Admin showing incorrect version

That is an interesting issue.

I think older versions of WP had the version in the readme.html file, but I don’t think the Admin side got it from there.

I would try using the file manager from your hosting control panel (or download the file with Filezilla) and look at the file /wp-includes/version.php. There is a line in there like this:

$wp_version = '5.5';

What does yours say?

Yeah, I’d already looked at version.php, that was the first thing I checked. And it shows 5.4.2. That’s why I’m so frustrated that admin panel is showing ‘upgrade to 5.0.4.

Okay, I’m thinking it may be that the database update wasn’t done at some point between April and now.

Try running the following query in phpMyAdmin, changing “wp_options” to match your database:

SELECT * FROM wp_options where option_name = 'db_version'

It should return an option_value that looks nothing like the WP version; however, you can compare the option_value to this table and find the version it translates to.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by linux4me2. Reason: removed code tags from query

Yeah, that returned 47018, which parses to 5.4.1/5.4.2. Any other ideas? This is really strange.

That is seriously strange. The only other thing I can think of is that some caching is going on that is caching your Admin pages, but the WordPress-specific caching plugins I’ve used don’t cache the admin side. Maybe if you’re using some server-side caching or a CDN it’s showing you an old, cached version?

The really weird part is that it showed 5.4.2 after you did the manual upgrade and then reverted to showing the wrong version.

Yeah, no kidding. I’m not using any caching server side that would do this. I’m stumped. And peeved, because it basically is forcing me to manually upgrade every time a new version comes out.

And the weirdest thing is how it reverted. I don’t know what else to look at on this.

I’m stumped too. Hopefully, one of the gurus here will chime in.

You said in the original post that, “all the files in the install are those provided in 5.4.2.” Have you run diff on the install files and a set of 5.4.2 files uploaded to a different directory on the server, or are you just basing that on having done the manual install procedure?

I’m basing it on having done the manual install procedure. I shudder to think how long it would take to do a manual diff on the install files, lol.

And, like I said, it *was* right, then reverted to 5.0, very weird. And all the files and DB entries that we’ve looked at show the correct version.

Obviously something, somewhere is making this happen, but I’ll be darned if I know where to look next.

I’m going to do a manual upgrade to 5.5, see what happens. Maybe I’ll get lucky.

I didn’t mean a manual comparison of the files, I meant to use the Linux app “diff” which would do the comparison for you in short order, listing all the files that differ. You’d need to exclude some folders which would naturally differ, like /wp-content/uploads and your theme and plugin folders, etc. The diff package is usually installed on most servers, so it’s probably already there waiting for you.

If it doesn’t turn anything up with the core files, you could try using it to compare fresh versions of your theme(s) and/or plugins.

I’m with you, there has to be something in there that’s interfering. I guess you could also install a plugin that will do a file check for you.

Ah, ok, lol. You had me cringing there. Yeah, not a bad idea. I haven’t done that in ages, guess I’ll have to go read up so I can do it properly.

LOL I’ll bet you did cringe. I don’t blame you a bit. Manually comparing all those files would be a nightmare.

Yeah. I have to do it for a plugin in my Xenforo forum, and that is nightmare enough.

There are lots of apps for doing file comparisons, you shouldn’t ever have to do it manually?

I have to see if there is one for within Xenforo, or do one on my local system. Just haven’t done it yet, too many things to work on!