How to remove the Gutenberg Editor[ 2 min read ]

Since our last blog on the Gutenberg Editor in August 2018, Gutenberg has been bundled with WordPress and it’s now the default editor; which is great if you really like Gutenberg (we’re still not convinced).
But, if you really hate it, it’s not compatible with your theme or your current page builder then you might want to turn it off and go back to the old standard editor.

Most page builders, if they’re up to date, will give you the option to switch between the Gutenberg editor and the page builder. But if you do need to override it, there’s just one little piece of code needed to do just that, we’ll show you how to do it in this tutorial.

Step one editing the functions.php file

First, you’ll have to locate your functions.php by going to Appearance->Editor in your dashboard menu, or finding the file on your hosting server under wp-content/themes/[your theme name].

Disclaimer

Two warnings if you’re editing this file; number one – if you don’t do it properly it can break your whole site (it can be fixed server side so make sure you have server side access if you’re not competent in PHP), and number two – if you don’t have a child theme set up, any changes to this file may be overwritten when the theme is next updated.

Step two adding the line of php code

So, getting back to the tutorial, if you’re prepared to take the risk, find the last line of the page. It will either be blank or end in ‘?>’, if it’s the latter, go to the line above and add the code as per below:

add_filter('use_block_editor_for_post', '__return_false');

And, press update.

Troubleshooting

If your set up doesn’t let you save this file there are two options. First, edit via the server – as mentioned above. Second, try using a plugin like Theme Editor  which allows editing of all theme and plugin files.

Note: if you’re on WordPress.com it may not be possible to edit the functions.php file but try number two above first before ruling it out.

Test it is working

And, the final step is to see if the original editor is back by editing a page or a post.

Need help?

If you need help adding this line of code then this would come under one of our 5 MINUTE FIXES which only cost just £5!