Update to minimum 5.5 of WordPress to be able to run Gutenberg plugin version 9.7 and newer.

[paaljoachim]

Describe the bug

I went to rootingagents.com and noticed this:

I received this e-mail:
"[Rooting Agents] Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue"

content:

"Howdy!

Since WordPress 5.2 there is a built-in feature that detects when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error on your site, and notifies you with this automated email.

In this case, WordPress caught an error with one of your plugins, Gutenberg.

First, visit your website (https://rootingagents.com/) and check for any visible issues. Next, visit the page where the error was caught (https://rootingagents.com/wp-login.php) and check for any visible issues.

Please contact your host for assistance with investigating this issue further.

If your site appears broken and you can't access your dashboard normally, WordPress now has a special "recovery mode". This lets you safely login to your dashboard and investigate further.

https://rootingagents.com/wp-login.php?action=enter_recovery_mode&rm_token=8J07gwAlSNGjTpa0eAm1YF&rm_key=wnPre2mUMnoVEFpN0TO0E3
"

I clicked the recovery link and went to the plugin screen.

Printing since 1440. This is the development plugin for the new block editor in core.

Version 9.7.0 | By Gutenberg Team | View details
This plugin failed to load properly and is paused during recovery mode.

An error of type E_ERROR was caused in line 124 of the file /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/gutenberg/lib/blocks.php. Error message: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function register_block_type_from_metadata() in /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/gutenberg/lib/blocks.php:124 Stack trace: #0 /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(287): gutenberg_reregister_core_block_types('') #1 /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php(311): WP_Hook->apply_filters(NULL, Array) #2 /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-includes/plugin.php(478): WP_Hook->do_action(Array) #3 /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-settings.php(540): do_action('init') #4 /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-config.php(91): require_once('/home/rootibyy/...') #5 /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-load.php(37): require_once('/home/rootibyy/...') #6 /home/rootibyy/public_html/wp-login.php(12): require('/home/rootibyy/...') #7 {main} thrown

---

I noticed another e-mail yesterday telling me about another customer site with the same error.
(I am glad that both these sites are sites not often used. This means I will need to quickly check my other customer sites.)

Additional information

EDIT:
WordPress version: 5.4.4
Theme: eStar
Various plugins.

Upon updating to WordPress 5.6, and deactivating and reactivating the Gutenberg plugin the fatal Gutenberg error also goes away.

[annezazu]

Of note, found a support forum with the same reported issue: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/erro-fatal-gutenberg/

[noisysocks]

I installed WordPress 5.5.3 and Gutenberg 9.7 on a local environment and did not see this error. I also checked with WordPress 5.5.0.

Maybe a plugin conflict?

[tellthemachines]

Call to undefined function register_block_type_from_metadata() points to the WP version being older than 5.5.x, because that function was added to Core in 5.5. The fallback was removed from Gutenberg in #27807, which went into the 9.7 plugin version so that would make sense. @paaljoachim could you double-check that the version is indeed 5.5.x? I can't reproduce this issue with 5.5.3 and 9.7 either.

[ridiculoid]

I just experienced the same error updating to Gutenberg 9.7 while on WP 5.4.4. The plugin page says WP 5.3 or higher is required, but based on the previous comment this is incorrect: https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/.

[paaljoachim]

I had gone ahead and updated the site.
I could have made a mistake thinking/assuming it was running 5.5.x as it could have been an earlier version.

I checked out various other customer sites and they showed up alright.

EDIT:
Installed the plugin WP Downgrade l Specific Core Version.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-downgrade/

Downgraded to 5.5.3. - Gutenberg plugin -no error seen-
Downgraded to 5.5.2 - Gutenberg plugin -no error seen-
Downgraded to 5.5.1 - Gutenberg plugin -no error seen-
Downgraded to 5.5 - Gutenberg plugin -no error seen-

Downgraded to 5.4.4 - The fatal error kicked in and I was booted out of the site with the message:
There has been a critical error on your website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions.
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.

I got another "[Rooting Agents] Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue"
email with a link to use the recovery feature.

[youknowriad]

I'm going to close this issue as it's an explicit change that Gutenberg 9.7 doesn't support WP versions priori to 5.5. Thanks.

[paaljoachim]

Hey @youknowriad Riad.

@ridiculoid has a very good point.
"I just experienced the same error updating to Gutenberg 9.7 while on WP 5.4.4. The plugin page says WP 5.3 or higher is required, but based on the previous comment this is incorrect: https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/. "

We need to at https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/ mention that the Gutenberg plugin will only run on WordPress version 5.5 and newer.

I do believe that we should also somewhere mention this in the documentation. This is important information to know about.

[swissspidy]

Duplicate of #27998

there is some logic in place to display a better error message, but it doesn‘t work correctly

[tellthemachines]

@swissspidy is that the right issue?

@paaljoachim the change to the readme file that updates the plugin page with the correct info has already been made, and it'll be updated with the next release (9.8). We should be good to close this issue now.

[paaljoachim]

That sounds great!
Thanks for the heads up Isabel!

[swissspidy]

@tellthemachines argh, typo. #27998 is the correct ticket

[gziolo]

In the plugin repository https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/, it says WordPress 5.3 and up are supported.

It was changed in the repository, but it won't get fixed until the next plugin release scheduled for next week as @tellthemachines noted already.