I guess this is inevitable. I have just migrated the site using NextGen back to WP. My clients purchased a lifetime licence at some expense so I don’t want to lose support and updates.
This might be good except it would mean redoing the whole site and retraining my clients in a new system. Not really an option.
Sorry Tim… yes. I’ve been using CP from the start. I think you and I have history regarding a test site and I never was able to set one up. I’m not sure how to keep a copy of my current version. Do I just take a back up (I use BackupBuddy) and revert to that if the galleries don’t work? I’ve noticed that NextGen just whizzes through all the updates without offering any options. I don’t think I can go back to WP now. My site has over 300 pages - over 1,000 images and regular blog posts over more than 7 years. My understanding was that a site like mine would not fare well with Gutenberg.
Yes, I thought I remembered that! I don’t thinking Gutenberg would be good for your site at all!
Yes, without a test site, that would one way. But it’s more disruptive than you’d need it to be. If you can get the zip file for each of your current NextGen plugins, then you could just reinstall the old versions. (You might need to install the Update Theme and Plugins from Zip File plugin to make this easier.)
Thank you for that (and your thoughts on Gutenberg). I need to add some new images to my site today, so I will get that plugin and give it a whirl 
I think zigpress was right. I’m paying for NextGen Pro (although I can’t find out how much at the moment), but I haven’t had the notification. I assume I am now shut out of their system. I like NextGen and more to the point, it is embedded throughout my blog posts - 296 to date. For every image, there is a link to a NextGen gallery.
I think I have no option but to go back to Wordpress, but I may need some help. First of all, may I ask why you said Gutenberg would not be good for my site? I don’t understand most of what I read, but my thoughts were I could create new blog posts with Gutenberg, but they may not look like my older posts. I would most definitely want them to look the same. I’m retired and I don’t mind the work. My guess is I would have to revisit every blog post and stick all the content into blocks. So, a block for every paragraph and image. Is that correct?
Would you envisage any other horrors?
In theory, I’m wondering if I can create a test site (but I couldn’t do that without help before), stick that back in WP and see how I get on. If it works, then can I make that site live without losing all the work I’ve done?
If it helps, this is how my site looks now Elements
It looks great. If you go back to WP, I would install the Classic Editor plugin. That way, you won’t have to touch Gutenberg.
I said Gutenberg wouldn’t be good for your site because it has lots of images, and Gutenberg keeps changing how it handles images within posts. So things would likely keep breaking or looking very different.
Oh dear. First of all, I thought the Classic Editor plugin was going to be withdrawn after a period. If it has survived the cull, then may I assume I could go back to WP, install that plugin and my site (fingers crossed) should look the same? I can continue creating new posts and old or new, they should behave the same way?
I hate this. I wanted to remain with CP, but my theme and galleries are tied in to Imagely. It seems as though something is going to break at some point if I don’t go back. It would be better now, before I create another 100 pages.
I know you have made it easy to go back, but I don’t have a test site. Should I be covered with BackupBuddy if I beam back to WP and things have gone pear shaped?
Just had a peek and found this:
“Classic Editor is an official WordPress plugin, and will be fully supported and maintained until at least 2022, or as long as is necessary”.
BackupBuddy should have you covered, but coming back to CP should be easy enough anyway if you create any new posts using the Classic Editor.
The truth is that no-one knows how long the Classic Editor will stay around in WP. But at least you will have two years more.
I’m afraid you’re experiencing the dilemma that WP’s behavior is going to cause for an increasing number of people. Either learn to build sites a completely different way, or switch to CP and maybe use a different plugin to build sites the same way as you already know.
I think I’m getting too old to start from scratch. Moving to FooGallery would mean rebuilding every single gallery and every image used in those nearly 300 blog posts - that’s over 1,000 images for the galleries and about 850 for the blog posts. I never really understand themes or plugins and I certainly can’t visualise a web site. What I have now has been done by trial and error over the years. This is the happiest I have ever been with the look of my site. Now I have one of the finest cameras ever made (and more time now I’m retired), I want to be out and about.
I remember ozfiddler talking about one of his clients with NextGen when CP first began. It’s a sobering thought to see the site has been moved back to WP. Perhaps I could continue here for another year or so, but I’m guessing my site will break at some point. I would rather move now than fix a broken site in the future. I don’t want to leave, but I need Imagely for my theme and galleries.
So… do I just press the transporter button to move back and then activate the Classic Editor? I did set it up before I found you here at CP. I made a back up this afternoon.
I really appreciate all the help and support I have received here.
Good job on the backup! Not sure what you mean by the “transporter button”, but moving back to WP and then activating the Classic Editor should do the job for you.
You are very welcome!
This has always been the case for NextGen. It is not the fault of the editor being used. If you use a plugin that does non-standard stuff, you have to live with that decision or do the painful conversion to a better plugin.
You can always try things out in a sandbox at https://wpsandbox.net/ (for WP) and ClassicPress Sandbox - Free Test/Staging/Sandbox ClassicPress Site with Full Admin Access by WPSandbox.net (for CP).
Most users just choose a plugin that does “stuff”. To suggest that we have somehow made an informed choice between “standard stuff” and “non-standard stuff” is nonsense.
This is what I did. There aren’t many articles on my site, but it all looks fine. Ultimately I have to go with whatever solution works best for my client.
I seem to have fallen at the first fence because I can’t find a way of getting back to WP. I used the plugin before and it all worked perfectly.
Found it, although it wasn’t easy. The migration plugin download link was difficult to find and then I also needed this help Revert to Wordpress.
I’m not entirely sure what I should be checking, but everything looks as it should. There is one NextGen gallery update, but I was expecting another for NextGen Pro. I’ll spend the afternoon testing it out, but I was most impressed with your plugin. It was all done in less than 30 seconds
One silly question, but it looks as though there are many plugins that haven’t been updated. I update every time I log in to my dashboard - at least three times a month. There are huge gaps in some of the version numbers. Is it safe to assume they also stopped talking to me because I wasn’t using an up to date version of WP?
Probably, though sometimes developers skip a lot of numbers because they refactor the code or just don’t release some of the incremental updates in between.
That is to be expected, since the update check uses the current version of WP/CP to compare to, and with CP it appears as WP 4.9.x.
Isn’t “non-standard stuff” exactly what all plugins do? Otherwise we wouldn’t need them.
Sometimes pro plugins take longer to show updates I’ve found - you can usually force it by clearing the site’s transients, or you can just wait. It will show eventually.
No, plugins do non-core stuff. The ones that use the same database and functions are easily integrated with other plugins and easily migrated to using a different plugin. Those like NextGen that use their own format and functions are a hassle and don’t integrate with other plugins easily. It’s sad that plugins don’t give clues to what they are doing, and you have to look at the code to figure it out.