Critical Errors After Downgrading WordPress (Emoji Issue in 6.9) + Plugin Incomp

  • Unknown's avatar
    speaktechenglish · Member ·

    Hi everyone,

    I’m experiencing a series of issues after trying to fix the new emoji behaviour introduced in WordPress 6.9, and I could really use some help understanding the correct way forward.Background

    After updating to WordPress 6.9, all emojis on my site suddenly began rendering as large SVG images instead of native text emojis. This completely broke the visual layout of my Elementor pages and WooCommerce product descriptions.

    • Site is running WordPress 6.6.2
    • Many plugins are incompatible due to the downgrade

    What I need help with

    I’m trying to find the best, stable long-term solution. I’m unsure whether:

    1. I should upgrade back to WordPress 6.9 and try disabling the SVG emoji system via a code snippet,
      or
    2. Stay on 6.6.2 and try to manually downgrade/reconfigure plugin versions (which seems risky and messy).
    3. Has anyone else encountered oversized SVG emojis after the 6.9 update?

    Extra details

    • Hosting: SiteGround
    • Theme: Elementor + custom
    • Plugins involved: WooCommerce, Elementor, MailPoet, Booknetic, etc.
    • Error occurred immediately after WordPress 6.6.2 downgrade
    • Rolling back via backups fixes the frontend temporarily, but the emoji behaviour returns when WP updates

    Any guidance on the correct approach would be really appreciated.
    Thank you so much for your help!

    Tom

  • Unknown's avatar
    staartmees · Member ·

    We can’t help as your site isn’t running on the wordpress.com platform. To get further help, you must go to the wordpress.org website.

  • staff-barett · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    You’ve reached WordPress.com forums. I checked and don’t see any WordPress.com sites connected to your account. Since you already confirmed your site is hosted at Siteground and not with us, we are unable to help.

    The best next step is to contact your hosting provider so they can take a closer look at the issue for you. You can reach Siteground support directly, or if you prefer community help, the WordPress.org forums are a good place to ask questions: https://wordpress.org/support/forums/

    Just to make things clearer, there are two versions of WordPress.
    WordPress.com is fully hosted, where we manage security, updates, and maintenance for you. WordPress.org sites are self-hosted, which means you buy hosting from a provider like Siteground and handle maintenance, updates, and security yourself.

    If it helps, here’s a short guide that explains the difference: https://wordpress.com/support/com-vs-org/

    I hope this gives you a clear path forward. Let me know if you need anything else.

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