Hi @johnegg
We’re sorry to hear that you experienced this issue.
Could you please share a few more details about the problem? Specifically:
* Which theme are you using?
* Which version of the plugin are you using?
* What exactly broke after the update?
* What changes did you make to the core files to resolve it?
If possible, please also share any error messages or screenshots. This information will help us reproduce the issue and investigate it further.
HI there im using Shoptimizer. This is the error:
This is the actual error causing the “critical error” — everything else (WP_DEBUG notice, textdomain notices) is just noise. The real problem is a PHP parse error inside the Kirki plugin:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '=>' (T_DOUBLE_ARROW)
in .../wp-content/plugins/kirki/includes/API/Frontend/Controllers/FrontendRESTController.php on line 88
What this means: that line uses PHP syntax (very likely an arrow function fn() => or a match expression, or short array syntax in a spot PHP doesn’t expect) that your server’s PHP version can’t parse. This almost always happens when:
- The Kirki plugin got auto-updated to a newer version that requires a newer PHP, or
- Your hosting’s PHP version got downgraded/reset, or
- A previous Kirki update was interrupted and left the file corrupted.
Since you said “again” — this looks like a recurring incompatibility between Kirki and your site’s PHP version.
Hello @johnegg
Thank you for the information.
I tested the same theme and updated Kirki from v6.0.12 to v6.0.13, and I didn’t encounter any issues. It appears the plugin may not have updated properly during the automatic update process, which could have caused the problem.
Please try updating the plugin again manually. We also recommend disabling automatic updates for the plugin to help avoid similar issues in the future.
If the issue persists after reinstalling the latest version, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to investigate further.
I tried to delete the files & reinstall fresh on some sites but still breaks
Encountered the same issue. it appears to be a misleading error, it was referring to the line of code below
return match ( $context[‘type’] ) {
‘post’ => isset( $context[‘id’] ) ? absint( $context[‘id’] ) : null,
‘comment’ => isset( $context[‘post_id’] ) ? absint( $context[‘post_id’] ) : null,
default => null,
};
wp-content/plugins/kirki/includes/API/Frontend/Controllers/FrontendRESTController.php
Seems to be a PHP compatibility issue as that syntax is for PHP8. Can you release a new update that fixes that? We are still using PHP7.4
Thank you.
Another site down again today after I did updates. I have to manually replace them all with a fixed version that Claude gave me. You can download that here https://limewire.com/d/PQKzN#UNZYyjDQ4i
If you’re running cPanel hosting – enable mbstring php extension. That resolves some of the kirki critical errors.
