Yesterday, May 7, 2019, the new WordPress 5.2 was released, codenamed “Jaco”. You probably already have a message about it on your site’s message board. Unless he doesn’t…
…and why? For a simple reason. If you have PHP lower than 5.6.20 on your hosting, this latest WordPress 5.2 will not work on your site, so the site will not offer to update it. If you wanted to update it manually, you won’t be able to do that either.
So what do you need to do to make this new version work for you?
Change the PHP version on your hosting to at least 5.6.20, optimally at least 7.0, ideally 7.3. In most hosting providers (e.g. WebSupport – I recommend it) it is a matter of two clicks. However, before doing so, it is advisable to check if your theme and installed plugins will work on this new version, e.g. via this plugin.
What’s new in WordPress 5.2?
- further enhancements to the “Website Health” feature introduced in version 5.1
- protection against PHP errors
- plugin compatibility check
- error correction
Source: wordpress.org
