NetChimp

Cheap Web Design, Search Engine Optimisation & Conversion Rate Optimisation

  • Start Here
  • About
  • Clients & results
  • Services
    • Website Reviews
    • Web Site Design
    • Website Conversion
    • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
    • Ways To Pay For Your Website
  • Portfolio
  • Articles
    • Useful Resources
    • Conversion Rate Optimistation (CRO)
    • IR35
    • Joomla!
    • Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimision (SEO)
    • Usability
    • Web Design
    • WordPress
  • Learning Zone
    • Free Report
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Web Design / Fix WordPress deprecated simplepie errors – assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in class-simplepie.php

Last Edited : September 8, 2015

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.

WordPress Dashboard with Error - Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated class-simplepie.php on line 739
WordPress Dashboard with Error – click to enlarge

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.

Did you find this post helpful?

If you found this post helpful please take a moment to tweet, like, or share this article by using the buttons at the top or bottom of this page. I’d really appreciate it. 🙂

Also, if you are feeling extra generous please leave some encouraging feedback in the comments section at the bottom of the page. I love getting feedback from visitors. It encourages me to continue writing useful articles for readers like you.

Thanks for taking the time to read my website! You can find other articles that you might find useful at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!


You may also like

Web Design For Estate Agents
Web Design For Virtual Assistants
14 tips when using direct mail
Is Everything You Know About Web Design Wrong?
Business SEO: How Google Decides Who Is On Page 1

Filed Under: Tips, WordPress Tagged With: fix, help, how to, simplepie error, wordpress

About Kevin Craighead

Hi! My name is Kevin Craighead and I am the guy behind NetChimp.

I have been working in the computer industry since 1988 although my love of electronics goes back even further to my first experience of Pong in the late 70's.

Comments

  1. Peter Byrne says

    November 12, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    Thanks for the heads up it turned out that i need to change the simplepie directory as the class-simple pie.php was targeting an empty space

    Reply
  2. Andrea says

    September 26, 2014 at 4:46 pm

    thanks sooo much for this article! super useful even today! It was very detailed even for someone like me, who doesn’t work with website coding very often. Thanks again!

    Reply
  3. eric says

    July 15, 2014 at 2:53 am

    thanks super usefull !

    Reply
  4. david goolla says

    June 24, 2014 at 6:37 am

    it worked perfect thank you!

    Reply
  5. Sam says

    April 20, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    Thanks. I’m testing an older script that uses simplepie and got those same errors. Now I understand why. Thanks

    Reply
  6. Slaven Petric says

    October 4, 2013 at 1:27 am

    Man, u really good. This shit works even today 😉

    Reply
  7. southcast says

    October 1, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    This may sound a little irrelevant but when I was searching for “how to fix errors in wordpress” your article popped up and immediately grabbed my attention and that is how I landed here. Now the thing that grabbed my attention was the star ratings I saw on your article in google search result.

    Question – Would you mind sharing what you did to get such result. I would most definitely want to apply the same to site. Apologies for being a little off-topic.

    Reply
    • Kevin Craighead says

      October 2, 2013 at 11:05 am

      It’s a WordPress Plugin called GD Star Rating.

      Reply
  8. Borneo Spaces says

    June 25, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    This really worked. I’m using joomla but the problem is the same. just remove the & operand, error message fixed. Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  9. poets says

    February 16, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    its work, thanks, myblog working good now

    Reply
  10. Samsodin Dianalan says

    November 26, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    awesome, thank you so much!!!

    Reply
  11. Michael Watts says

    November 7, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    I couldn’t get this to work – for some reason on our main domain it’s fine and we have another wp installation on a sub domain (nothing different in terms of setup or plugins) and the errors occur.

    Many thanks for your time and effort in posting this though.

    Reply
  12. dfx says

    October 4, 2012 at 11:51 am

    thank you so much! this really worked

    Reply
  13. cikiciew says

    September 11, 2012 at 6:00 am

    thanks, it’s work

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Me

kevin craighead netchimpHi! My name is Kevin Craighead and I am the guy behind NetChimp. I have been working in IT since 1988 but my love of gadgets goes back to my first experience of Pong in the late 70's.MORE →

Popular Stories & Tips

Contact Details

  • ADDRESS:
    Cirrus Building, 6 International Avenue, ABZ Business Park, Dyce, Aberdeen AB21 0BH
  • PHONE:
    01904 230477
  • OFFICE HOURS:
    Mon - Fri 9:30 am to 5:30 pm.

Company Details

  • REGISTERED ADDRESS:
    Change Accountants, 2 Forest Farm Business Park, Fulford, York YO19 4RH
  • COMPANY NO:
    Registered in England and Wales: 7632651

Web Design Links

  • Web Design York
  • SEO York
  • Web Design Aberdeen
  • Web Design Hull
  • Web Design Sheffield
  • 50 Incredible Tips For A Successful Website

Contact Details

NetChimp, Cirrus Building, 6 International Avenue, ABZ Business Park, Dyce, Aberdeen AB21 0BH

CALL:
01904 230 477

OFFICE HOURS:
Mon - Fri 9:30 am to 5:00 pm.

Recent Posts

  • How To Setup WordPress for AMP: Accelerated Mobile Pages
  • Is Your Website Underperforming?
  • How Much Should a Website Cost?
  • How to add Google AdSense Responsive Ads to WordPress
  • Consequences And Responsibilities Of IR35 Regulations

©2019 NetChimp Limited. All rights reserved | See us on Google Earth | Web Design York | Small Business Web Designer | Web Design in York

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.Accept
Cookie Policy

necessary Always Enabled

non-necessary