Title: php 8.3 causing problems
Last modified: July 25, 2025

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# php 8.3 causing problems

 *  [kenmac54](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kenmac54/)
 * (@kenmac54)
 * [8 months, 3 weeks ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-8-3-causing-problems/)
 * I recently upgraded to php 8.3 as WordPress kept warning me.
 * One of my users uploaded a Microsoft Word document – using the normal combination
   of ctrl-A, ctrl-C and then ctrl-V in WordPress.
 * The format went haywire, so I downgraded php (back to 8.0) and it now works.
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fphp-8-3-causing-problems%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [Mehraz Morshed](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mehrazmorshed/)
 * (@mehrazmorshed)
 * [5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-8-3-causing-problems/#post-18713830)
 * Hi [@kenmac54](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kenmac54/),
 * From what I understand, the problem isn’t really with the Classic Editor itself.
   It’s caused by the WordPress function called wpautop(), which helps clean up 
   text when you paste content from Microsoft Word.
 * This function uses a PHP feature called DOMDocument. In newer PHP versions (8.0
   to 8.3), DOMDocument became much stricter about handling messy or incorrect HTML.
 * Since Microsoft Word often creates untidy HTML when you copy and paste from it,
   PHP 8.3 has trouble reading that code — which causes the strange formatting. 
   When you switched back to PHP 8.0, it worked because that version is more forgiving
   with such errors.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

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 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Mehraz Morshed](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mehrazmorshed/)
 * Last activity: [5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-8-3-causing-problems/#post-18713830)
 * Status: not resolved