I have said it before and will say it again the road to hell is truly paved with good intentions. Tuesday night, I got a message on my WordPress Dashboard (for those that don’t blog this is the place where all the magic happens so to speak for what you see on my actual blog) that a WordPress update had to be installed going version 3.4.2 to 3.5.
I was a bit hesitant to actually do this, because the last time I did a major WordPress update to just my theme alone, I ended up having a bigger mess on my hands that took me all day to fix (if you don’t remember it, read it here). So needless to say I asked around a bit and was told it would be fine just hit the update button. I was still feeling nervous, but did hit that update button. What ensued after was nothing short of a royal pain in the ass!!
The Dreaded Update Button That I Don’t Want to See Anytime Soon Again…I am not one to curse on here, but have to be honest and tell you no other words describe the pure hell I went through from Tuesday night until late afternoon Wednesday. By the way, I was saying worse while going through it, but am refraining myself for the general public!
After the notorious WordPress update, I found I had all sorts of issues from my stat sites not working at all, which is not a horrible offense, except I can’t help, but like to check them from time to time during the day (Ok maybe I am a bit obsessed here!).
Even worse was that I couldn’t pre-schedule posts. I admit that I write my posts beforehand , usually the afternoon or night before. The pre-schedule also was a godsend before Hurricane Sandy (granted we are not expecting an epic storm again anytime in the near future, but still). I also couldn’t upload photos and or include hyperlinks in my posts (of course for Wednesday’s post I needed both). Just about everything I needed to use or do on my dashboard was a mess and was completely wonky.
I worked on a post all Wednesday afternoon, while my girls napped (hoping that WordPress would indeed put an update out with a fix to the issues mentioned earlier). The post needless to say could not be pre-scheduled.
Once done with the post, I decided to google more on the known issues and if there were any fixes to these bugs. I kept reading people taking about downgrading back to WordPress 3.4.2. I started the process, but I am not a technical person at heart and my first thought was I am going to screw this up and then have an even worse mess on my hands.
So I caved and called my hosting service, which is HostMonster. They were nothing short of amazing. Two technicians worked on my site for over two hours until they got me back to WordPress 3.4.2. The two hours were a bit frustrating and definitely nerve wracking, especially seeing as my kids were no longer napping. I spent a lot of time on hold though and was able to feed my kids and take care of their general needs while on hold.
I will admit that HostMonster was an awesome choice to go with for hosting my site, because their customer service is impeccable. If you are looking to host your own domain site, you really should look into them, trust me for the customer service alone you won’t be sorry. I have a widget in my right sidebar for them, if you are interested.
After all is said and done, my site dashboard is back to working Ok under WordPress 3.4.2 and I will not be updating to 3.5 until I know for sure that the known bugs are taken care of and that I will be able to run my site without any further headaches or aggravation. Just so happy that my site and dashboard are indeed fixed. I guess what they say is true, you live and learn. And for those contemplating hitting that button to update, my only piece of advice is “Don’t!”
Thank You Clark!!!And as a side note, as I was getting ready to hit the publish button on this one (relax this button is good not evil like the other one), I was awarded the Blog of the Year 2012 for the third time. I can hear Kevin saying, “Seriously people stop she is going to get a swelled head and we don’t need that happening around her, because we still need her to get her day job done!” But in all honestly, need to thank Clark from The Wakefield Doctrine (and yes I can thankfully hyperlink again and Virginia there is a Santa Claus, too!), who made my morning that much brighter and at least saner. If you haven’t visited his site, I honestly don’t know what you are waiting for, because his take on the three personalities is classic and leaves the reader always wanting more. Thank you Clark for always being a true friend and supporter, as well as making my mornings more enjoyable with your witty posts.
And now, I am going to wrap this one up with a nice bow or at least shut the up, because I know you all must have had enough of me already (I promise not to tell you anymore of the 7 unknowns about me or pass this on, because I know you are thinking that I have done this too often now). So alas, as I have mentioned my grandfather’s favorite saying for my grandmother when she too could talk off a deaf person’s ear, “Say goodnight Gracie!”
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Sadder Wiser says
WordPress gives me a headache, but I guess I can't complain because it's free! Glad you were able to get it "downgraded"-I've had that sort of issue with ITunes. Get those bugs fixed first folks! 😀
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Sadder Wiser and couldn't agree more about them fixing the bugs before doing anything else with this so-called update.
Emily Cappo says
Once again, so glad your problem has been resolved. Sounds like Hostmonster was a godsend! I haven't had any major problems yet with my site, but I hope Bluehost is as good if I do. And congrats on receiving the award a 3rd time — you completely deserve it and if your head swells a bit, who cares? You should feel proud of yourself for how hard you work…:)
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Emily and don't know much about Bluehost, but will say just follow your gut on updates and when in doubt don't upgrade when it literally first comes out. I know this and didn't listen to my own advice!! As for the award, thanks seriously and feel honored, but just hope people don't think that I am yet again getting an award, because I just can't believe others think me worthy of them. Totally humbled by those who have been kind enough to bestow them on me though 🙂 🙂
Bill says
Sheez, I wonder if mine needs updating? I guess they will tell me when it does, and then I can panic….no, better, I'll let Bev do it for me since I'm brain dead regarding any technical changes. 🙂 Thanks for the warning!
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Bill and definitely let Bev handle it, if she is good with this type of stuff like I think she is. My pleasure putting this warning out, because I truly don't want to go through what I did go through with this one.
Gina Adams says
I will not be doing the update. I am a former system's engineer and I've always hesitated doing any kind of upgrade until I'm 100% certain things are all hunky dory. For the same reason, I never — EVER — do Microsoft updates. They are notorious for wonkiness! (I think I just created a new word)
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Gina and I usually know better, but asked and was told by someone else it was fine, so I gave it a try, but in the end was truly sorry I did. Next time I am going with my gut instinct and waiting it out.
