Classic Editor no longer available?
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I was working on a post earlier today. I returned to my computer a few hours later to find the Classic Editor links all gone.
I saw nothing saying it’s been removed and I hope it wasn’t because that’s the Editor I’ve been using for over 10 years now.
Anyone hear anything?
WP.com: Yes
Jetpack: No
Correct account: YesThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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There is a much longer thread here about this. From all indications (because WP seems to be ignoring all attempts at getting a response from a real person), this is something they did late yesterday with no warning. The Classic Editor is now only available as a plug-in, but plug-ins require a Bu$ine$$ Plan ($300/yr) or higher.
Like you, I have been here for almost a decade and this is a deal-breaker for me. I’m in the process of moving my site to a different host so that I can use wordpress.org and have access to the Classic Editor plug-in.
Honestly, cost-wise it will be the same as my Personal Plan here for the next 3 years (triennial billing format). After that, it will cost $20/year more than here but $20 more is a heck of a lot better than $262 more which is what upgrading would cost here.
I refuse to use the Block Editor. But WordPress.com apparently doesn’t care how many people they lose because they have suddenly taken the Classic Editor away.
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ETA, they seem to have rolled the elimination out gradually since yesterday. Some people in the other thread lost the Classic Editor yesterday, but I was using it at about midday. Other people had it yesterday but it’s gone today.
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Classic Editor seems to have returned a few days after I posted this which is good.
I actually have 12 different WordPress blogs but I don’t have/use any premium features on any of them mostly because I currently have no income. That aside, 10+ years is a pretty heafty time investment in and of itself. I hope they are not going to lock Classic Editor behind a subscription because that would be a hard deal-breaker for me.
I mean I get it, WP has operating costs that need to be paid but locking Classic Editor behind a paywall will send most of its users away. The Block Editor is not “easier and simpler to use” as they long claimed especially for formatting.
I’ve already been considering a few other platforms for some of my blogs in recent years before all this happened. I’m probably gonna make a hard backup of all 12 of my blogs in the near future and keep regular backups moving forward. -
Originally I had two blogs here (this one plus a personal one, both launched in 2015, but I discontinued the personal one last year), on the Personal Plan because I don’t want my readers to see any ads. But neither the Personal (currently $48/yr, a bit less on a triennial payment scheduled) nor Premium (currently $96/yr) support plug-ins. The cheapest plan that does support them is the Business plan which is $240/yr…more than 5x what I pay now. (I also pay $19/yr for the domain name with privacy but I would do that anywhere.)
The problem is that right now the Classic Editor isn’t plugin-dependent here: Everybody can use it. But if WP ever changes that, and says “We are not going to let people use the Classic Editor for free anymore; it’s only going to be available as a plugin”, that will eliminate two entire tiers of people like myself who already DO pay for their plan (whether $48 or $96 a year) but will lose the Editor if it becomes plugin-only. Because when it comes to plugins, it’s an all-or-none situation: A user either can use any and all plugins, or they can’t use any. WP would need to allow one of the lower two paid plans (Premium and/or Personal) to use plugins globally and they would never do that.
The ironic thing is that if WP did make the Classic Editor plugin-only AND made plugins accessible to Premium ($96/yr) Plan users, I would at least think about upgrading to that. I would not be happy about the doubled cost from what I now pay, but I wouldn’t reject it out of hand either. I would give it serious thought based on my financial situation at the time and compare it to possible other options.
But if I needed to pay $240/yr in order to access the Classic Editor? No way, total non-starter, I’d be gone from here. Well, either that or I would write a final post saying that the site “as is” as of the final day of Classic Editor availability would be the last time I will ever update the site, but the site will remain static at the Personal Plan level with no new content. Many people use my site for reference (I can tell by the volume of people who copy-paste my content into their item listings, and I don’t mean only on eBay either) and I don’t want to take it away from them, or clutter up the site with ads.
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Yes well regarding WP doing a gradual change … I was editing in Classic five days ago, now the option has disappeared, no warning. I don’t like the block one, at all. It’s annoying. Have tried several times to change but it has a mind of its own. In particular classic allowed me to edit, upgrade links etc on very old posts but with block that seems well nigh impossible. I’m certainly not upgrading to professional just to get that back. Going to have to re-think now. Do I stay with WP?
