF I now want to switch to Gutenberg do I only need to delete Tiny MCE? That is the only plug in I am using for classic editor. THANK YOU so much for your help.

    1. It would not have gone fast if it had hung up.

      You may want to read this post before you completely delete the TinyMCE Advanced editor.

      And I don’t advocate going straight to Gute on a live production site. In my course, the first thing I talk about is where to take the course – on a clone of your site, or a fresh sandbox.

  3. Ok everything worked well and I did the deep sweep and cache clear. However, in 2 places I used columns on my homepage and they got tiny on the front. The code is good. Anyone else fix this yet? I saw early updaters elsewhere had this problem.

    1. I would be careful about not doing a db sweep right after an update.
      Maybe the issues will clear when the cache does. Sometimes that can take a bit. Or, hope others have an answer. You may want to list the theme you are using, and if Gutenberg is involved in those columns.

      1. I wasn’t referring to a DB sweep. Sorry. Just a deep dive into all aspects of the blog and functions.

  4. Thanks for the detailed instructions on how to update! Everything seems to be working fine on my site, but I’ll check again tomorrow after the cache totally purges.

  6. Oh god!

    I should have waited longer, this is the first version update which went horribly wrong – since I have started years ago with WP3.9!

    I get the impression that the package didn’t unpack completely. I’m now basically locked out of my dashboard because of fatal errors. Chaos!

    Let’s hope the backup of Namehero can restore my site – otherwise I might have to look on Fiverr (not my idea of fun or quality).

    1. I’d say you are extremely lucky not to have had an update issue in all those versions!!!! And you should always have your own, full backups that you can restore yourself. See this post for a full checklist, and links to my fave backup plugin and storage combo

  7. I found the cause of my image problem. (Captivating Theme). It is the columns block. It seems something is making the coding different in the WP 5.3 I am setting up a clone for further testing. I had to replace my columns at the top of the theme and use a gallery. There are styling issues which is why I used columns in the first place. The exact same images in the gallery are now appearing the sizes I had designated. The last column block I had used was in a different widget area on my home page. I ended up removing it completly. To be clear, the columns were not part of post or page. I was using a custom html widget on the home page in a widget area. I know that is all confusing.

    WP revamped their column block in this update and it is confusing on how to use the sizes. The block also nests and that could come into play in the way I am configuring it.

    1. Thanks for letting us know, Marilyn. I think folks who were using the Gutenberg plugin didn’t see any issues with WP 5.3, as it brought in all of that new stuff. But folks who didn’t use the plugin are getting all manner of new changes, like this. I sure hope you can easily figure it out.

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