The Yoast WordPress SEO plugin released an update, but it quickly became apparent that some users had a serious bug. It appears that the issue caused a fatal error. Victims negatively affected by Yoast updates must roll back to the previous version of Yoast.
According to one user, their WordPress installation alerted them to a “fatal error,” according to an email sent to them.
The dictionary defines a victim as someone who has been harmed by an accident or other event. According to this definition, publishers of websites that have experienced dysfunction after a failed Yoast update can certainly be described as victims.
Yoast appropriately apologizes for what happened.
Destined Yoast 18.4 Plugin Update
Yoast 18.4 aims to introduce a new feature that introduces content and structured data timestamping for copyright protection using blockchain technology.
The new functionality connects to a service called WordProof, which provides verifiable timestamps that are displayed to website visitors as content is authored and updated.
Integration with Yoast’s WordProof fails
WordProof is a company listed on its website About us page Yoast’s husband and wife co-founders are partners.
The WordProof service provides blockchain certificates for proving timestamps and tools for copyright infringement.
WordProof’s stated goal is to promote trust in websites by providing evidence and transparency.
According to WordProof:
“The deep-rooted problems of the internet are growing every day: mistrust, plagiarism and fake news. WordProof wants to create new standards for a more reliable and trustworthy internet with the help of blockchain technology.”
Unfortunately, the integration of this feature caused Yoast to cause serious glitches for users.
At the time of writing, some Yoast customers indicated that this bug affects Yoast versions 18.4 and 18.4.1.
According to Yoast, both Yoast Free Plugin version 18.4.1 and Yoast SEO Premium 18.2.1 are stable releases and no longer include new WordProof features.
Symptoms of a bad Yoast SEO plugin update
The doomed update to the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin caused huge havoc for some customers.
Typical problems reported:
- XML sitemaps show all content types, including private content that shouldn’t be public
- The Yoast search appearance settings tab is completely blank.
- fatal error message
- WordPress sends message about Yoast plugin error
One user reported that WordPress core emailed an alert message about the Yoast plugin:
“As of WordPress 5.2, there is a built-in feature that detects when a plugin or theme is causing a fatal error on your site and notifies you via this automatic email.
In this case, WordPress found an error with one of your plugins, Yoast SEO. “
User shared Yoast SEO Plugin buggy documentation:
Screenshot of Yoast update error
Another Yoast customer posted to the public Yoast support page Describe their problem:
“After updating from yoast seo plugin 18.3 -> 18.4 in the site health status page, I can see some errors:
…REST API encounters bad performance
…REST API request failed with an error. “
Another Yoast plugin user wrote to Notify Yoast of similar errors:
“Fatal error after updating wordpress 5.9.2 and Yoast 18.4.1
…REST API request failed with an error. “
Issues involving REST API issues seem to be a fairly common complaint, as there are Report it to other Yoast update victimsalso.
Another Yoast victim wrote that Yoast broke his website:
“My site suddenly started showing blank pages, error pages, pages that are narrowly formatted on desktop browsers (ie, don’t take up the entire browser screen as they used to), etc. I also suddenly couldn’t edit my homepage…. ..”
other ask for help:
“I can’t edit a post or page. It throws an error. When I deactivate the plugin. Than the problem goes away.
…error: The editor encountered an unexpected error. “
Yoast ensures the latest version of the SEO plugin is now stable
The plugin caused fatal errors for many users who started posting on the Yoast plugin support page on WordPress.org.
Yoast issued an apology for the update on this issue:
“Despite extensive testing, unfortunately, some users are experiencing issues with Yoast SEO 18.4.
When they contacted our 24/7 support team quickly, we were able to act quickly and roll back this release.
… we apologize for any inconvenience you may experience. “
Yoast assures customers that the latest versions (Yoast SEO 18.4.1 and Yoast SEO Premium 18.2.1) are stable and they will revisit the WordProof integration in the future.
Yoast SEO plugin bug
Yoast is currently not compatible with PHP 8+.At least one person who reported the bug pointed out They are using PHP 8.0.
In an unrelated support issue, someone asked If Yoast is compatible with the latest version of PHP, version 8.x.
A Yoast support rep wrote:
“Unfortunately, we haven’t fully tested the plugin for PHP 8. The whole WordPress community is still working on it”
So for that particular user, PHP 8.0 might be a complication.
Yoast recommends updating to the latest stable version of their plugins. It may be prudent to check if your site is running PHP 8.+, and if possible, stage the site first to test if it works.
