New update 4.7.2 nuked my site!

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
The client manually installed a new WPML update because it wasn't showing in the WordPress updates section or in plugins, which resulted in a critical error on the website.
Solution:
We logged into the site and attempted to update the WPML plugins via the Plugins -> Add New -> Commercial page. However, the site was still pointing to localhost, which we identified from the WPML -> Support page notice indicating the site was detected at localhost. This could interfere with updating plugins from a publicly mapped address.

To resolve this, we deactivated all plugins, switched to the standard WP theme 2025, updated the WPML plugins (WPML, String Translation, and WCML), and then reactivated these along with WooCommerce. After these steps, the fatal error was no longer present.

We recommend the client to try reproducing the issue with the current setup and report the steps if the error reoccurs. Additionally, we advised using PHP 8.2 until newer versions are fully supported, as PHP 8.4 is still in beta support by WordPress. For more details on PHP compatibility, visit WordPress PHP Compatibility.

If this solution does not resolve your issue or seems outdated, please check related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verify the version of the permanent fix, and confirm that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. If the problem persists, we highly recommend opening a new support ticket at WPML support forum.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

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Last updated by omarA-71 1 week, 2 days ago.

Assisted by: Waqas Bin Hasan.

Author	Posts
March 31, 2025 at 1:50 pm #16879693
Dražen Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+02:00)	Hello, thanks for getting back. Sure, please provide access to the staging site together with FTP access and we will check it out. You can provide a duplicator copy of your website, and we can have a look. - https://wpml.org/fr/faq/provide-supporters-copy-site/ Regards, Drazen
April 2, 2025 at 7:25 am #16885556
Dražen Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+02:00)	Hello, just to inform you, we are trying to check but seems we can not access the page as it gives an error and we can not access via FTP, we get timeout. Can you please check and confirm FTP works fine, so we can login and check? Thanks, Drazen
April 2, 2025 at 7:36 am #16885580
Dražen Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+02:00)	Hello, also, I was able to deploy duplicator and it works fine, no errors. It could be that there is something wrong with your local server configuration / files or similar. Is it possible to set this website somewhere online so we can check and see if the issue still happens? Video: hidden link Regards, Drazen
April 2, 2025 at 10:12 am #16886406
omarA-71	Our server is self managed VPS. If you need the nginx/php configuration. I can export that file for you. However, when I tried to recreate the issue on local AMPPS server, it occurred. Tried now on production site. Updated to 4.7.2, through 502 error. Restarted php service and now throws same critical error. We are using latest stable php8.4-fpm My ampps server uses php8.2 too. I updated the FTP connection please use SSH ftp or known as SFTP. Same password and username and port which is 14721
April 3, 2025 at 6:24 am #16889892
Waqas Bin Hasan Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Karachi (GMT+05:00)	Thank you for the updates. I'm back and looking into the matter. At first I saw an error being thrown for WCML on login page, so I connected via SFTP and deactivated the WPML by renaming the plugin's folder (appended xxx to the folder name). Then I retried to access /wp-admin but it keeps redirecting towards hidden link, which is of-course not reachable because it is pointing to my local server. Please watch my screen recording: hidden link I've also checked .htaccess and wp-config.php, which look fine however. I'll recommend deactivating all WPML plugins and provide a working access so we can then investigate accordingly. I've set your next reply as private again, in case you want to provide new access details, as well as, any related information safely.
April 3, 2025 at 7:21 am #16890157
omarA-71	I edited hosts files from the database. Now it should work without issues for login domain.
April 3, 2025 at 12:10 pm #16892043
Waqas Bin Hasan Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Karachi (GMT+05:00)	Thank you for the updates, I was able to login to the site. I tried to update WPML plugins from Plugins -> Add New -> hidden link">Commercial page. But looks like your site is somewhere still pointing to localhost (see attached). So I updated manually by uploading latest versions and can see a notice about site copy/move in WPML -> hidden link">Support page. This notice says that site is now at hidden link. This can be a problem about updating plugins from the publicly mapped address, while site is still being detected at localhost. However, besides that, I deactivated all plugins, switched to standard WP theme 2025, then updated WPML plugins (WPML, String Translation and WCML) and activated these one by one, along with WooCommerce. So far I'm not seeing that fatal error, as you mentioned earlier. Can you please try to reproduce that issue again, in current scenario and note down the steps for us to reproduce again? As long as the support for PHP 8.4 is concerned, please note that this is still in beta support by WordPress itself (including 8.3). See https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/php-compatibility-and-wordpress-versions/ for details. So it is advised to use PHP 8.2 until the newer versions of PHP are fully supported.
April 3, 2025 at 6:56 pm #16894628
omarA-71	For some reason. It doesn’t throw the critical error anymore. I tested it on the production website by updating to 4.7.3, no error anymore. I don’t understand why. But it works now.