The new WordPress 5.8 version has changed a lot in admin dashboard for editing, and one of the things that has changed is the WordPress widget editor. The new editor allows users to add different blocks to the widget areas using the same block editor interface that was already introduced in the WordPress version 5.0. The whole list of benefits can be viewed on the official WordPress website. For some users these features gives them new ways to customize their widget areas by previewing them at the same time, however for some it has introduced new compatibility problems and issues with loading certain widgets.
Because of that, many WordPress users want to deactivate the new feature, and this post is going to show you how to do it. There are two ways of dealing with the issue. You can download a plugin that switches widget areas back to the Classic one, or you can add a few lines of codes to your functions.php file.
Restore the WordPress Classic Widget Editor using a Plugin
The easiest way to restore the classic WordPress widget editor for someone that doesn’t like to write code or edit any file is by using a plugin. Since WordPress is so popular, there is a plugin for almost anything, and it’s the same situation in this case as well. The plugin is free and it is called Classic Widgets. You can find it in the official WordPress.org plugin repository.
To simply download the plugin, go to your admin dashboard and click “Plugins” > “Add New” and search for “Classic Widgets”. Once you find it in the list, press the Install Now button and that is it, the plugin is installed and you have restored your Classic widgets editor.
If you prefer to upload the plugin manually, you can visit the official WordPress.org plugin repository for Classic Widgets, download it, and upload it to your wp-content/plugins folder.
Restore the WordPress Classic editor using your functions.php
As we already said, it can be done by adding a simple code to your functions.php file. Go to your admin dashboard and click on Appearance > Theme Editor.
Once you are in your theme editor, click on the functions.php file on the right. Then, add the following code right at the end of the file:
// Disable the block editor from managing widgets in the Gutenberg plugin.
add_filter('gutenberg_use_widgets_block_editor', '__return_false');
// Disable the block editor from managing widgets.
add_filter('use_widgets_block_editor', '__return_false');And that’s basically it. Click on “Update”, and you can view your widgets and you will see that Classic editor is back.
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