I just made the upgrade to Wordpress 2.8. The automatic upgrade went perfectly, except… when I clicked to get back to the admin dashboard, I got one of those long, scary PHP error messages which basically translates to “you’re screwed!” When I attempted to view the site I received the same error.

Fortunately, this time actually did backup my database! So I didn’t freak out too much!

And a quick google search led me to this Wordpress.org forum topic about similar problems with the upgrade. The consensus seemed to be that the error was being caused by a plugin. Unfortunately, I could not get into my plugins admin page to deactivate them.

So, I FTP’d into my plugins directory, downloaded all of my plugin files to a folder on my hard drive, and then deleted all of the plugins from my server.

Voila! Site was back, admin panel was back, all was good once again in the world.

After that, I selectively reinstalled my plugins. There were a few plugins that I was no longer using, so I have not installed those. And, obviously, one of them is the culprit, since my site is still working! So I apologize that I can’t inform you which plugin was causing the error.

But, what I can say, is that when I upgrade to Wordpress 2.8 for my other sites, I will definitely deactivate any plugins that have not proven themselves worthy!

The plugins that are definitely working are:

• Akismet
• CformsII
• Google Sitemap Generator
• Platinum SEO Pack
• WP DB Manager
• Redirection
• Stray Quotes
• WP-Cumulus

All of those guys work fine.

Bottom line: Backup your database and deactivate your plugins before upgrading to Wordpress 2.8!