I got my first taste of the new WordPress.com editor today, and I spat it out faster than the worst food I had ever tasted! Blah!
For those who don’t like it, either, here are a few “hacks” to still get access to your WordPress Classic Editor, for new posts, old posts, and old pages.
Creating new posts in Classic Editor
I had devised a solution below that is still good for editing old posts, but a reader who goes by Suso SM shared with me an even better solution for new posts. Thanks, Suso SM! Here was his solution.
- Copy the entire coloured URL below and paste into a new browser window, but do NOT hit Enter
https://your-site-name.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?action=edit&classic-editor - Change the text in red bold italics to whatever your site name is your WordPress account. You should be able to see that once you log in (and choose your site if you had more than one to your account).
- Now hit ENTER, and you’ll be prompted for a new post in the Classic WP Editor! If not, please check your site name you substituted in red. Everything should be the same until, or unless, WP takes away the Classic Editor or changes how to access it.
- I would also recommend bookmarking the URL if it works so you don’t have to do this every time, even if you didn’t post a lot.
Thanks so much Suso SM!
Editing old posts in the Classic Editor
How to Enable WordPress.com Classic Editor (click to enlarge)
- Paste the following into your browser URL bar https://your-site-name.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php in the same way as above and you should get a list of posts.
- Mouseover your post title you want to edit. This will give you some editing choices like in the photo, one of which will be Classic Editor. When you click on that, it will take you to the Classic Editor, which I am working with now as I type this post. There is a pop up dissuading you from it, but you’d get the same pop up every time you made a block a Classic Block in the new Block editor anyway, so this is nothing!
Then edit away and post as before!
Editing old pages in the Classic Editor
In addition to editing old posts in the WordPress Classic Editor, you can still edit old pages in the Classic Editor, as mentioned by Pointman’s, by pasting the following into your browser URL bar:
https://your-site-name.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=page
Thanks very much Pointman’s!
Creating new pages in the Classic Editor
There’s probably an old school way to do this, but for simplicity of instruction, I would recommend to create the new page in the current WordPress editor, give it a name, and save it. Then go to the instruction above to get your list of pages and edit it with the Classic Editor.
For those of you not wanting to post blank pages or partially completed pages as you write, write the content in a word processor first, then copy and paste the moment you go to edit and fix up a few things to minimize the page’s live time with nothing on it. If you can figure out the URL for how to edit Page drafts in the Classic Editor, then you can always save your new page as a draft to start with and edit it until done before publishing. However, I don’t know that link.
Digital Citizen 
[…] Looking online for ways to get back to the Classic Editor, all I found was crap, unfortunately. If there were a good answer out there, it certainly didn’t rise to the top of my Google searches. All kinds of bad advice about converting every freaking block to a Classic Block, each time with a prompt to dissuade you from using it, if not by narrative then by annoyance! Some suggested changing a theme like your image and identify wasn’t worth anything, and I’m not convinced it worked! It was all crap! {How to Enable (Get Back) the Classic Editor in WordPress.com} […]
Messing with the code I found a faster way. Bookmark this url to create a new post with the classic editor:
https://whateveryourblogidis.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?action=edit&classic-editor
Cheers!
Oooh! Even better! Thanks for sharing! I’ll update my post later and link it back to yours for credit!
My pleasure!
Will do soon. Been a bit swamped. Sorry. You’ll see the link in your WP dashboard or notifications when it’s done. Thanks!
I finally did it and linked your blog to every time I mentioned your name. Thanks so much again!
You are welcome! Thank you!
Yours was the best solution. Many thanks for sharing this, Suso SM! Saved me lots of time and needless stress.
Please please help! I’d love to be able to edit an old post in the Classic Editor. I have saved the admin page in my favourites bar a long time ago, and knew about the classic editor option when I opened the All Posts submenu. Unfortunately now when I click on All Posts it shows a new format and the different edit options are no longer available 😦
Anyone got any suggestions as to how to edit an old post in the Classic Editor?
Thanks so much
Alison
Hi Alison, try pasting the following into your browser
https://yourblogname.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php
Where “yourblogname” is what WP considers the account name for that blog (not the whole account if you have more than one blog with one account). I manage another blog where clicking never lets me get to said page, but pasting the URL does. There, below posts, should be a choice for “Classic Editor”. Hopefully my experience still holds true for your blog. Tech is always changing so it’s hard to say. Good luck!
Yes! It works. Thank you so much. I hope they keep supporting the Classic Editor.
I’ve tried with the Block, I really have, and I just don’t like it.
Thanks for your help.
Glad to hear that worked for you as well! I edited my post that didn’t cover this because it didn’t have to at the time! I hear you about that Classic Editor support “forever”. I can’t stand the Block and would block it if I could like on social media! 🙂
Minh
Lol yes me too!
WP dropped the bomb today and nuked the Classic Editor option. $300/year to get it back is extortion.
Suso SM’s solution works. Kudos.
Yes! They’ve been turning it over sets of blogs at a time, it seems, rather than everyone all at once. Some old links like the Stats page I can’t seem to duplicate, but I can still get the All posts page like of old and link to the Classic Editor, and create new posts Classic Editor style (or just create new post, save with title, go to old style All Posts page and choose Classic Editor option underneath post there). But that $300 to get it back is definitely extortion!
