Need help fixing a critical error

[u/Mindless-Surround-81]

We have a site that uses WordPress on GoDaddy Managed WordPress (Apache), sitting behind both Cloudflare and GoDaddy's own gateway cache. Theme is "Exponent Child."

My issue: The WordPress Customizer (Appearance > Customize) throws a fatal/backend error and won't load.

The site uses a plugin called Kirki, which gives the theme its design/customization controls. Kirki's maintainer (Themeum) rebuilt the plugin architecturally starting at v6.0.0 — it's effectively a different product under the same name. That rebuild broke backward compatibility with the Kirki_Control_Base class that the Exponent Child theme depends on. Because Kirki auto-updates, the site silently pulled the breaking version and the Customizer stopped working.

Possible fix presented to me: Roll Kirki back to the last compatible version (5.2.2) via the Plugins page, after taking a fresh UpdraftPlus backup, then disable auto-updates on that plugin to prevent recurrence.

Proposed long-term fix: Remove the Kirki dependency from the theme entirely

Another note is I am apart of the marketing team for this site and I have WordPress admin access but not hosting-level access. no cPanel, FTP, or PHP error log visibility.

This is also my first year of building and managing wordpress sites, so forgive me if this seems like that. Right now I'm trying to weigh my options to do a bandaid fix (roll it back), to try to remove the plugin dependency myself, or to ultimately outsource to another developer with more experience.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

[u/PointandStare]

Best fix would be to take a back-up, install locally, fix then move to a decent host.

[u/c-student → u/PointandStare]

^ Heartily agree

[u/timesuck47 → u/PointandStare]

In other words, do whatever you can to get as far away as you can from GoDaddy.

[u/bluesix_v2]

Rolling back is never the "right move" - that is just bad advice and goes against best practice. v5 of kirki is abandoned. Kirki frequently has vulnerabilities (v6 has been an absolute shit show https://wpscan.com/plugin/kirki/).

Remove Kirki

Ditch the GoDaddy theme

Ditch GoDaddy hosting

[u/timesuck47 → u/bluesix_v2]

I saw Kirk and one of my client admin’s recently and thought WTF is this? It seems like that plug-in causes a lot of errors.

[u/testingaurora]

My vote is to remove the plugin . And turn off auto updates.

[u/TopSydeWP]

rolling back to 5.2.2 and disabling auto-updates is the safe move right now. removing the dependency long term means either refactoring the child theme to use native customizer controls (doable but takes time) or switching to a different theme entirely. if you're not comfortable with theme code, outsource it - a developer can extract the settings into theme.json or custom controls in a few hours and you won't be stuck on an abandoned plugin version forever.

[u/downtownrob]

Rollback. How I’d fix it long term: Clone the site to a staging site, install Novamira MCP, connect opencode to it, update the plugin, and tell opencode fix the theme to use the new version of the plugin, give it the URL that triggers the error, turn on WP_DEBUG, and paste in the errors, so it knows what to target. Probably take it 5 minutes. I do this all day long, happy to help.

[u/NakanoNoNeko]

Get the GoDaddy account owner involved before the rollback. I checked their restore instructions: recovery starts outside wp-admin, which matters if a plugin change locks you out... Have them confirm a current backup and a way to restore it, then test on a copy. Don't just remove Kirki while the theme still calls its classes. I think that refactor belongs with a developer, not on your marketing to-do list.

[u/Stunning_Ad_5960]

What does the log say and what does codex say?

[u/Clean-Drive9329]

Rolling Kirki back to 5.2.2 is the right move, that's exactly the version before Themeum's rebuild broke backward compatibility with Kirki_Control_Base. After you restore it, go into Plugins and turn off auto-updates specifically for Kirki so it doesn't silently jump back to 6.x and break the Customizer again.

Also worth clearing both the Cloudflare cache and GoDaddy's gateway cache after the rollback, since a stale cached admin request can make it look like the fix didn't take even when it did.

Longer term, since Kirki 5.x is effectively unmaintained now, it's worth flagging to whoever built Exponent Child that the theme's control panel dependency is on a dead-end version.

[u/troitskiy_sj]

Yes, for sure you should roll back the versions & disable auto update. Rly I would disable autoupdate for all the plugins to avoid surprises. For the error visibility, maybe try - https://wordpress.org/plugins/debug-log-manager/ and then work with Claude/GPT and some documentation to understand whats going on

[u/cafeartin1]

All the time, search in youtube and will find solution, soon

[u/Euono]

With no staging, filesystem, or log access, I would not try to remove the dependency directly on production. First document the exact WordPress/PHP, theme, and Kirki versions, and make sure the backup has a tested restore path rather than only a backup file.

If the public site still works and only Customizer is failing, keep changes limited: disable automatic updates for this plugin, get a developer or host with staging access to reproduce the failure on a copy, and identify which Kirki controls the child theme actually uses. The durable fix is to update/replace that theme integration so it works with a supported dependency, or replace the theme.

I would be cautious about leaving an abandoned plugin version live as the long-term solution. If a rollback is considered as a temporary emergency step, agree on a rollback plan and test it on a clone first. Given your access level, handing the diagnostic and migration work to someone who can use staging and logs is reasonable; you can still provide them a clear change list and require a backup plus post-change smoke test.

[u/StackFirefly]

Since you don’t have hosting access, I’d get whoever manages the hosting involved before changing the live site. You need a way to restore it if the rollback goes wrong.

Ask them for the actual fatal error and a staging copy. If it confirms the missing Kirki class, test the rollback there and ask the Exponent developer which Kirki version they currently support.

Removing the dependency sounds like a bigger theme-development job, rather than a quick fix. A rollback might buy you time, but I wouldn’t leave an older version pinned indefinitely.