Astra is one of my favourite free WordPress themes. It is highly customizable. This theme is one that provides a good number of features with a very simple list of settings, all for free.
I have been recommending the Astra Free theme to the majority of my blogging students. Four of my own blogs are built on the free version of Astra.
However, the recent update, Astra 4.6.6 on March 4, 2024, is behaving weird. So many users are already complaining on the WordPress forum. And some of my students running their websites on Astra are also inquiring about these issues.
I am going to explain this issue with Astra 4.6.6. Further, what are the best practices you must follow in order to avoid these poor-update problems?
Read the full blog carefully.
How Big This Problem is?
No update is 100% problem-free.
New errors or bugs are normal in an effort to resolve old bugs or problems. However, version 4.6.6, or even 4.6.7, seems horrible. A few customization options aren’t responding to the settings options. The header isn’t working in some cases, while the page title size is fixed to a small size.
Hopefully, Astra seems to be working sincerely on these problems. They released version 4.6.7 within 24 hours of the 4.6.6 release. So, whatever the issue is, we are assured that the problem will be resolved within a few updates.
However, waiting is not the best strategy. We need an immediate solution to this problem or any such problem in the future. Such issues are very critical for a website with good daily traffic. A small error may damage the user experience, resulting in a high bounce rate and poor conversion rates for services and products.
How to deal with Such problems?
There are three things to keep in mind to avoid such situations:
1. Rollback To old version
If you are an Astra (free) user and are facing the above-mentioned problems after the release of version 4.6.6, rollback to version 4.6.5.
Rollback means downgrading your version. Or installing the previous version of your theme. You can rollback themes as well as plugins, depending on what is causing the issue. And it’s quite simple to do.
Install and activate the plugin called WP Rollback.
This plugin lets you rollback plugins and themes with one click.
Now, go back to Appearance > theme > theme detail (for Astra).
Click on Rollback.
A panel with a list of all the versions of Astra appears. Since 4.4.6 and 4.6.7 are working weird, we want to downgrade to 4.6.5, so click on it.
A confirmation popup appears asking you to proceed further.
Click on Rollback.
Your theme will be downgraded successfully.
2. Restore backup
In case your website is behaving weird and you are not sure if it is caused by any theme or plugin version,.
The best solution in such a case is to restore the previous backup of your website.
If you are using Hostinger, you get free weekly or daily backups based on your hosting plan.
If you are still planning to purchase hosting, Hostinger is recommended the most.
3. Keep Auto-updates Off
In order to avoid this situation, it is suggested to turn off the auto-updates of themes and plugins.
Every time a new version of any plugin or theme is realised, a notification will appear asking you to update. You can use a staging site to test the new version before using it on the live site.
In order to turn off auto-update, follow these steps:
- Go to appearance > themes > theme details.
- And click on “Disable Auto-Updates.”
Similarly, disable auto-updates for the plugins. Go to plugins > installed plugins > and click on disable auto-updates.
Conclusion
Astra is a good plugin. Don’t doubt your choice.
Whatever problem you are facing with Astra 4.6.6 or 4.6.7 will be resolved within a couple of updates. However, I have shared three valuable tips to follow. If you keep these in mind, you can dodge these issues smartly.
If you have further queries, ask in the comment section.
