A lot of the WordPress community simply isn’t ready for the new Gutenberg WordPress editor, which is now the default in WordPress 5.0. WordPress 5.0 was released on December 6th, 2018.
Don’t get us wrong, we are excited for Gutenberg and we think in the long run it could have a very positive impact on the CMS as a whole. We advise users to go try it out right now and test it in a staging environment. Depending on your site, you might have no issues at all. In fact, many, have fallen in love with the new editor. However, it can’t be ignored that there are a lot of you who simply aren’t ready.
We want to know, what do you think about the new #Gutenberg WordPress editor? Read more: https://t.co/bkJvrMmfNE
— Kinsta (@kinsta) October 23, 2018
Developers are still testing and updating their plugins, themes, and page builders (or worse, haven’t even started). Therefore, you may need to simply disable the Gutenberg WordPress editor until you have time to test everything properly. And usually, that’s not during the holidays. Or perhaps you want to wait for a more stable version. Even we have to admit, this version seems very rushed.
Disable the Gutenberg WordPress Editor
The Gutenberg WordPress editor is default in WordPress 5.0. But that doesn’t mean you can’t update to WordPress 5.0. It simply means you might want to disable the new editor functionality and retain the old one. Below are a couple of easy options to disable the Gutenberg editor as to not interrupt your daily workflow. You can then keep using WordPress the way you have been for the past decade.
It’s important to note, these solutions will most likely not be a long-term solution. WordPress is pushing the Gutenberg editor and you’ll need to most likely adopt it at some point. The WordPress team has said that the Classic Editor plugin will only be officially supported until December 31, 2021.
- Option 1 – Install the Classic Editor WordPress Plugin
- Option 2 – Install the Disable Gutenberg WordPress Plugin
- Option 3 – Disable Gutenberg Editor with Code
Option 1 – Install the Classic Editor WordPress Plugin
The Classic Editor WordPress plugin isn’t a new plugin, it simply restores the previous WordPress editor you’ve been used to. It’s built by WordPress Contributors and is fully endorsed by the WordPress Core team as the current way to retain the old editor. If you’re having issues (e. g. can’t update or publish content on your blog) with the new Gutenberg block editor, this is the way to go for now.
The Classic Editor plugin currently has over 600,000 active installs with a 5 out of 5-star rating. Note: This plugin will also hide the “Try Gutenberg” dashboard widget you might have seen from 4.9.8.
You can download it from the WordPress repository or search for “classic editor” within your WordPress dashboard under “Plugins → Add New.” Then click on “Install Now” and activate the plugin.
The plugin has a couple different modes you can choose from under “Settings → Writing.”
- Defaulting the editor for all users to either the Classic Editor (Default) or the Gutenberg block editor.
- Allow users to switch editors. You can enable or disable the ability to switch between the Classic Editor and the Gutenberg block editor.
We’ll show you an example of each below.
Mode 1 – Default Editor For All Users
The default setting with the Classic Editor plugin is that it will revert back to the original editor that you’re already used to (as seen below).
Mode 2 – Allow Users to Switch Editors
You then also have the ability to let the users choose. Perhaps you want to default the editor to Classic for now, but have the ability to easily switch between Classic and the Gutenberg Block Editor to start learning it.
This adds alternative editor options on the posts and pages screens. Using these links will open the corresponding post or page in the Classic Editor of the Gutenberg Block Editor. You can disable this altogether if you don’t want users to have the ability to choose.
The reverse also works, perhaps you want to default to the new Gutenberg Block Editor, but allow users to switch back to Classic when needed. Unless you click the “Classic Editor” link it will open the posts and pages in the new Gutenberg Block Editor (as seen below).
If you have clients and you’re worried about the Classic Editor options showing up under the Writing and Plugin screens, you could also install the free Classic Editor Addon plugin. This hides all the settings. Or check out the alternative plugin below.
Option 2 – Install the Disable Gutenberg WordPress Plugin
While the Classic Editor plugin is the official recommended plugin to restore the old editor, you might also want to check out the Disable Gutenberg WordPress plugin. It essentially does the same thing, but it comes with a few additional bells and whistles, while still being very lightweight. If you’re working with clients, this might be a better solution. As the developer of the plugin, Jeff Star, puts it:
The all-in-one, COMPLETE solution handling Gutenberg. Hide ALL traces of Gutenberg and replace with the Classic Editor.
