WP Downgrade

As a businessman, I ask myself what is more important with a WP problem upgrade: an operational website’s uptime; or security and functionality – that has not been a problem with the current or earlier version – and a non-functioning website for days, maybe weeks, maybe months until the problems are sorted out?
It is a myth that you can just quickly switch temporarily to another WP Theme. If your WP website has taken more than a week to develop – is more than pages with sidebars – the site design, layout, navigation, components, plugins, shortcodes, conflicting CSS – HTML – PHP, branding… will not translate.
Think Boeing, American Airlines, or Expedia. Think eCommerce. Not all sites are simple Blogs. Think National Instruments that is one of the models for our site. Would you ask any of them if they were using WP to switch to a different Theme until the current WP problems are solved? They would not. What they would do is run a development test site with later WP versions until all the problems are all solved before going live. They would continue to run the latest stable version of WP until the next version in the upgrades is totally stable.
You might want to Google “WordPress downgrade” before you try to propagate your solution.
We are one of many who are very grateful for a simple and successful Downgrade procedure. In the future, we will do what other companies do. Run a test site until all the problems are solved. And when we go live with the next version of WP, we will quickly Downgrade if we had not discovered all the problems in the test site particularly if the problems render parts of the website inoperable or just unacceptable for any reason including aesthetics or branding.
A WP website is made up of: WP, Design – Theme, Content. Currently, if there is a problem with Content or simple one page changes, Downgrades to earlier Revisions from the Dashboard are used until the problems can be solved. If there are problems with a recent Theme – Design upgrade, the Theme can be Downgraded from the Dashboard immediately. What remains is to be able to Downgrade WP immediately from the Dashboard if there are serious problems that render parts of a live website non-functioning or even just visually unacceptable. Fortunately, there is a well-defined procedure for the Downgrade as I have referenced. It is just not a part of the WP Dashboard yet.
My request is to make the procedure a part of the Dashboard so that all website Revisions can be managed from there.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I am sure they are all well-meaning. You miss the point.

You are not an expert at running my business. That is my number one priority. All previous versions of my base theme run on the previous version of WP. None of the recent ones run on the latest WP.

Sorry, I just don’t believe this statement:
“CNN, Time, NBC Sports – these sites run the latest version of WordPress at all times.”

And I do not believe that they would change themes even if you did it for them. I doubt that one person virtually overnight could maintain the same look and feel of these sites with a different theme. Many people, not just one, are responsible for keeping these websites running.

How many multi-million$ WP websites have you done? How many do you personally maintain?

I do not believe that they would run the latest version of WP if the latest versions of their base theme did not work.

How many man-woman hours do you think are invested in their sites? Maybe more than one person could provide in a lifetime?

I believe that CNN, Time, NBC sports and many others do what I do. Just give us the tools to conveniently do it! Let us make the right decision for our business! If not, I like them and many others will continue to run an earlier version of WP until the problems are solved. We will return to earlier versions of our website using dashboard tools except for WP.

If I followed your advice my website would be non-functioning now for 7 days and counting.

Your logic is faulty and misleading! As are your implied conclusions based on elementary statistics or not!

Of those 18 million WP users, do you think I am the only one not running WP 3.6? How many are simple – a few man days to develop? How many are complex – a few man years to develop? Is there a bell curve of complexity, and at what point on the curve is a downgrade the best solution to a serious WP functionality problem?

Do you really think that all the VIP sites are running WP 3.6 or would be if their site didn’t work? And would not return to an earlier version of WP that worked?

How many of those 18 million sites do you maintain, and how many have you secured and rescued?

How many VIP sites do you maintain, and how many have you secured and rescued? I did not see anywhere what WP version they are all running.

Is WP 3.5.2 really as bad as you would have us believe – or even earlier versions?

Have we decided to ignore server security here?

Do you really think that WP users that return to earlier page revisions, design revisions, theme revisions… that work better, do not return to earlier versions of WP that work better?

You might want to take a course or two in logic and elementary statistics.

I will continue to use the WP Downgrade procedure I recommended and referenced, as needed, as will many others.

I will continue to ask for the procedure to be incorporated into the WP Dashboard.

I will continue to believe in the ability and intelligence of the operators of a business to make the best business decision with respect to the version of WP they run to keep their critical website operational.

Enough! Enough! Enough!
My kingdom for revision, version, and roll-back control – hereinafter, version control – on the WP dashboard. Can I please change WP Downgrade to WP Roll-Back? Backups, as we do them, are more of a last resort. They are coarse. They do not help us pin-point problems like version control does.
First, let me say that the WordPress product and community is excellent.
We want a quick solution to keep our website up and running. Roll-backs to stable versions are our solution of choice for this and other software projects.
Our problems were not solved by theme, content, CSS, design within the dashboard, plugin, or widget roll-backs, all possible within the dashboard. We went looking for a way to roll-back WP. The latest version of everything else worked on that version of WP.
Thanks to the WP community. And thanks to Mr. Internet Tips for his clear, concise, simple, and accurate roll-back procedure. See previous postings for details.
We were not looking for help. We had found it. We wanted to share it with the WP community. We felt that the procedure was worthy of WP dashboard consideration. From our point of view, the only version control lacking on the dashboard is WP roll-back.
We feel that WP version control belongs on the dashboard. Let us decide when and how to use it, like we do for all other components of version control – on the dashboard.
If WP roll-back version control never appears on the dashboard, we will continue to use our cPanel and this WP roll-back procedure as part of our strategy to maintain a stable, secure, and operational WP website, and to isolate and solve our website problems.
Security is, of course, an important consideration. It was not the problem this time. Server security and other website policies are, we are sure, major reasons why.
Isolating and solving our problems is the issue. Not, possibly, creating more problems.
In our experience, if you really want to help someone, it is very important to listen to them. Find out what they need. Know your limitations. Determine if you have the skills and experience to help them. If not, point them in the best direction that you can.
The WP community as a whole has done this for us.
This problem is solved.
We hope this solution continues to help others solve their problems.
Thank you.
Please: The End