PHP error after update

using ftp rename this folder canvas in themes folder and see if the site opens twenty ten theme.

There is a bug in the new version, its well covered in the forum if you read through it. One suggested fix is to change the name of the plugin folder by FTP or cpanel, then you should be able to access the site. Change the plugin folder name back after getting into admin, activate akismet and upgrade it, then reactivate the other plugins. But do read through this forum first.
I restored a backup and reverted to the previous version.

Thanks for the advice guys. @govpatel I’m running Woothemes Canvas theme, so I don’t want to open twenty ten theme.

@dragonc I did scour the forum, and could see various other php errors, but no reference to a “bug in the new version”… do you mean new version of WP or of Akismet? I’m new at all this, so while I’m not doubting your instructions, they are not specific enough for me to be able to follow them. If there is an appropriate post on the forum that you are aware of, would you perhaps be able to post a link in reply?

Many thanks

draconc: There isn’t a “bug” in the new version that would cause this. Please stop suggesting this on every 3.0.5 post on the forum. It’s wrong.

miraclefish: This is a bug in PHP4, caused by a function receiving UTF-8 characters unexpectedly. (Reference: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=25670.)

For this and other reasons, you need to get your host to move you to PHP5. PHP4 is end-of-life, and has been devoid of security updates and other bug fixes since August 2008. WordPress itself will be bumping its minimum requirements to PHP 5.2 come WordPress 3.2 later this year.

Andrew

Thanks for the detailed info. Just for info of other forum users, my host is Dotster. I knew I was on php4, but really had no clue about the significance of this. I will contact them to request move to php5. I’ll post to let folks know their response.

cheers