Plugins, updates and widgets not saving

Have you tried:

– deactivating all plugins to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).

– switching to the default theme to rule out any theme-specific problems.

– resetting the plugins folder by FTP or PhpMyAdmin. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems.

– re-uploading all files & folders – except the wp-content folder and wp-config.php & root .htaccess files – from a fresh download of WordPress. Make sure that you delete the old copies of files & folder before uploading the new ones.

Is it really possibly that one plugin could stop ALL aspects of WP from saving any configuration options?

Unfortunately disabling everything would mean taking down a very busy commercial site where advertisers are paying for up time.

The issue has only arisen after the latest update, is there a way to remove the latest WP update, at least temporarily?

Is it really possibly that one plugin could stop ALL aspects of WP from saving any configuration options?

Yes.

Unfortunately disabling everything would mean taking down a very busy commercial site where advertisers are paying for up time.

There is no magic bullet in these situations. This is just basic troubleshooting – a process of elimination deliberately designed to locate the root cause as quickly as possible by first removing the most obvious and common culprits via a series of (often) temporary steps.

Your theme & plugin settings are saved in your database and should be retained for future use.

WP badly needs a way to roll back updates.
Troubleshooting is fine but on a live site it’s a commercial disaster.

Thanks for your time.

Do you want to fix these issues, If “yes”, are you prepared to work with us & carry out the steps suggested above? If not, there’s no way we can really help you.

If your suggestion of help is remove everything and ignoring user requests then your suggestion of help is very different to mine.

I have however no interest swapping your snide comments for so-called assistance.

I can only assume from your ignoring the question about rolling back WP updates, there is no way to do this.
Removing the update temporarily would allow me to maintain my website until times when traffic is reduced and it is more appropriate to troubleshoot by turning features on and off.

This is a simple feature of many major software packages to allow a positive experience when working with third party software, a core feature of the WordPress development and ethos. I shall seek my answers from the community who are interested in progressing the development of WordPress, rather than waiting for more copying and pasting of answers with a take it or leave it attitude.

I have however no interest swapping your snide comments for so-called assistance.

Then it seems I am unable to help you and this topic no longer serves any purpose.

Good luck with your site. ??