Hi @jamminjames,
Hard to say what’s going on without more details.
Try enabling the debug log, then reactivate the plugin and load your homepage again, then check your debug.log file and see if anything relevant got logged in there.
Well, I had deleted all caches before, but then I deleted the widgets and refreshed caches, then reinserted the widgets, and now it’s working again. We’ll see if it lasts.
Btw, while doing the above, I tried the WordPress Popular Posts widget, and it worked, but had a warning about being depreciated, so I went back to the shortcode. Why is the widget still included if it’s depreciated, and will a new widget be created? (I’m using classic widgets).
Well, I had deleted all caches before, but then I deleted the widgets and refreshed caches, then reinserted the widgets, and now it’s working again. We’ll see if it lasts.
Alright, if/when it happens again please remember to check the logs first.
Why is the widget still included if it’s depreciated, and will a new widget be created? (I’m using classic widgets).
I’m just giving people enough time to replace the old widget with either the WordPress Popular Posts block (which is the direct replacement of the old classic widget) or the [wpp] shortcode (like you did.) I was planning to fully remove the widget sometime before the end of the year but haven’t decided yet and may wait a little bit longer.
And to answer your second question, no, there won’t be a new widget. The WordPress team is 100% making everything they can into a block, it wouldn’t make sense to build a new widget at this point.