Not so long ago, I wrote a post about how I embraced Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor. Briefly, I described how its amazing potential and benefits contrasted with the mass rejection that preceded its release. After composing an entire post with this block-based editor, I concluded that Gutenberg was definitively not a hindrance to my workflow, quite the contrary. From my user point of view, there was no justification for the climate of fear and hatred that surrounded the advent of Gutenberg.
Yet, there was a potential concerned about Gutenberg’s effects on existing websites. For this reason, the WordPress community was dreading WordPress 5.0 release – the one featuring this new editor. The atmosphere of fear and uncertainty was almost tangible. As related in the aforementioned post, the magnitude of this release was such that most hosting providers decided to postpone it. Mine – SiteGround – was no exception: they stopped temporarily their auto-update system as a precautionary measure
. Fortunately, when my installation was auto-updated few days later to WordPress 5.0.1 and then to 5.0.2, everything was fine. Of all the bugs that I was led to fear about this update (featuring Gutenberg), not even one occurred.
Now, to make the transition as smooth as possible, SiteGround installed the Classic Editor plugin along with the new WordPress core update.
Classic Editor plugin
As explained by Hristo Pandjarov1, the plugin did not overwrite the new block editor
, the latter being set as default. Because I was eager to take full advantage of all the great options in Gutenberg, I didn’t used the plugin. Yet, I understand how it could be reassuring. In particular, I had the possibility to edit each of my post through either the Block Editor or the Classic Editor. These alternative options were available as links below each post (All Posts screen), along with the other Quick Edit, Trash and View links. Although I am composing all my posts with the Block Editor since WordPress 5.0 update, I used twice the aforementioned functionality to edit old posts (i.e. published with the previous editor).
Version 1.4
When I recently updated the plugin from version 1.3.0.1 to version 1.4, I didn’t even bother to check whether something was different. I was not using the plugin (except for two minor edits, as previously indicated), so why bother? However, the following day, while I was about to compose a new post, I was not welcomed with the now familiar Block Editor. As emerged from the past, the Classic Editor was everywhere. The option to edit my published post through either the Block Editor or the Classic Editor was gone.
The ensuing wave of panic was short lasting. I simply went to Settings > Network Settings and set the Editor back to Block Editor. However, the only reason worth keeping this plugin – that is having both the Block Editor and Classic Editor links available to edit old posts – was still absent.
Deactivate and delete
A good practice with plugin – beyond keeping them up-to-date – is to delete plugins that you no longer need
2. Not only I have never intended to use the Classic Editor as an alternative to Gutenberg, but also the new version of the plugin was not as purposeful as the version installed by SiteGround. Therefore, without giving it a second thought I deactivate and delete it.
Bye-bye Classic Editor
It’s been over a month now that I compose my posts with the Block Editor. Gutenberg enhances my workflow and is without a doubt nothing but a nice improvement in functionality.
1 Hristo Pandjarov (2018) Our Roll-Out Plan for WordPress 5.0. SiteGround. ^
2 Lisa Sabin-Wilson (2017) WordPress All-in-One For Dummies – Third Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. ^