The Yoast SEO WordPress plugin version 19.7 was discovered to be in conflict with other plugins, resulting in websites’ having fatal problems. This is the third time this year that a conflict with another plugin has caused a Yoast update to fail.
Fortunately, Yoast researched the issues and quickly released a caller update that resolved them.
WP Fatal Error
A Fatal error can occur for a variety of reasons, but in this case, it was triggered by an upgrade to Yoast SEO in which the coding disagreed with another plugin.
This can happen when two plugins are attempting to achieve the same thing but one is cancelling out the other or otherwise preventing them from working together.
A plugin fight may be compared to two automobiles going in opposite directions on the same motor freeway.
Ideally, a plugin includes accommodations in their coding for other plugins, particularly popular ones, so that neither plugin tries to do something that prevents other plugins from accomplishing their job.
That is exactly what happened with the Yoast 19.7 replacement. Yoast 19.7 had a conflict with many plugins (or custom code) that changed the admin login URL.
Changing the login URL is a security precaution aimed at fooling hacker software programs that consistently visit the default URL for the administrator logins and attempts to guess the login password credentials.
Yoast Broadcasts Take Over For Bug
Yoast was quite open about the problem and sent a tweet that explained what was going on.
Yoast posted on Twitter:
“After the release of Yoast web optimization 19.7, we discovered that this model creates a fatal error when used with plugins or code that change the default WordPress login URL.”
We’ve identified the problem and are working on a solution. “
According to the Yoast plugin development changelog, one of the adjustments introduced with Yoast 19.7 was an enhancement to how Yoast handles fatal failures by preventing them from running within the login web page.
“Improves front-end handling of fatal mistakes by blocking Yoast SEO from running on the login page, enabling customers to access their dashboard.”
Might that be the trigger?
Why Do Plugins Cause Deadly Errors?
Yoast plugin incompatibilities are not uncommon. It’s simply more visible when it happens to Yoast since their user base amounts to in the tens of millions.
Nonetheless, this is the third time this year that a fatal error plugin battle has been linked to a Yoast plugin replacement.
He tweeted:
“That is the type of #WordPress plugin conflict scenario that I don’t know how to prevent from happening.”
60,000+ plugins: How do you test your plugin against all of these?
“If someone has good ideas, I’m all ears.”
Joost also stated that Yoast always tests their plugin upgrades before releasing them, with several of the most recent plugins.
“We’re looking at the big ones; we’re not too concerned about those, but a few tiny ones together provide enough of a pain.”
He went on:
It’s never fun when you break things.” We examine everything extremely carefully, yet things still get through. Building plugins for large numbers of clients is “just” difficult.
A Solution Provided Within Hours
Yoast released a fresh version two hours after declaring that they had discovered a flaw in the upgrade and were working on a fix.
Action Recommendation
Yoast has released a new replacement, model 19.7.1. The following changes have been made to the Yoast improvement changelog:
“Fixes an issue that caused a fatal error when used in conjunction with some plugins that modify the normal login page URL.”
Users of the Yoast SEO plugin should consider updating to the most recent Yoast version, 19.7.1.
Shutterstock/Asier Romero provided the featured image.
What should I do if I come across an error?
All you need to do is have your web developer delete the Yoast SEO plugin from your website and then reinstall it since a new version that addresses the problem has been published.