How to Downgrade Contact Form 7 to fix Ajax problem
Contact Form 7 is the most popular free form plugin for WordPress CMS platform. With over 3 millions of active installation, this plugin also being well maintained by its developer with frequent updates.
However, during the latest update version 4.8, they had introduced the new REST API features to extend the plugin functionalities.
Contact Form 7 4.8 introduces the FormData object used to compose submission data and adds a couple of custom REST API endpoints that Ajax submissions are directed to.
And it has been reported that the REST API itself has its own drawback in term of security. More details can be read on Sucuri’s website.
- https://blog.sucuri.net/2017/02/content-injection-vulnerability-wordpress-rest-api.html
- https://blog.sucuri.net/2017/02/wordpress-rest-api-vulnerability-abused-in-defacement-campaigns.html
Since there is no option available to enable/disable the REST API function within the plugin settings, most site owners opted to downgrade it to version 4.7.
Other than the security issues stated above, on some websites, the new version also may cause conflict with other installed plugin during AJAX submission.
2 Easy Way to Downgrade Contact Form 7:
1. Use the WP Rollback plugin – Fast & Easy, just install the plugin and there will be a new option to “Rollback” any plugins in the default installed plugins page. Click on the rollback menu and select the required version. Your existing Forms will not be deleted.
2. Manual Upload old Version – Download the required version zip file from WordPress.org Advanced view to your pc. Then, use the plugins edit to delete the content of existing Contact Form 7 uninstall.php file, leaving with blank a file. The reason why we have to do this is that the uninstall.php file contains the instruction to delete all related databases which will delete all forms that has been created. After that, deactivate & delete the current plugin version as usual, and then install the required version using the zip file upload method.
1. Download previous version of Contact Form 7
2. Use the edit menu to access plugin’s file.
3. Select uninstall.php file. Select all (Ctrl+A) and delete all its content. Then click update file button. If you don’t mind losing existing created forms, please skip this step.
4. Deactivate & Delete the existing Contact Form 7 plugin.
5. Install & activate the downloaded zip using the Add New > Upload Plugin method.