I have the basic paid account. First level which eliminated the ads.
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I have that same account level also (Personal).
One thing I noticed the other day – because I monitor this forum for anything related to the Classic Editor – is that WordPress.org (which is the ‘parent’ of wordpress.com, so to speak, in terms of how the nuts and bolts of wordpress.com actually works) is no longer allowing the use of .XML files. This becomes important for anyone who wants to move their site from here (WordPress.com) to somewhere else. Most other hosts have their migration tools set up to utilize the .XML file that is generated here if you want to ‘easily’ export your site from here. It occurs to me that if WordPress.org no longer allows export via .XML, other entities might follow suit. Supposedly their reason is “security concerns.”
So I would suggest to anyone considering relocating their site, whether because of Classic Editor availability or some other reason, they keep an up to date backup copy of every post (text and images) on their computer. Because if .XML file migration does go the way of the dodo, that will be the only way to re-create a site on another host.
I honestly don’t know what I would do if the Classic Editor were to disappear from here. I definitely cannot afford to upgrade to Business, but my site provides information that people use on a daily basis, so I would probably just keep it here without adding any new content to it. For all its faults (and it has a few!) WP.com is still the most user-friendly host site at the moment — except for that blankety-blank Block Editor! >:-( As long as they don’t take it away from the non-Business Plan users.
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This has got to be a joke… Gonna write a blog post about it, for my readers. I actually promote WP on my site. Why would they do this???
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I wrote an article to respond to this > https://successinnovationhub.wordpress.com/2025/02/22/surprise-classic-editor-now-costs-you-300-a-year/
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Curiously, I’ve just discovered the following. In ‘All Posts’, under each some still retain the option of Classic Editor. Some not. Usually I would add just the title of a new post then save and close, then reopen using the Classic Editor link right beneath the title which would be there if created this way. (Then create the full post.) However if I didn’t do this the classic option would disappear for that post when viewed in ‘All Posts’.
I’ve just noticed though, and I’ve not started a new post this way before, at the top left corner there’s the option Add New Post but with a drop down box. I see that there are the two options there, classic & block. I don’t know if this was there before because I’ve always used the one above it and to the right which just says +New.
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@jcrv99 The drop down menu on the Add New Post/Page button has been there since the Classic Editor plugin was enabled for everyone on WordPress.com.
Curiously, this is not mentioned in the support guide to using the Classic Editor
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Hi there,
The Add New Post button now has a new classic/block editor selection drop-down button. The implementation time is uncertain to me. However, the support page on post creation doesn’t yet include the drop down button. https://wordpress.com/support/posts/
This option lets us choose between a classic or block editor for posts, affecting how the post can be edited later. Classic editor posts show a classic editor option below the title, while posts created with a block editor don’t have that option.
Hitting the ‘+’ button in the top toolbar or “Add new post” (without choosing an editor) will automatically open the block editor.
You can, however, force a post created in a block editor to be edited in a classic editor by appending parameter
&classic-editorto the end of the post URL.For example, this is a post URL created in the block editor https://sample.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=17&action=edit
To open it in a classic editor, append the above parameter to the end of the link https://sample.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=17&action=edit&classic-editor
I hope this clarify some confusion surrounding the classic editor availability in a free plan.
cheers,
Fransisca
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I see now 2020testjj. Just hadn’t seen that before & I’ve always used the other. Hopefully the Classic stays but doesn’t sound promising going by comments so far.
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The Add New Post button now has a new classic/block editor selection drop-down button. The implementation time is uncertain to me. However, the support page on post creation doesn’t yet include the drop down button. https://wordpress.com/support/posts/
This option lets us choose between a classic or block editor for posts, affecting how the post can be edited later. Classic editor posts show a classic editor option below the title, while posts created with a block editor don’t have that option.
Selecting the ‘+’ button in the top toolbar or “Add new post” (without choosing an editor) will automatically open the block editor.
You can, however, force a post created in a block editor to be edited in a classic editor by appending parameter
&classic-editorto the end of the post url.For example, this is a post URL created in the block editor https://sample.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=17&action=edit
To open it in a classic editor, append the above parameter to the end of the link https://sample.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=17&action=edit&classic-editor
I hope this clarify some confusion surrounding the classic editor availability in a free plan.
