We stopped updating the theme over a year ago because it requires to update the PHP version from our 7.4 to 8.3. We could update the PHP, but when we did try to update it broke everything. All the pages got messed up and we had to roll back the site. So it either broke the WPbakery page builder or the Tag DIV. We were afraid to update again as it took hours to roll back the site. We are not sure if you started using your own builder or what, but this is a very large site and we did not want to lose everything. Not sure why now the mobile menu will not work – but it does not open. We would like to either find a way to update the site with the existing theme but NOT break everything we have; Or we will have to abandon this theme. Any suggestions? Our site is located at https://brahmanjournal.com/ Maybe we did something wrong when we updated the site. If you can help us we would appreciate it. If we need to pay for a new support I can do that, we have had this theme a long time and would like to keep it if possible.
Hi,
Currently I see some kind of custom mobile menu, or from a plugin, on top of the theme mobile menu -> https://prnt.sc/xr6is1rpWCft That extra mobile menu is displayed over the entire mobile header actually, meaning that I can’t click on the theme mobile menu, the logo, or the search.
If I delete that extra menu using the browser inspector, then the theme mobile menu seems to work correctly -> https://prnt.sc/tTDRcRp4z_Qw It opens correctly. So the only problem I see is that there is an extra menu in the mobile header, making it impossible to interact with the theme header.
About updating, if the website broke after updating the PHP, that can be caused by multiple things. Could be because of a plugin that doesn’t support newer PHP versions, or custom code, or the child theme as I see you use one, or an inactive extension in the new PHP version, or other causes. I suggest testing on a staging/testing clone of the main website, in order to deal with the issues there first.
From the theme perspective, if you update it just make sure to install this standard pack plugin -> https://prnt.sc/zkjDfLHkzSHy That’s a plugin we added in Newspaper 10. Normally it’s optional, but for older websites it’s required. Older websites are built with the older blocks, grids, templates, etc. and they will not display correctly without that plugin.
Thank you!
Hi Simion,
Yes, the extra menu was something we added while testing a few possible external solutions, but it also helped us identify the root cause of the issue.
We just wanted to let you know that the mobile menu is working correctly. The problem is that the website is loading too slowly, so until it finishes loading, it doesn’t allow the menu to open. Once the site has fully loaded, the menu works without any issues.
We are currently in contact with our server support team to find a solution. Thank you for taking the time to check our website.
Regarding the updates, we won’t be performing them this weekend because we’re expecting increased traffic. We’ll be livestreaming a cattle show in Guatemala, so we’d rather avoid making changes during that time. We will most likely handle the updates next week.
Once we determine what is causing the website to break when we update the PHP version, what would you recommend as the best order for the remaining updates? Should we:
-Update the PHP version
-Update the theme
-Install the tagDiv Standard Pack plugin
Please let us know your advice on this, as well as any other suggestions you may have regarding the update process. Thanks in advance!
I suggest updating the PHP last. So after you update the theme manually.
Updating the theme manually is not difficult. There are 2 ways:
1. I see you have cPanel -> https://brahmanjournal.com/cpanel In cPanel there is a file manager, which you can use to navigate to the themes folder and delete the theme, then you can upload the new theme version and extract it there.
2. Or you can update the theme through wordpress. Switch to a different theme, then delete the Newspaper theme and install the latest version.
Once the new theme version is installed, on the website you can navigate to the theme plugins panel and update the theme plugins from there -> https://prnt.sc/8G-T118T0O09
There is a more detailed guide here if you want to check it out -> https://tagdiv.com/update-newspaper-theme/
Thank you!
