Since being released on December 2, WordPress 6.9 has been downloaded over nine million times. Shipping is the first step, and core contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. https://core.trac.wordpress.org. have been monitoring bug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. reports, forum posts, and social networks to see the effects of the release. Issues are analyzed to understand how widespread they are, the impact they have on sites, and if there is a viable workaround available. This is combined with analyzing potential release dates, coordination with other projects that may be necessary, and the riskiness of fixes to decide on a release date for a maintenance release. Please note, only a small subset of sites are facing these issues.
For WordPress 6.9, this analysis has led to the decision that a maintenance release will be best in January at the earliest.
Some of the reported bugs can be fixed using small code snippets, but not everyone is comfortable editing PHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher files on their site. To reduce the burden on site administrators who are affected by these reported bugs, these snippets have also been made available as plugins. It is recommended to test your site before installing one of these plugins.
CSS Cascading Style Sheets. Issues from Loading Separate Block Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Styles on Demand
WordPress 6.9’s new ability to load block styles on demand in classic themes has led to some instances where some sites running a classic theme are seeing content styled in unexpected ways due to wp-block-library styles being omitted when they were previously included by default. There can also be differences in file loading leading to unexpected changes in the CSS Cascade. See #64354 for more information and to follow as a permanent fix is developed.
The Load Combined Core Block Assets Plugin by core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. committer A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component. @westonruter is available to help here.
E-Mails Not Being Sent
Some changes aimed at improving the reliability of email have uncovered bugs with some configurations of the underlying libraries and applications used to send email. This means that is some circumstances, WordPress installs that had been able to send emails no longer can. See #64368 for more information and to follow as a permanent fix is developed.
The Hotfix plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, maintained by multiple core committers, has been updated to include a workaround.
Adjacent Post Navigation
Additionally, a change to adjacent post navigation is leading to some sites seeing infinite loops when modifying the get_{$adjacent}_post_where filter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output.. This change was not previously publicized, but the linked dev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. is now published and highlighted in the 6.9 field guide. Please ensure you are using the most up-to-date version of plugins and themes when updating to WordPress 6.9.
Thank you to the contributors who have tested and reported issues they have seen along. Futher, thank you to the developers who have followed up on these reports and are continuing to work to find solutions that help WordPress users in both the short and long term. As a community project, WordPress would not be able to function without the volunteers and individuals sponsored to work on WordPress Core. If you see an issue, please report it to either trac or the gutenberg repository depending on where the issue occurs.
Props @desrosj and @westonruter for assisting with drafting this post.
#6-9
