Version 4.4 update – Fatal error: Class 'WP_Widget' not found

I have now been advised by my webhost that the error is caused by a missing class, namely ‘WP_Widget’ inside the class-wp-widget-pages.php on line 17 as the error messages suggests. They say that this is a coding issue.

I’m not sure how ssvandin and I should proceed. Any suggestions?

Many thanks

I ran into this issue on a test site of mine and this is how I resolved it:

In WordPress 4.4, the WP_Widget class was moved to a different PHP file and I had forgot to update the wp-settings.php file that tells WordPress where WP_Widget can be found.

I would try checking your wp-settings.php file in the root of your directory and see if that was updated when the rest of WordPress was updated.

Line #186 should read:
require( ABSPATH . WPINC . '/class-wp-widget.php' );

Like I said above, download a fresh copy of the WordPress ZIP file and do a manual update. You’re missing the files that have the WP_Widget class. Updating to have all the correct WordPress files will put that class back for you.

Thanks very much. I was finally able to address this again today. I had already done a manual update again as suggested by Samuel Wood (Otto); in addition, I changed the wp-settings file and all is now well.

Thanks for your help.

Hi all

I also should say thanks to Samuel Wood (Otto). I followed extense instruction to manually update and it finally worked.

Thanks all for your patience and help.

hmmm – I am looking at wp-config.php files and have found NONE of them have:

Line #186 should read:
require( ABSPATH . WPINC . '/class-wp-widget.php' );

Will do a clean install and check this out.

My bad – wp-settings.php. I need more coffee.

Yes, wp-settings.php on the affected site has this. Will download a clean core and install to see it that fixes the error.

I extracted a clean 4.4 over the top of the broken site and can confirm that this *DID* fix the error.

WP CLI Upgrade helped me

Same for me

Using Mac:
sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar -O /usr/bin/wp

For those seeing this problem when using WP-CLI, there’s a full explanation available on their blog:
https://wp-cli.org/blog/versions-0.21.1-and-0.20.4.html

Upgraded to 4.4.1 via dashboard and then manually about 5 times now deleting wp-admin and wp-includes before manual uploading. I have checked the wp-settings file and find that “Line #186 should read:
require( ABSPATH . WPINC . ‘/class-wp-widget.php’ );” is there – I am not using wp-cli and am getting this fatal error:-

Fatal error: Class ‘WP_Widget’ not found in /websites/123reg/LinuxPackage21/be/au/ty/beautyandmassagewithameelie.co.uk/public_html/wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-pages.php on line 17

I also host with 123-Reg who are being incredibly unhelpful regarding this.

I am not a developer.

Any suggestions?

Finally host has come through and sorted! I am asking them if they can confirm what the issue was and if they come back and tell me I will update this thread.

Thank you all for your help.

Hello everyone ,
I want to a quick help in wordpress . I update my website chaney.in manually to wordpress 4.4.2 and now its give me fatal error :

Class ‘WP_Widget’ not found in /home2/medhagau/public_html/chaney.in/wp-includes/widgets/class-wp-widget-pages.php on line 17.

So anyone please tell me how to solve this issue .

I am not able to access my admin panel nor frontend .

Thanks !!

Problem solved

Thanks Guys !!