What Can Break: The 20 Most Common WordPress Failure Points
When making changes to your WordPress website, certain components are much more likely to break than others. Understanding these common failure points helps you prepare for and prevent business disruptions. This guide identifies the most likely breaking points and provides a straightforward risk assessment framework to protect your website and business.
1. Form Submissions and User Input Fields
Form fields and user input areas (contact forms, search boxes, checkout pages) frequently break during website updates. This happens when changes affect how your website processes information visitors enter. Signs of this problem include forms that don't submit, error messages when submitting information, or contact forms that appear to submit but never deliver messages.
2. Plugin Conflicts
Each plugin added to your WordPress site introduces potential compatibility issues with other plugins. When WordPress gets updated, many plugins haven't been tested with the new version, causing conflicts. The risk increases dramatically with each additional plugin installed on your site, with most major issues occurring once you exceed 15-20 plugins.
3. Payment Processing Systems
E-commerce functionality is particularly vulnerable to breaking during site changes. Payment gateways depend on precise configurations, and updates to WordPress core, payment plugins, or even seemingly unrelated plugins can interrupt the payment process. This directly impacts your revenue when customers can't complete purchases.
4. Custom Post Types Display
Many business websites use custom post types for services, products, team members, or testimonials. These custom content types often break during WordPress updates or theme changes because they depend on specific theme files or plugin functionality to display correctly.
5. Page Builders and Visual Editors
Visual editing tools like Elementor, Divi, or WPBakery often create issues during WordPress updates. Page layouts may shift, elements might disappear, or the entire editor can become unresponsive after updates. These editors store content in ways that can be incompatible with major WordPress version changes.
6. Database Tables and Custom Fields
WordPress stores information in database tables, and many plugins add custom tables to store their data. During updates, these table structures can change, causing data loss or functionality failures. Custom fields for product information, user data, or content metadata are particularly vulnerable during major updates.
7. Caching Systems
Caching plugins like W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket, or LiteSpeed Cache frequently cause issues after website changes. Old cached versions of pages may continue to display despite your updates, causing confusion about whether changes are working. Additionally, caching configurations often break during WordPress core updates.
8. Scheduled Tasks (Cron Jobs)
WordPress uses a system called "WP-Cron" to schedule tasks like sending emails, publishing scheduled posts, or running maintenance operations. During site changes, these scheduled tasks often break, causing emails to stop sending, posts to remain unpublished, or automated processes to fail silently.
9. Theme Customizations
Custom coding in your theme files is extremely vulnerable to breaking when WordPress updates. Theme developers may change how their themes work, or WordPress might modify the underlying functions your customizations rely on. The more customized your theme, the higher the risk during updates.
10. Image Processing and Media Library
WordPress creates multiple sizes of each uploaded image, and this functionality commonly breaks during updates. You might find new images aren't generating thumbnails correctly, or existing images disappear from pages. Media library sort and filter functions also frequently fail after updates.
11. URL Structures and Permalinks
Changes to your site's URL structure or permalink settings can instantly break all internal links and cause massive traffic drops. Search engines will show your old URLs, but they'll lead to error pages. This problem often occurs during site migrations or when changing permalink structures.
12. User Roles and Permissions
WordPress updates sometimes change how user permissions work, causing staff members to lose access to features they need or gaining access to areas they shouldn't see. This is particularly problematic for membership sites or those with multiple contributors.
13. Search Functionality
WordPress search features frequently break during updates, causing search results to disappear, return incorrect results, or stop working entirely. This problem increases on sites using custom search plugins or specialized search functions to display products or content.
14. SSL/HTTPS Implementation
Security certificates and HTTPS functionality can break during WordPress updates or host changes, causing "not secure" warnings that alarm visitors. Mixed content warnings (where some elements load over HTTP while others use HTTPS) commonly appear after updates.
15. Backup Systems
Ironically, backup plugins themselves often break during WordPress updates, silently failing to create new backups. This means you might think you're protected when in fact your backup system stopped working weeks ago – exactly when you need it most.
16. Mobile Responsiveness
Website changes frequently break mobile layouts, even when desktop versions appear fine. Menu systems, form elements, and complex layouts are most likely to develop problems on smaller screens after WordPress or theme updates.
17. API Connections and Integrations
External connections to services like payment processors, email marketing tools, CRMs, or analytics platforms frequently break during WordPress updates. These integrations rely on specific code that can be affected by changes to WordPress core functions.
18. Comment Systems
Comment functionality (both native WordPress comments and third-party systems like Disqus) often breaks during updates. Problems range from comment forms not displaying to submitted comments disappearing or spam filters failing.
19. Admin Dashboard Functionality
The WordPress admin area itself can break during updates, making it difficult or impossible to manage your site. Common problems include menu items disappearing, editor functions failing, or settings pages becoming inaccessible.
20. Database Performance
WordPress updates can significantly impact database performance, especially on larger sites. This manifests as slower page loads, timeout errors, or difficulties performing admin tasks after updates. Each plugin adds database tables and queries, compounding this problem.
