My wordpress site doesnt work and I cannot log in (probably due to php version)

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  michalstefan · Member · Mar 6, 2026 at 10:47 am

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  Hello, I recently found out the the content available at my domain michalstefan.cz built by WordPress doesnt work and I cannot log in anymore. It might be the case of php version. I downgraded the php version on the hosting service to 8.2 but I still cannot see the content of the web nor login into classic url/wp-login.php

  Can anybody navigate how to get in and upgrade php on my WordPress if I cannot even login?

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  staff-robz · Staff · Mar 6, 2026 at 1:04 pm

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  Hi Michal,
  
  While your site is not hosted on WordPress.com, based on the error I see when visiting it:

  Fatal error: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is no longer supported
  in /data/web/virtuals/28654/virtual/www/wp-includes/script-loader.php on line 706

  It looks like the root cause is the PHP version, as the installed version of WordPress appears to be outdated.

  In this case, you have two options to address and resolve this:

  Option 1: Temporarily downgrade PHP

  1. Access your site’s hosting control panel.
  2. Change PHP version to 7.4.
  3. The site should load again.
  4. Update WordPress to the latest version as soon as possible.
  5. Upgrade PHP back to 8.3.

  Option 2: Manually update WordPress via SFTP

  1. Download the latest WordPress from wordpress.org/download.
  2. Connect to the site via SFTP.
  3. Delete wp-includes/ and wp-admin/ folders.
  4. Upload fresh wp-includes/ and wp-admin/ from the download.
  5. Upload root files (except wp-config.php and wp-content/).
  6. Run /wp-admin/upgrade.php.

  Give one of these options a try and let us know how it goes. (And if you’d like to avoid similar issues in the future, we’d love to have your site over at WordPress.com to help you through our managed hosting.)

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  michalstefan · Member · Mar 9, 2026 at 5:16 pm

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  Thanks a lot for your support! I followed the steps 1-3 of option 1 but got stucked at point 4, an error appeared at WordPress as follows:

  Warning: An unexpected error occurred. Something may be wrong with WordPress.org or this server’s configuration. If you continue to have problems, please try the support forums. (WordPress could not establish a secure connection to WordPress.org. Please contact your server administrator.) in /data/web/virtuals/28654/virtual/www/wp-admin/includes/update.php on line 137
  Downloading update from http://downloads.wordpress.org/release/en_GB/wordpress-6.9.1.zip…

  Download failed.: cURL error 60: Peer’s Certificate issuer is not recognized.

  Installation Failed

  Do you have any idea how to go around this and update WordPress?

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  staff-sheva · Staff · Mar 9, 2026 at 5:41 pm

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  Hi Michal,

  Thanks for the update. The cURL error 60 you’re seeing means your hosting server’s SSL certificate bundle is outdated or misconfigured, which prevents it from securely connecting to WordPress.org to download the update. This is a server-level issue that only your hosting provider can resolve, so I’d strongly recommend opening a support ticket with them — they should be able to update the CA certificate bundle fairly quickly.

  In the meantime, as a workaround you can use Option 2 from the previous reply — manually updating WordPress via SFTP:

  1. Download the latest WordPress from https://wordpress.org/download
  2. Connect to your site via SFTP
  3. Delete the wp-includes/ and wp-admin/ folders
  4. Upload the fresh wp-includes/ and wp-admin/ from the download
  5. Upload the root files (except wp-config.php and the wp-content/ folder)
  6. Visit michalstefan.cz/wp-admin/upgrade.php to complete the update

  Once WordPress is updated, you can upgrade PHP back to 8.2 or 8.3.

  However, even after updating WordPress this way, the underlying SSL issue will continue to affect your site — plugin updates, theme updates, and security patches all rely on that secure connection to WordPress.org. Your hosting provider really is the right point of contact for resolving this, as it’s outside what we can troubleshoot from our end.

  Since your site is self-hosted (WordPress.org), our ability to help is limited to general guidance. For ongoing server-level issues like this, your host’s support team will be best equipped to assist. That said, if you ever want to move away from managing server configurations yourself, WordPress.com managed hosting takes care of PHP updates, SSL, security, and performance so you can focus on your content instead.

  The Best of Both Worlds: WordPress.com Managed Hosting

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  michalstefan · Member · Mar 13, 2026 at 5:50 pm

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  Thank you so much!

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  staff-raypatrick · Staff · Mar 13, 2026 at 5:58 pm

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  Glad we were able to help!