The Disable Gutenberg plugin currently has over 9,000 active installs with a 5 out of 5-star rating.
You can download it from the WordPress repository or search for “disable gutenberg” within your WordPress dashboard under “Plugins → Add New.” Then click on “Install Now” and activate the plugin.
One nice thing about this plugin is all the settings are located within its own menu in “Settings → Disable Gutenberg.” It doesn’t add options in the default Writing screen. This is nice because one of the options, as you can see below, is to hide the plugin menu itself. This essentially makes it essentially invisible to anyone.
And just like with the Classic Editor you also have the option to disable the “Try Gutenberg” widget callout in the dashboard.
The real power of this plugin is if you uncheck the “Complete Disable” option. It then allows you to disable Gutenberg for certain roles, post types, page templates, and post IDs.
Option 3 – Disable Gutenberg with Code
You can also disable the Gutenberg Editor with code. Simply add the following to your functions.php file.
add_filter('use_block_editor_for_post', '__return_false', 10);Be careful, as editing this file can break your site if you’re not careful. If you’re not comfortable editing code, we recommend installing the free Code Snippets plugin. Code Snippets is an easy, clean and simple way to add code snippets to your site. It removes the need to add custom snippets to your theme’s functions.php file.
After installing and activating the plugin, Go to “Snippets → Add new” in your WordPress dashboard.
Give your snippet a name, and drop in the following code:
add_filter('use_block_editor_for_post', '__return_false', 10);Choose “Only run in administration area” and click on “Save Changes and Activate.”
Summary
Both of the above options can be done ahead of time so that when you upgrade to WordPress 5.0 the Classic Editor will still be the default. Even though Gutenberg is technically there behind the scenes. There are a lot of reasons why you might want or need to disable the Gutenberg WordPress editor, even if it’s just temporarily:
- The release dates of WordPress 5.0 for many is right around the holidays, so perhaps you just need more time to try it out.
- You’re using a third-party plugin or theme that is still incompatible with the Gutenberg Editor.
- You prefer to use your current page builder plugin and it hasn’t added support for Gutenberg yet.
- You want to wait until Gutenberg is more stable and polished.
- Perhaps you prefer the Classic Editor and want to roll with it for as long as it still works.
Whatever the case, restoring the previous WordPress editor is quick and easy. Have any thoughts? Are you going to be rolling with the new Gutenberg Editor or sticking with the Classic Editor?
Brian has a huge passion for WordPress, has been using it for over a decade, and even develops a couple of premium plugins. Brian enjoys blogging, movies, and hiking. Connect with Brian on Twitter.
Actually, installing the Classic Editor Addon (featuring on the right hand of your screenshot) is even better than installing the Classic Editor.
Assuming that the purpose of looking to install the Classic Editor, it can be safely assumed that there is no need for a confusing Settings page and/or the need to “try Gutenberg”. Especially since your content will be royally messed up after “trying Gutenberg and then deciding it is not for you”.
Yes, we mention and link to Classic Editor Add-on at the end of Option 1. 😄
Am I understanding correctly that if you install and activate the classic editor plugin now when you upgrade to WordPress 5.0 gutenberg will not be activated?
Hey Mark! Yes, if you manually install the Classic Editor plugin and select the “Replace the Block editor with the Classic editor” option, then when you upgrade to WordPress 5.0 the Classic Editor will still be the default. Even though Gutenberg is technically there behind the scenes.
Thanks Brian, sorry I missed that.
Great, great, great article. I’m sorry for the people who are not aware of what’s coming…there will be many major disasters. Thanks for this article that confirms that the Disable Gutenberg plugin is a good way to go. I’ve been installing it on all the sites I’ve been working on.
Glad to hear the Disable Gutenberg plugin is working for you Christian! 👍
So I’m having one of those major disasters with a client’s website.
We can’t edit anything without zapping 100% of their resources and losing access to the site. It sucks.
Neither of the plugins I’ve installed help either. This was sudden, out of the middle of nowhere, and makes no sense. The client didn’t go installing any extra plugins. They were just doing basic site updates.
A 3rd option is the Gutenberg Ramp plugin.
“Activating Gutenberg Ramp plugin adds a settings screen where you can enable Gutenberg selectively (for specific post types). For even greater control, you can specify Gutenberg loading behavior in code. Ramp works with both the plugin version of Gutenberg, and the core version, providing a seamless transition.”
https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg-ramp/
Thanks Chris!