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Lisa and again I do know better, but just made this mistake. As my mom always said, "As long as you learn from your mistake and never make the same one twice!"
JanineHuldie says
Lisa, like to say I haven't been there or done that but unfortunately I have and can totally relate!!
Stacy Harris says
Yeah – glad to see the nightmare is over… at least for the time being. I can only imagine what you were going through. I was working on getting the facebook social plugin the other day and it took me two hours. I am almost positive that is one reason alone not to host my own webpage any time soon! 🙂
Christy Birmingham says
I am glad you got through the update Janine! Yikes! Hugs and you are such a savvy blogger gal!
JanineHuldie says
Seriously Christy, thanks so very much for your kindness here, for the tweets and for just being you!!
Courtney~Club-Conten says
I've done that before, spending so much time searching to try and fix something, but now I just pay Christina to fix things for me. It's just totally worth it, and I don't lose an entire day:)
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Courtney and one day I am going to take you up on that suggestion (when I actually start seeing a profit, lol!!). I am just stubborn I suppose and enjoy losing a whole day, lol!! Seriously thanks 🙂 🙂
Stephanie @ Mommy, f says
Well, my hat is off to you for refraining from using profanity in your post about what does indeed sound like hell. I would not have fared as well in that quest, to be sure! 😉 This is one of the few times I feel OK about being on lame old Blogger still.
JanineHuldie says
Oh thanks Stephanie and kept it together until I was told that I may actually lose some of my posts by the first tech guy at HostMonster. I think he took pity on me then and got another tech on the case with him as well. As of this mind you from pushing that one little button. So you are right about Blogger being a bit less of a headache in areas such as this!!
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Julie and will say I did use a few choice four letter words, but tried to keep this a bit tame I suppose, but that said make no mistake my grandfather an ex-butcher taught me all my curse words at a young age, so I can totally curse with the best of them, lol!!
Audrey Howitt says
What a bummer!! But your hosting site sounds like they are totally wonderful!!!
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Audrey for the support and agree about my hosting company they are awesome!!
Ruchira says
I am sorry to read that, Janine. But yes, upgrades sure seem to mess things up. I have also seen of my documents disappear when I upgrade my microsoft word software!
JanineHuldie says
Thanks for saying that Ruchira and sorry that you even lost some documents when updating Microsoft Word Software. Just so frustrating and down right annoying!!
Cyndi says
I really have liked HostMonster, too. Glad Julie persuaded me to use them. 🙂 As for the 3.5 troubles…yikes. I'm sorry you had to go through this but I'm glad I didn't click "update" – at least not yet. 😛
JanineHuldie says
Cyndi, I am with you this and am truly happy that Julie persuaded me to go with HostMonster, too. As for that update button, happy you didn't click it and you are right to stay away, because even now when I checked back on the forums for this whole thing, there 1,000's upon 1,000's of messages with all complaints. Better to just this one out now 🙂
Dani Ryan says
I am SO glad you posted this as I have been debating whether I should upgrade (I also have a self-hosted wordpress blog). I now know NOT to do such a thing!!!!
Congrats on the award. You definitely deserve it!!!
xo
JanineHuldie says
Dani, thanks for saying that. I am so very happy that I was able to help you out just by writing this, because I honestly didn't want anyone else to go through this if they didn't have to.
Joyce says
And to think, I thought the road to hell was paved with adverbs.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Joyce, I needed that laugh tonight 🙂 🙂
Meredith says
Yay that HostMonster was so great with this! But sorry you had to go through the whole mess in the first place. The updates in general scare me b/c I'm never sure what they will bring. I like the options WordPress brings, but wish I was more tech-savvy to keep up with it all. Congrats on your award! 🙂
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Meredith and am with you on not being tech savvy at all and those updates all make me cringe at what I could possibly screw up next. But a also with you on loving WordPress for all the options it gives.
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Melanie and even though it truly was no fun, I am glad I could help others, like you, because I really didn't want anyone going through that!
Pete says
What a mess! Glad to hear it ended well Janine, so you didn't lose any posts?
JanineHuldie says
Thanks Pete and thankfully I didn't lose any posts, but at one point I was told I may and thought I was going to have a heart attack. Thankfully all is well that ends well. That button is still there to update and refuse to push it now, lol!!
More Than Mommies says
Thanks for linking up at the MTMmixer again this week. Always love to catch up with you there. We were just having a blogger vs. wordpress debate this week (Janene and I) as we waited for our little ballerinas. We are looking into a new site design and we discussed making the switch to WP…but we are so used to Blogger…and really what IS so special about WP? We can't figure it out! Your thoughts?
JanineHuldie says
My absolute pleasure. Your link up is always so much fun and makes Friday that much more interesting!!
As for WordPress vs. Blogger, I did use Blogger back when I first set up and felt limited at times, but they really are fairly easy to use. I switched over to WordPress.com, where I quickly learned I couldn't advertise and was way limited on that end. Then, I asked around a wonderful friend educated me a bit on self hosting and on WordPress.org. She even helped me set up. I do love it, but will admit it can be a bit of a learning curve. The one thing I don't like though are these updates that can screw up everything you worked so hard to set up in the first place. I am not a wiz at coding either, but for the most part I caught onto a lot pretty quickly and the rest I find is a leaning curve for me. That said, if you need any help or have any more questions, please ask and will try to help as best as I can.
Love you ladies though and again so happy to join in again!!
JanineHuldie says
Sorry to scar or scare anyone here Richard, but it was a bit hairy at first. The hosting company truly did all the hard work for me, but still I can understand you wanting to stay with Blogger after reading this one, because Blogger can be less of a hassle for stuff like from what I have been told now.