If your WordPress website experienced a critical error or went down following the WordPress 7.1 update, and you use WP Rocket, you may have been affected by a compatibility issue between the latest WordPress release and WP Rocket.
The good news is that WP Rocket has now released a fix in version 3.23.2.2.
Here’s what happened, what you should do now, and why this is an important reminder about proactive WordPress maintenance.
What happened?
WordPress 7.1 was released on 19 August 2026, and websites with automatic WordPress updates enabled may have updated without any manual action from the website owner.
Following the update, some websites using WP Rocket experienced a fatal PHP error associated with WP Rocket’s Cloudflare integration.
One of the errors being reported looked like this:
Uncaught TypeError: substr(): Argument #1 ($string) must be of type string, int given
with the error originating from:
WP Rocket / Cloudflare.php
For affected websites, this could result in a WordPress critical error, potentially making the website and/or WordPress admin area inaccessible.
This wasn’t necessarily caused by someone making a change to the website. It was a compatibility issue that became apparent following the WordPress update.
Has WP Rocket fixed the problem?
Yes. WP Rocket has released version 3.23.2.2 on 20th August 2026, which includes a fix for the compatibility issue.
If your website uses WP Rocket, it’s important to check which version you are currently running.
What should you do now?
1. Check your website
Don’t assume everything is working simply because you haven’t received an error notification.
Visit your website and check several important pages.
Pay particular attention to:
- Your homepage
- Contact and enquiry forms
- Online shop and checkout, if applicable
- Booking functionality
- Login or membership areas
- Important landing pages
2. Log into WordPress
Check whether you can access your WordPress dashboard normally.
If you’re seeing a critical error or can’t access the admin area, don’t repeatedly make changes or start disabling multiple plugins without knowing what’s causing the problem.
Your hosting provider or WordPress developer may need to restore access at server level.
3. Check your WP Rocket version
If your website uses WP Rocket, check whether it has been updated to the latest version containing the fix.
At the time of writing, the relevant fixed release is:
WP Rocket 3.23.2.2
4. Update carefully
Before carrying out plugin, theme or WordPress updates on an important business website, you should ideally have a current backup available.
Once WP Rocket has been updated, clear the website cache and test the site again.
5. Test more than the homepage
Seeing the homepage load isn’t enough to confirm that an update has been completely successful.
Test the parts of your website that actually matter to your business.
For example, submit a test enquiry through your contact form, check your navigation, test important buttons and, for an e-commerce website, make sure the cart and checkout process are behaving as expected.
Why website maintenance is more than clicking ‘Update’
Incidents like this are a useful reminder that WordPress maintenance isn’t simply logging in once a month and clicking Update All.
Your WordPress website is made up of several moving parts:
WordPress core + your theme + plugins + PHP + hosting + third-party integrations
An update to one component can occasionally affect another.
Most updates happen without any problems, but compatibility issues can occur, particularly around major WordPress releases.
That’s why good WordPress maintenance should include more than installing updates.
It should include:
- Regular backups
- WordPress, plugin and theme updates
- Security monitoring
- Checking for known compatibility issues
- Visual checks after updates
- Testing important website functionality
- Performance monitoring
- Responding quickly when something goes wrong
Should you turn off WordPress updates?
Updates are an important part of keeping WordPress secure and functioning properly, so simply avoiding updates isn’t a good long-term solution either.
The key is having a managed update and maintenance process, particularly if your website generates enquiries, bookings or sales.
For business-critical websites and e-commerce stores, updates should ideally be monitored and followed by appropriate testing not set to auto update.
Is your WordPress website maintained proactively?
If you haven’t checked your website recently, today is a good day to do it.
And if you’re unsure who is responsible for monitoring, updating and testing your WordPress website, it’s worth getting a proactive maintenance plan in place.
At ZCM Digital, I provide ongoing WordPress website maintenance and support to help businesses keep their websites secure, updated and working as they should.
Need help checking or maintaining your WordPress website? Get in touch with ZCM Digital.
