Updating Twenty Eleven and Twenty Ten this morning broke Dashboard

LOL

Apologies. I should have mentioned “FTP” when I said:

“I have Downloaded a fresh copy of 3.4 and uploaded it to my site with the exception of the wp-content folder.”

What I had done was: I unzipped it removed the wp-content folder as Esmi instructed and then used FTP to upload it… Again, I am sorry I did not use the term FTP.

I followed uploading it via FTP by running wp-admin/upgrade.php

I was following step-by-step the instructions that Esmi gave me.

Try:
– switching to the Twenty Eleven theme by renaming your current theme’s folder inside wp-content/themes and adding “-old” to the end of the folder name using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides.

– resetting the plugins folder by FTP or phpMyAdmin.

– re-uploading all files & folders – except the wp-content folder – from a fresh download of WordPress.

– running the upgrade manually via wp-admin/upgrade.php

I was told that when I renamed Shiword to Shiword-old WP would default to TwentyEleven? How should I pick another theme? I find that wishing doesn’t do the trick. I only have four themes now. One is a duplicate of TwentyEleven called “broketwentyeleven” then there is shiword; twentyeleven; and twentyten. I renamed shiword to shiword-old. There is a file called index.php as well… however nobody said anything about editing it. Should someone have told me to edit it?

I don’t know what I should do if following the instructions step-by-step isn’t appropriate. Right now I am at a loss and mentally exhausted. You may go to my site and see that it is working with that theme if you don’t believe me that the theme is working with 3.4 https://gnomestead.com/

I have replaced everything except wp-content
In wp-content I have replaced twentyeleven
I have run it with shiword renamed to shiword-old and plugins renamed to plugins.hold

I still could replace twentyten and I could replace shiword.

I have a backup from a while ago of the database and the whole site. It is not extremely active so I do not back it up frequently. IE I have made one message yesterday and the message before was mid-May.

I know it must seem like I am not following your instructions – because I am not coming back with the results you are expecting – but I have been involved with computer programming, computer science, electronic engineering, automation and robotics, and computer maintenance long enough to understand the importance of following steps…

Should index.php in the themes directory really just say

`
<?php
// Silence is golden.
?>
`

Edit….
I just checked another WP Blog of mine for comparison and see that it’s index.php is identical. Sorry getting antsy and trying to figure out a next step in trouble shooting…Totally removing other Themes… reverting to an earlier version of WP? I’d rather not… Since the Front end is working… I figure the database is intact… so the issue is in the files that haven’t been replaced. (Also since I can access the backdoor of my other WP sites it isn’t a weirdness of my personal computer.) So it is in the files that were not replaced in the manual update…

It appears your version of shiword is not compatible with 3.4 or 3.3 and possibly earlier. shiword defines Custom_Background class in themes/shiword/lib/my-custom-background.php. WP tries to redefine the class again in wp-admin/custom-background.php, causing the error you see. What version did you upgrade from?

It looks like shiword is trying to use a modified version the class, I’m not sure how it prevented WP from loading it’s own version in the past, but whatever it is no longer works. If you must use this theme, you or it’s developer needs to find a new way to keep WP from trying to redefine this class. If you do not have a current version of shiword, it may be a matter of simply updating.

Hi bcworkz, well, the problem is likely with Shiword. The problem is not being able to switch to TwentyEleven even by disabling Shiword at the moment… at least not with the help given me here… so far. (Not that I haven’t had much help. HOWEVER Shiword just came out with something: (caveat — I haven’t tried it yet.)

Shiword + WP 3.4 = custom_background error

WordPress just relesed its last update 3.4, which is great, with a lot of new amazing features and bla bla bla….

The WP team also cleaned the code, changing the beaviour of some existing functions, like add_theme_support( ‘custom-background’)… the result is that Shiword will generate a fatal error!

