Generally, if an update does not contain any specific database changes, you can roll back (downgrade) to a previous version if necessary.
There is more than one way to handle this, depending on your available tools and skill level. Rollback is best handled via WP CLI, but you can also do it via FTP. Instructions for both are outlined below.
WP CLI
This is the most efficient method. If you know the version you need to roll back to and that version is available in the wordpress.org repository, it’s as simple as a single command:
wp plugin install wp-members --version=3.5.4
This command can be run for any version of the plugin that is available in the plugin repository. Generally, all releases for the current major release will be available as well as all releases for the immediately previous major release. For example, if the current major release version is 3.5, then at minimum, all releases of 3.5 (3.5.x) will be available as will all releases of 3.4.
Available versions can be found a number of ways:
- Go to https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-members/advanced/ and under the heading “Advanced Options”, view the available versions in the dropdown list. OR…
- See a list of available tags in the SVN repo: https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/wp-members/tags/ OR…
- See a list of available tags in the code browser: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/wp-members/#tags
FTP
- Go to the plugin’s “advanced” page in the wordpress.org repository.
- At the bottom of that page, select the version you need to roll back to.
- In the WP plugin panel, deactivate WP-Members.
- Using FTP, delete the contents of the wp-members folder (/wp-content/plugins/wp-members).
- Unzip the roll back version locally.
- Using FTP, copy the roll back version to your site.
- Reactivate.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT run the “delete” option from the WordPress plugin panel when doing a rollback. That will delete all of your current plugin settings and require you to update your settings.
