Error message about my PHP version being insecure

[mailboyfresh]

Hi,

Not too long ago I started to see this message in my WP dashboard for my website:

“WordPress has detected that your site is running on an insecure version of PHP.”

My website is currently running on PHP 7.0.33 and all my plugins/theme are up to date. Earlier today I asked my hosting company to change my PHP to 7.3 and my website design turned ugly immediately:

1. Images were resized on their own
2. Fonts changed on their own
3. Dimensions of my page designs were different

In a nutshell, my website looked like a mess after changing the PHP so I had to revert it back to 7.0.33. However, that means I’m still getting the error message that my site is insecure.

What shall I do to get rid of the error message?

Thanks,
Ismail

[tristup]

Hi Ismail,

Thanks for reaching out.

This might be due to the version compatibility issue with WordPress and PHP. Can you please confirm which version of WordPress is installed at your end.
The latest and stable version of WordPress is 5.4.2 right now. If it is not updated, please update and check once, you can learn how to update WordPress from dashboard here:https://wordpress.org/support/article/dashboard-updates-screen

If that is already up to date and showing the error with PHP updated version I would suggest you copy your live site to a staging server so we could troubleshoot freely without breaking your site.
Give us access as you did for your live site.

Please remember that the staging server should have the latest version of WordPress & PHP.

Thanks

[mailboyfresh]

Hi Tristup,

Let me get back to you. I have a small issue in that I’ve used up 80% of my hosting disk space for Siteground this month and it won’t let me create a staging site because of it.

I might have to pay for a higher monthly tier to get enough disk space to create the staging site.

Best,
Ismail

[marc_a]

Hi Ismail,

Just let us know when you are done creating your staging area so that we can help you with your concern.

Thank you.

[marc_a]

Hi @mailboyfresh,

Please copy your website to your staging area and please give us the following information in a Secure Note.

• WordPress Staging Login URL
• Admin level username and password
• FTP Access

You can find the Secure Note button at the bottom of your posts.

Thank you.

[tristup]

Hi Ismail,

Its seems that you are using much older version of theme, please update it to the stable version of Pro i.e 3.2.3. Please find the article on how you can update the theme here: https://theme.co/docs/how-to-update
Please let us know if the issue still exists after the update.

Thanks

[mailboyfresh]

Hi Tristup,

I usually just update the theme automatically from the WP dashboard whenever an update is available. However, there doesn’t seem to be a new update to version 3.2.3 on the updates page, which probably means I need to manually update it?

According to the instructions you shared it seems I’ll need to delete the theme, download the latest version from my Themeforest account, and then upload it via FTP, right?

If that’s the case then I’ll need a little help since I’m not proficient with FTP and might make a mistake to break my site.

-Ismail

[marc_a]

Hi Ismail,

When I tried to visit your staging area, I am redirected to the live site. I guess the staging area was not set up properly. Please set it up properly because we don’t want to do the update on the live website.

Hope that helps and let us know how it goes.

Thank you.

[mailboyfresh]

Hi Marc,

The redirection issue should be fixed now. I had my hosting service customer team help out.

Would you mind trying again?

Thanks,
Ismail

[tristup]

Hi Ismail,

You just need to download the latest version of theme from your Themeco account Dashboard, and then please follow the instruction as given in the link I shared.

After you successfully update the theme, please let us know if the issue still exists on your end.

Hope it helps.
Thanks

[mailboyfresh]

Hi Tristup,

I successfully updated the theme with minimal issues. I noticed my site-wide body fonts shrank just a little bit, but I think that’s an easy fix.

The only 2 major issues that remain are:

(1) When I click on ‘Edit Page’ to update a portion of the website I’m greeted with this message:

(2) My original problem with the PHP error is still there.

What is the next step?

Best,
Ismail

[prakash_s]

Hi Ismail,

According to your given 1st screenshot, it seems that there is an issue of site URL it is not yet completely replaced from staging to live domain name (Live URL) because of that builder preview is not loading.

I would suggest you replace the URL properly and check this again, there are many URL replacement Plugins available in WordPress which help you to replace the URL.
This article will be helpful in this:https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-update-urls-when-moving-your-wordpress-site/

Please go to Settings > General then make sure that the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) match.

To update PHP version please contact your hosting provider. Please check this documentation to know about the version compatibility.

I would also suggest you take the full backup of your site files and database before updating the PHP version.

Thanks