Fix WordPress deprecated simplepie errors – assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in class-simplepie.php

When you login to your WordPress blog and look at the dashboard you see a bunch of errors under “Incoming links”, “WordPress Blog” and the “Plugins” areas as shown below.

The errors, and there will be over 100 of them, will say something like:

Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/path/public_html/wp-includes/class-simplepie.php on line 739

This error is caused by a PHP upgrade on your server making some of the code in class-simplepie.php generate warnings. This can be fixed by changing variables from & new to new in the affected file.

How To Fix This Error

1. Download the file /wp-includes/class-simplepie.php (your exact path is actually shown on the error message if you are unsure where to find it) to your local computer. You can use any FTP program to do this.

2. Open the file for editing in a program that allows you to do a search and replace of values. Important: please make a backup of the file before you begin editing.

3. You need to edit each line mentioned in the error list by removing the &. For example:

Original line:

$parser =& new $this->parser_class();

New line: change & new to new by removing the &:

$parser = new $this->parser_class();

4. The quickest and easiest way to change all the line quickly is by using the find and replace tool in your editor.

Replace each occurrence of

& new

with

new

5. Save the changes and upload them using ftp.

6. Login to the WordPress dashboard. Don’t be disappointed as the errors will still appears – the dashboard widgets needs to be refreshed.

7. To update the widgets and remove the warnings firstly click on the “Incoming links” widget.

8. In the top right click the “configure” link.

9. Under “Enter the RSS feed URL here:” box copy the contents (you’ll need them in a second so keep them safe) and replace them with http://google.com then click the “submit” button.

10. Go back and configure the widget again, this time under “Enter the RSS feed URL here:” paste the original link back in replacing http://google.com and then click the “submit” button. This will recreate the widget contents and remove errors.

11. Repeat this for the “WordPress Blog”. I haven’t found a way to reset the “Plugins” but it should update itself after a short while.

12. The errors should no longer appear in the WordPress dashboard.

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