A bug in WordPress 7.0 is breaking custom publish panel buttons in Classic Editor sites — and two plugin-based fixes are already available ahead of the 7.0.1 maintenance release.
The issue, tracked as ticket #65286, specifically affects sites that have extended the Classic Editor’s publish meta box — the panel containing the Publish/Update button — with additional action buttons. Affected sites report the custom buttons disappearing from the panel entirely after updating to 7.0, rather than the buttons remaining visible but misfiring. This is a common pattern in custom-built editorial workflows and some third-party plugins.
Two fixes are available in the plugin directory right now:
- Classic Editor version 1.7.0 — an updated release of the official Classic Editor plugin that includes the fix directly.
- Hotfix version 1.4 — a standalone patch plugin used for between-release fixes.
For sites already running Classic Editor, updating to 1.7.0 via the dashboard Plugins screen is the recommended approach. Sites needing a quick fix without the full plugin can install Hotfix 1.4 instead — Hotfix releases are designed as interim patches and are typically safe to remove once the underlying issue ships in a core point release.
A permanent resolution is targeted for WordPress 7.0.1, though no release date has been announced yet. The fix was reviewed by contributors @desrosj, @flixos90, @joemcgill, and @jeffpaul. The Make WP Core post has the full contributor discussion and patch notes — see the link below.