Risk Assessment: How to Measure Your Website's Vulnerability
Understanding your website's risk level helps you implement appropriate precautions before making changes. Here's a simplified framework for assessing risk:
Basic Risk Formula
Website Change Risk = (Complexity Factor × Impact Factor)
Complexity Factor (How likely something will break)
Calculate your Complexity Score by adding points for each factor:
Number of Plugins:
- 1-5 plugins: 1 point
- 6-10 plugins: 2 points
- 11-20 plugins: 3 points
- 21-30 plugins: 4 points
- 31+ plugins: 5 points
Website Customization:
- Standard theme, few modifications: 1 point
- Premium theme, some customizations: 2 points
- Heavily modified theme: 3 points
- Custom-built theme: 4 points
Content Volume:
- Under 50 pages/products: 1 point
- 50-200 pages/products: 2 points
- 201-1000 pages/products: 3 points
- Over 1000 pages/products: 4 points
Form Complexity:
- Basic contact form only: 1 point
- Multiple simple forms: 2 points
- Complex forms (payments, registrations): 3 points
- Custom form functionality: 4 points
Database Customization:
- No custom database tables: 0 points
- 1-3 custom database tables: 2 points
- 4+ custom database tables: 4 points
Scheduled Tasks (Cron):
- No critical scheduled tasks: 0 points
- Standard publishing schedules only: 1 point
- Email/notification systems: 2 points
- Membership/subscription processes: 3 points
- E-commerce automated tasks: 4 points
Divide your total by 6 to get your average Complexity Factor (1-5)
Impact Factor (How much damage a breakage would cause)
Website Purpose:
- Personal blog/portfolio: 1 point
- Business information site: 2 points
- Lead generation site: 3 points
- Membership site: 4 points
- E-commerce store: 5 points
Monthly Traffic:
- Under 1,000 visitors: 1 point
- 1,000-10,000 visitors: 2 points
- 10,001-100,000 visitors: 3 points
- 100,001-500,000 visitors: 4 points
- Over 500,000 visitors: 5 points
Revenue Dependence:
- No direct revenue from site: 1 point
- Minor revenue source: 2 points
- Important revenue channel: 3 points
- Primary revenue generator: 4 points
- Entire business depends on site: 5 points
Divide your total by 3 to get your average Impact Factor (1-5)
Total Risk Score and What It Means
Multiply your Complexity Factor by your Impact Factor to get your Total Risk Score:
Score 1-5: Low Risk Basic precautions needed: Create backup before changes, best to test in staging if available
Score 6-10: Moderate Risk Enhanced precautions needed: Comprehensive backup, testing in staging environment, schedule changes during low-traffic periods
Score 11-15: High Risk Significant precautions required: Professional assistance recommended, comprehensive testing plan, detailed rollback strategy
Score 16-25: Critical Risk Maximum precautions essential: Professional management required, complete development/staging/production workflow, incremental implementation approach
Real-World Examples: Site Size and Risk Levels
Small Business Website (Risk Score: 4-8)
A typical small business site with a contact form, about page, and basic service information might have:
- 5-8 plugins
- Premium theme with minimal customization
- Under 50 pages
- Basic contact form
- No custom database tables
- Low to moderate traffic
For this site, changes like WordPress core updates usually pose moderate risk, with plugin updates being the most likely point of failure. The recommended approach is creating a backup before any change and scheduling updates during low-traffic periods.
Medium E-commerce Site (Risk Score: 9-16)
A growing e-commerce store selling 100-500 products might have:
- 15-25 plugins including WooCommerce
- Customized e-commerce theme
- 500+ product pages plus content
- Multiple forms including checkout
- Several custom database tables
- Payment processing dependencies
- Moderate to high traffic
This site faces substantial risk during changes, with payment processing, product displays, and checkout forms being the most vulnerable points. Professional assistance is recommended for major updates, with comprehensive testing in a staging environment before applying changes to the live site.
Large Membership/E-learning Site (Risk Score: 16-25)
A membership site with courses, forums, and subscription content might have:
- 25+ plugins
- Heavily customized theme
- Thousands of content pages
- Complex registration and payment forms
- Many custom database tables
- Critical scheduled tasks
- High traffic and revenue dependence
This type of site experiences critical risk during changes, with user access systems, payment processing, and content delivery being most vulnerable. A professional development team should manage changes using a complete development workflow, incremental implementation, and comprehensive testing protocols.
Risk Mitigation: Protecting Your Business During Website Changes
Based on your risk assessment, implement these precautions before making changes:
Essential Practices for All Sites
- Create complete backups before any change, including files and database
- Schedule changes during low-traffic periods
- Document your current setup including plugin versions and settings
- Update one thing at a time rather than making multiple changes simultaneously
- Have a communication plan to inform customers if something goes wrong
For Moderate to High-Risk Sites
- Implement a staging environment to test changes before applying to your live site
- Develop a specific rollback plan for each major change
- Disable caching systems before making changes
- Schedule incremental updates rather than massive overhauls
- Have technical support available during update windows
For Critical-Risk Sites
- Employ professional WordPress developers to manage changes
- Implement comprehensive testing protocols covering all critical functions
- Use version control systems to track and manage changes
- Create automated testing for business-critical functions
- Develop custom maintenance mode that allows partial site functionality during updates
Conclusion
Understanding what can break during WordPress changes is the first step toward preventing costly business disruptions. By assessing your site's risk level and implementing appropriate precautions, you can confidently make necessary updates while protecting your online business presence.
Remember that as your WordPress site grows in complexity and importance to your business, the potential impact of breakages increases significantly. Investing in proper change management processes becomes not just a technical consideration but an essential business protection strategy.