At WP Engine we pride ourselves in our processes around Maintenance/Security-related WordPress upgrades. Our commitment to you as your managed host is to keep you on the latest and greatest version of your WordPress branch within 24 hours of the release. Typically, releases take shape in two ways: maintenance/security and functional updates.
Functional updates are the major core updates (“Parker”, “Smith”, “Benny”). They are first offered as a beta and then the release version is made available. When the new release is announced, we publish the announcement on our blog, outlining the new features and provide an estimation on when we will begin contacting website administrators with their update date.
Security/Maintenance releases are a bit different. These releases are only dropped to fix bugs or patch security holes in WordPress Core. It is very rare that we will see new features introduced in these versions.
WordPress 4.9.6
With WordPress 4.9.6 coming this week, we will be seeing a few new features built around GDPR compliance. This release is different in that it is introducing new features in a Maintenance/Security update, and that it applies only to websites already running WordPress 4.9 and higher. While this is atypical of a release, it is important to include these new features because they provide an essential toolkit for handling GDPR compliance. We have weighed the risk in introducing these new features and since they are not manipulating or impacting existing WordPress features, we feel that this release is not only safe but also important in enabling you to make your site GDPR compliant.
As with our normal practice for Maintenance releases, this update cannot be deferred. In the event that there is an additional security release following 4.9.6, we would have to update all websites on the 4.9 branch to patch the potential security issues, and this second update would also contain the new GDPR features. While the timing of a security release is impossible to predict, we feel it is important to adopt these features ASAP for your 4.9 branch installs.
Release timing
Currently, the 4.9.6 release is slated for a release on Thursday, May 17. This date is subject to change if issues arise in the release process. According to our standard protocol, we would be updating your sites on Friday, May 18. However, we feel with the inclusion of these new features that it is best to wait until the following Monday (May 21). This would offer the the best window to roll out these updates to prevent issues over the weekend. You are also welcome to initiate the update before May 21 at your convenience through your my.wpengine.com portal.
If you would like to get started testing these new features now, please use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin to install the 4.9.6 release candidate. As always, if you have any issues feel free to reach out through one of our support channels and we will be happy to look into any problems with the 4.9.6 update.
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