theme reverts to defaults, widgets missing & weird text characters

For some reason, my site has reverted back to the default Accelerate settings and much content is missing. I assume this is related to the WordPress 5.6 update, but I really don’t know.

Here are the problems:
1) All widgets are missing from my Business Sidebar (homepage), except for but TG: Image Services.
2) Slider is gone from homepage.
3) Some widgets are missing from the header and footer.
4) The primary site color is reverted back to the default.
5) The header logo is missing (just checked and it is still there, but the setting had reverted to the default “text only”).
6) There are weird text characters everywhere throughout the site, like a€? and ?

Here’s what I’ve tried thus far:
1) Updated the Accelerate theme (free version).
2) Updated all plugins.
3) Deactivated (then reactivated) all plugins.
4) Restored previous versions of my site from backups (Dec 13, then Dec 6)
5) installed the “Enable jQuery Migrate Helper” plugin.

No change after trying any of the above.

I then ran a WordPress “Site Health” check, and the site passed all tests except it flagged the PHP as out of date. Could the PHP have caused the problem?
Should I just start rebuilding/updating my theme settings to get things back to normal?
Or will updating the PHP magically fix everything?
How do I fix all the weird text characters?

Help!!!
Please advise, thanks!

• This topic was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by smartymc.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by smartymc.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by smartymc.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by smartymc.

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