Currently, the Gutenberg Ramp plugin doesn’t play nice with the Classic Editor in WordPress 5.0. However, it appears they are working on an update. https://github.com/Automattic/gutenberg-ramp/issues/73 We’ll make sure to keep an eye on this and update the post accordingly. Thanks!
Just wanted to say THANK YOU!!!!! I didn’t want to add more plugins and your option of disabling the new editor through functions.php was most helpful.
Great, glad to hear it was helpful Maria!
Oh, hallelujah! I wasted many hours trying to get the new editor to work, but all content was completely blank in the editor. The plugin for the Classic Editor totally solved it. SO grateful!
Thank you!
Thank you very much for this article! I’m no WordPress expert but am tasked with some maintenance of a WordPress site…a custom plugin recently stopped working and I had a hunch it was the upgrade that did it. This article proved that and the 1st solution above did exactly what I needed as a workaround.
Thx!
I love that in order to be able to work around this terrible writing editor you have to upgrade to Business at almost $300 per year so you can install the plugin. WordPress really needs to let Premium plan members use plugins. The Block Editor is infuriating. I should have never switched to it. Luckily, none of my freelance clients who use WP made the same mistake I did, and at least I can still use the classic editor when working for them. It saves so much time.
The new wordpress editor is horrible. Anything anyone is happy it can do could be done better before this pile of garbage and much more.
I cannot express how awful this thing is and it is not because “I am not ready”. I have seen many garbage editors come and go and this one will surely follow.
Thanks for this helpful guide.
WordPress is telling me that I can use a plugin only if I have a Business subscription. I have a premium subscription and am totally frustrated with the new block editing process. Is there any hope for me or do I have to move my blog to a different site?
Hello Anne, if you are using the WordPress.com service, disabling Gutenberg would be at their discretion. If you move your site to a self-hosted instance of WordPress (e.g. a web host like Kinsta), you have more flexibility in terms of what plugins you can use. In this case, we do not block usage of the Classic Editor plugin on any plans.
To disable Gutenberg Editor most easy way is to add the following code to active theme’s function.php file. just copy paste where it suits. I generally put it at the end.
No plugin needed.
add_filter(‘use_block_editor_for_post’, ‘__return_false’, 10);
I’ve been working on stripping down my theme which I custom made to as little bloat as possible, I’m currently sitting at around a 95ish mobile page speed score for my site
Though I am always looking for more ways to keep improving the page speedscore. I also run WooCommerce. So a few more tips of things that really helped. I fully disabled Gutenberg via code adding to my functions.
// Fully Disable Gutenberg editor.
add_filter(‘use_block_editor_for_post_type’, ‘__return_false’, 10);
Though doing this still loads a lot of the stylesheets on the front end if you use WooCommerce so it’s also important to dequeue the styles if you are using WooCommerce on WordPress. On my main function where I dequeue and enqueue styles I added this
//Remove Gutenberg Block Library CSS from loading on the frontend & more
wp_dequeue_style( ‘wp-block-library’ );
wp_dequeue_style( ‘wp-block-library-theme’ );
wp_dequeue_style( ‘wc-blocks-style’ ); // Remove WooCommerce block CSS
wp_dequeue_style( ‘dashicons’ ); // Remove dashicon CSS
This disabled the block styles that were being loaded on the pages which also cause excess CSS to load that isn’t used.
Please not make sure to test this first on your theme and make sure your theme isn’t reliant on any of these styles but my goal has been to remove as much bloat as I can and it’s been paying off improving my age speed scores.
When my clients use Gutenberg, every once in a while, they will be writing a post when, out of nowhere, all the content disappears. No drafts saved etc. It’s even happened to me. I’ve gotten to where I write somewhere else (Word) and then paste the finished article and click save. I hate Gutenberg! Yes, I’ve studied the react and jsx etc. It’s a pain if it loses content. It’s about the experience? No, Matt just wants to be cutting edge. Well some of us are bleeding here. Fix the bugs Matt!
Nope you can’t disable Gutenberg. You have to PAY if you want a normal, sensible editor to use. The whole point with blogs was that you had a writing platform without paying unless you wanted a personal domain or add ecom to it.
You can install the free Classicpress plugin and you don’t have to use Gutenberg.