So, first of all, if you’re using Shiword, DON’T UPGRADE YOUR SITE TO V3.4 before making one of the following fixes!!!

fix #1:

go in theme options page, under “other” tab, and deselect the ‘custom background’ checkbox! Easy uh??

fix #2

Open shiword/lib/admin.php file and find the line

add_theme_support( ‘custom-background’, array( ‘callback’ => $header_callback ) );

(line 515 for shiword 3.02, and 395 for shiword 3.03)

and delete the whole line

fix #3:

wait for Shiword 3.03.1 that will fix the problem

Note: Shiword 3.03 is on the way to be published, but it doesn’t fix this issue

…Hmmm fix #3 seems to contradict itself…. ahhh 3.03.1!

They do try to keep current. But I think they are just after the cusp of WP development instead of right on it. LOL Sort of like me…

Since I can’t get the Back end to work, I think I am stuck with option #2.

I shall do that and return shortly. (I hope my block quote works… I can’t find a preview on this forum…)

Okay, Option 2 worked.

Thank you to each of you:

esmi
Ipstenu
bcworkz

Each of you contributed in your own way.

Right now it is showing I only have to update TwentyTen. Ie TwentyEleven is up to date and I am running WP3.4

I think I’ll re-backup before updating TwentyTen LOL. I still have 5 or 6 boards to update. All but one are running TwentyEleven though. Perhaps one is on TwentyTen, but I think I changed that… I’ll double check that one other one with a different theme… I don’t know if I still run any on Suffusion. I used to use that alot. However Forewarned is Forearmed even or someone who has worked around computers for.. 2012 – 1972? Gulp…. 40 of my 54 years! erk!

PS I realized in retrospect that when I went to update, on the tool bar it read that there were 2 items to update. When I got to updates I looked and saw the two themes and checked them off… I didn’t note that in the meantime the “2” had changed to “3” and WordPress 3.4 had been added to the list… WordPress 3.4 doesn’t have to be checked… I realized this because when I looked at another of my boards to compare I noted how the numbers changed from 2 to 3 and how there wasn’t a check box for WordPress 3.4… Maybe that should be changed? It would have caused me pause… pause to back-up first or suspect this is what the issue was. I wouldn’t have necessarily known how to fix it and still would have had to ask for help… but it would have helped with the troubleshooting.

Thanks once again!

Sincerely,
Darrell

Thanks for your research Darrell. I had the exact same problem and option 2 worked for me as well.

Cheers

p.s. I want one of those hats :o)

That was why I came back — in case there were a few others in my situation — when the help the people here gave me led me to go back to TwoBeers and check their Forum… where I found that posting. It was made sometime yesterday not long before I posted it here.

The hat… vintage 1978 or so. Bought in Banff Alberta. It’s corduroy and got it’s custom look partly by ending up on the floor of the back seat of my ’70 Maverick or ’72 Meteor for a Season, then ignored for a decade… Can’t beat a beat up vintage hat. LOL It’s sincere and since I grew up my first 19 years in Calgary Alberta, I’m entitled.

Anyhow that’s too much off topic.

Glad I could help someone. Feel free to drop by my blog mentioned in the thread.

I updated my twenty eleven theme and it completely removed all of my custom page templates. Luckily I had all of them but one locally. It would have been nice to know that updating wipes out EVERYTHING except the child theme settings. Even so.. i still had to go into my child theme and fix a few things. I little frustrating to say the least!

Please post your own topic. This has nothing to do with the OP’s original problem.

Is it possible/would it help to alter the topic for the topic to reflect that the issue was with the Theme Shiword not being quite compatible yet?
(I might not be able to respond for a while… I was just struck with a blinding migraine and can barely read to write this.)

Whatever

Hi! As a postscript:
I just updated to the Version 3.03.1 of the Shiword Theme by TwiBeers Crew.

All worked smoothly. All seems to be working in order on The Gnome’s Garden.

Sorry for the delay in getting back here. It took until now to do the update as I have been a bit busy in case I had problems with updates.

Thanks everyone!