Live site automatically updated to an Alpha version

No the only options are upgrade to 3.9.1 GB or US. And no way will I risk trying the US last time I did the GB option went away and I have no idea haow to get it back!

Hadn’t thought of that, sorry

(For future reference you would just need to add en_GB back to WP_LANG in wpconfig.php)

I see two options available to you now …
1. Sneak of and try that site again tomorrow, could be any number of reasons for timing out, internet connection congested, web host maintenance

2. Manually reinstall en_GB 3.9.1 using FTP

If you choose option 2, make a site and DB backup and follow along one of these guides…

Step by step details for this are:
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Upgrading_WordPress_Extended

A slightly less detailed steps:
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Upgrading_WordPress#Manual_Update

Even less details:
1) Download the zip
2) Unzip
3) FTP the files to your server, overlaying them atop the ones you have

DON”T DELETE FILES YOU NEED OR OVERWRITE THEM

* wp-config.php file;
* wp-content folder;
* wp-images folder;
* wp-includes/languages/ folder–if you are using a language file do not delete that folder;
* .htaccess file–if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it;
* robots.txt file–if your blog lives in the root of your site (ie. the blog is the site) and you have created such a file, do not delete it.

Thanks Stephen. Really do appreciate the help. This is what I mean by shouldn’t be so hard. I didn’t want to upgrade – it happened and caused me effort and another problem reared its head which wastes more time. Multiply that by 6 or 7 sites or more on en_GB and we have the answer why I don’t want to play with code!

I have opened a ticket with my host, but can’t see that as the problem this time as it was only minutes before that I did it successfully on another site on that server.

I have better things to do with my tim than stay up all night because someone didn’t think – especially when this was something that occurred weeks ago!

Thanks again for your calm patience Stephen. I’ll take a look in the morning – oh, it is morning, the birds are singing!

@lepussaliens No worries, apologies again ??

When it is your morning it will be my night, if I’m not around when you post this is why, in the meantime if you need some help with anything hopefully some others can help here.

Just wanted to say that it happened to me too. A production site got upgraded to 3.9.1 GB 13 hours ago and then to 4.0-alpha-20140508 5 hours later.

I’m now back on 3.9.1 GB after following the advice above — hopefully it won’t “upgrade” me to a development version again.

I’m a bit worried for all the production sites whose admins don’t read this thread. How many people have now suddenly started using beta versions without realising and without knowing what to do about it? I think WordPress needs to roll out a new beta test version that asks admins whether they want to move back to the stable release.

Me too, using GB version

https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/ticket/28179

I’m now back on 3.9.1 GB after following the advice above — hopefully it won’t “upgrade” me to a development version again.

For those of you having this problem, first, relax. You’re not really on a “development” version. The only difference here is the displayed version number. It just happened to have the wrong version number in the files. That’s it. The files themselves are not dangerous. Your site is not broken.

If you change the version number to be correct, then that will fix the whole thing. No loss of data, no “alpha” stuff happens. It’s just the wrong number.

So, what you do is to manually change the version number back to 3.9, and let it update again. Then it will solve the problem with no issues. It’s not complicated.

Stephen made a post here about this for the nl_NL case with 3.9. This is the en_GB case for 3.9.1, but the fix is identical:
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/updat-wp-39-installed-40-alpha?replies=32#post-5470519

Just change the version.php to have 3.9 instead of 4.0-alpha in it, then do the normal Upgrade and all will be fixed.

For those of you having this problem, first, relax. You’re not really on a “development” version. The only difference here is the displayed version number. It just happened to have the wrong version number in the files. That’s it. The files themselves are not dangerous. Your site is not broken.

I understand that the problem started with 3.9.1 GB identifying itself as ‘4.0-alpha’, and that this didn’t cause any problems per se.

However, when my site got upgraded 4.0-alpha-20140508 five hours later, surely that was a real alpha version? Which means that once this error has happened once, you’re stuck with alpha versions until you fix the error, and that your site could in the worst case get broken until you fix the problem as described above.

Last night I received the “Your site has updated to WordPress 3.9.1” email for a site that’s still in development and not public. So no real problem except that I’d like to know why the site was automatically updated. I do NOT want that to happen on that site or any other of my sites. How do I prevent automatic WP updates (that have never happened before)?

I’d like to know why the site was automatically updated

Automatic minor updates have been a feature in WordPress since 3.7.

>Automatic minor updates have been a feature in WordPress since 3.7<

Is there a way to turn that off? I’ve made changes to a few files that get replaced in WP updates so I have to re-modify them. I want that to happen on my schedule, not automatically.

Lots of sites that explain how to turn the updates on and off if you google, for example:

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Configuring_Automatic_Background_Updates
https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/auto-update.htm

Just a quick note to update and thank Stephen Edgar. When I was having difficulty upgrading I believe it was because 3.9.1 en_GB had been withdrawn for a rewite. My host checked it all out but by the time I was back on the case the file waas back.

I’m still cheesed off that this happened and I am still clearing up the debris as it were but I am really appreciative of the calm assistance from Stephen. So thank you very much

Thanks and thanks for the follow up @lepussaliens and I’m glad your ‘fixed’.

As I have said previously we are improving our translation tools for WordPress 4.x but I’ll ask the teams to be extra vigilant for any future v3.9.x releases that we avoid seeing this issue again for any locale.