New WordPress Upgrade version 2.6 : Critical Technical Problems With Upgrade – Should you Upgrade now?

WordPress had just released their new upgraded version, WordPress 2.6. However, there are a lot of issues with the new release. You can download the new version from the official WordPress website.

The WordPress release note says that “2.6 is pretty much identical to 2.5 from a plugin and theme compatibility point of view”. The improvements are mainly on security areas & ways in which you can make blogging easier.

But before you rush & upgrade, you should know the common issues that non-technical users have reported so far.

The most common problems reported by normal users, who are not completely technical are listed here. I have spent quite some time in reading through all the bugs, defects & problems reported by the users. I short listed them in order of the frequency in which they were reported.

In my opinion, for a new blogger, or for someone not completely conversant with PHP, my SQL & WordPress in general, any of these technical problems below could bring down your entire blog.

Custom themes seem to have problems too. So if you are using any theme other than the default ones, you run the risk of not displaying the blog correctly.

1. Installation hangs when install.php is executed
2. Login problems with the Admin pages not showing up properly
3. Permalinks are broken leading to installation errors
4. Categories not appearing correctly
5. Pages & posts are not showing up on clicking the Permalinks
6. Editor toolbar not showing up at all or showing up incomplete
7. Unable to save draft posts
8. Category Links are broken
9. Memory (RAM) related problems during upgrade
10. WordPress blogs running slow on Version 2.6
11. PodPress used with WordPress crashing IE Browsers
12. Many custom themes are not working
13. Password resets are not working
14. Add Media not working

Although many people have successfully upgraded to 2.6, if you are new to blogging & WordPress, any of the above error could lead you to completely shut down your website.

So before you upgrade, follow the forums to see if the major & critical issues listed above have been resolved by the WordPress teams. I have not upgraded yet & would wait till the critical problems 1 to 8 & 12 (I mostly use my own themes) are resolved.