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I opened my first blog on Word Press in August, 2012. When they first changed to Block Editor, I was helped by them to use the classic editor by first starting with the Block Editor with a title and a sentence or so, saving it as a draft, going back to the Admin side, bringing up the saved draft, and selecting “classic editor” to continue. Through the years since Word Press started with the Block Editor, I have tried it. There are things about it that I don’t understand.
I’m not the only blogger who finds the Block Editor discouraging. In fact, of the hundreds of blogs that I follow and thousands who follow me, many stopped blogging altogether because of the Block Editor. I’ve lost many blogging associates and friends because of the Block Editor, and they wrote interesting posts. Their voices need to be heard. (We are not the young crowd. Many of us are retired. Some of us are cancer survivors.)
I don’t publish posts like I did at one time. However, this morning I wanted to publish a post that I first wrote in Word. The option of using the classic editor is not there. When I copied and pasted my post to the Block Editor, it returned symbols. I do not know what to do.
I am highly disappointed. I pay for certain features on my blog. I don’t mind paying for other features when I frequently use them. However, I don’t want to go into debt to pay for an editor I might only use now once a month. Truly, if I didn’t have to jump through hoops to use the classic editor (until it was eliminated), I would have published more blog posts.
My disappointed is not limited to Word Press. Through the years, consumers have been forced into using replacements because of removal of what worked and was known how to use. Now, they take it away and replaced it with things that put consumers in debt. One example is when car manufacturers removed CD players and replaced it with paid subscription music services.
The blog I need help with is https://blackbutterfly7.wordpress.com
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Had this problem a couple of weeks ago and this is how I solved it:
Go to your site’s dashboard. Under Settings →General, ensure the “Admin interface style” is set to “Default” and not “Classic“. Counterintuitive I know. Save the change.
Navigate to Pages or Posts. You will see the option to choose “Classic Editor” is now included in the listings of your pages.
To create a new page, don’t choose “Add New Page”, instead choose “Duplicate” from your list of pages and then edit the new page.
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To be clear, this works for Pages or Posts. I just tested it again and it works for both.
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Just adding a new page myself and realized you might need some further explanation on that process. After you choose “Duplicate” to create a new post, just give it a new name, but don’t make any other changes, and save it. THEN go back to your list of posts and choose Classic Editor to edit it.
I mostly use pages and rarely make posts, so I’m not sure if your new post will appear at the top or bottom of your list.
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@blackbutterfly768 , fellow cancer survivor here, and I feel your pain re the Block Editor. I have a separate thread here that began with my writing an open letter to WP asking for, at least, some advance notice if they decide to kill the Classic Editor entirely, or for anyone who has a free or a paid plan below the $300-year Business tier. The other day a staff member posted in a reply that the Classic Editor is not available to any NEW accounts created on WordPress.com after Feb 5th of this year, but EXISTING accounts will continue to have it available until a formal advance notice is given, which was described as likely to occur “not anytime soon.”
So it is still there for us ‘veterans’ but will not be available to any newcomers to WP.com going forward or to anyone who created a site during the past 27 days.
Like you, I compose all my content in Word and copypaste into the Classic Editor. I noticed the other day that whereas all of my spacing, etc, that used to transfer over perfectly from a .doc or .docx file into the Classic Editor, is messed up in the Classic Editor. I did not get symbols but my line spacing between paragraphs and lines (which is set to Single by default in Word) was off. I was able to solve this by one extra step, which may also help you:
- Write your content in Word as usual, then do the usual CTRL + C to copy.
- Instead of pasting directly into the Classic Editor, paste it into a blank Notepad text file instead. Do a second highlight/CTRL+C to copy that plain text file from Notepad.
- Paste that plain-text content from Notepad into the Classic Editor.
I tried this several times and my content appeared in the Classic Editor exactly as I had originally done it in Word; all spacing, etc, was correct.
Yes, it’s crazy that we have to jump through yet another hoop now; but I found it easier to do the extra paste-copy-paste than to have to re-arrange so much of my pasted-from-Word content within the Editor.
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@rbateman2000 , Do you not have the easier method of simply choosing Classic Editor from the dropdown menu beneath All Posts -> Add New Post ? I have never had to duplicate anything, and I use the same post construction method as @blackbutterfly768 does. I write the entire thing in Word and then paste it into a new post after selecting Classic Editor.
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