I had downloaded the plugin a few months ago and everything was cool until today. They’ve removed the Classic Editor option button completely and no plugins allowed, period.
The All Posts page jumped back to Classic view earlier, but reset to Gutenbleagh view shortly after. They must be messing with it after it went live.
I’m just doing this on a browser the old fashioned way on a PC. No app or plugin. I hope you can find some ways around your situation.
Any chance you have the link to see Pages in classic editor?
Unfortunately, I don’t. I don’t know if there is as I can’t get the old Stats page back via URL patterns and such, but that’s the only “hack” I know. I’m not a real expert at this stuff. Maybe someone else reading will know. Sorry. 😦
After a little hacking, AKA informed guessing, I found this way to display the list of pages in the classic form, which both you and I were looking for. Paste the following into your URL box –
https://YOURSITENAME.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=page
But
Replace YOURSITENAME with your blog name before hitting enter. eg thepointman
Bookmark the result and use it from then on rather than the WP link. I’m still fiddling with trying to guess the classic URL for the stats page. The new one is a complete mess.
Pointman
Thank you VERY MUCH!!!
I’ve updated the post to include your advice and give you credit for it. Thank you!
A hack I worked out to get back to the classic widgets page. I make a lot of use of HTML custom widgets on the RHS column of my blog and the new editor simply stops most of what I want to do. Same procedure as before.
In the URL box paste – https://YOURSITENAME.wordpress.com/wp-admin/widgets.php
But
Replace YOURSITENAME with your blog name before hitting enter. eg thepointman
I’m afraid they’re determined to monetise their unpaid content creators by slowly forcing us to pay to get back to using a decent editing system. That being the case, they’ll soon close down these hacks, so our choices come down to :-
a) Get used to block editing …
b) Pay them for your hitherto free site to get back the old editor via a plugin, which they’ll also sell you. You can’t add plugins to a free site.
c) Move to another hosting firm. They don’t don’t make migration easy BTW. Far from it.
d) Self-host. WordPress software is open source (free), as is Linux, Apache and PHP. A big technical mountain to climb for most content creators, but it’s barely a half-day’s work for even an amateur bit twiddle. If you know someone who likes playing with computers, tell them you want a LAMP server stack with WordPress installed on it. It makes you totally free of being slowly pressured into paying them for supplying free content they can sell advertising off the back of. If you’ve concerns about being deplatformed or censored, it’s the only solution.
As I said, it’s only a matter of time …
Pointman
Yes, and thank you for this! I will update my post in the next couple of days to add this bit as well. If they really block out everything, I may call it a day on WordPress to leave this blog where it is then and move on to a platform where I can embed JavaScript to do data visualization dashboards and podcasts, among other features. We shall see.
If it’s any help, how to recover the classic version of the comments management page. Paste the following into your URL box –
https://YOURSITENAME.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php
But
Replace YOURSITENAME with your blog name before hitting enter. eg thepointman
Pointman
ps. Anybody found a way to switch from Visual to Text in the new playskool page editor?
Thanks. I don’t edit comments myself, including my own. 🙂
I don’t either. The new layout is just plain wasteful of screen territory.
Pointman
Pure awesome. By accident I discovered that one just yesterday, and it works. Here’s another that takes you directly into your drafts file in Classic mode:
https://whateveryourblogIDis.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_status=draft&post_type=post
There IS a way to view comments for searching/editing, deleting spam & trash in bulk (not page-by-page) in Classic mode. I did it accidentally but was too dense to write down the procedure before I tried to replicate it. I’ll post it here if I figure it out.
I guess I should have read the resto fo Pontman’s comments. He beat me to that one, too. 😀
Thank you so much!
NO! Thank you and Pointman!
The discussion settings page has disappeared! This is getting ridiculous.
Pointman
Oh, booooo….
AAAAND there goes the widget editor, along with all my widgets and presets. Each time I try to repair and save the changes, WP resets everything to default.
This might be old news, but so what. https://wptavern.com/classic-widgets-plugin-disables-wordpress-5-8s-upcoming-block-based-widgets-system
Thanks for letting me and others know. I haven’t messed with my widgets of late but I had set up a few new blogs since June after this article, and had noticed no difference. Maybe it’s not global?
I found out that the “new and improved” WorpDress no longer supports the classic “Kubrik” theme that I’ve used for decades, and most of the customizable features, including widgets, were either farked up or they disappeared completely. I tested a different theme and most of the functions and widget capabilities came back; I’m still tweaking it. There are format glitches, but at least it’s usable.
Wow. Sorry to hear. I hope they won’t do that to my site, although I tend to be opportunistic about disruptions in my life. Good luck with things staying in tact for you!
It’s funny, when Gutenberg first launched in 2020, while it was an odd play to offer “blocks” as a feature, the editor worked mostly fine. In recent months, Gutenberg has gotten much, much slower and more complicated. For example, typing into a block in the middle of an article can see the characters lag between 3-10 seconds behind typing them. It’s incredibly slow. This was never an issue with Calypso.
The Classic block (i.e., Calypso) doesn’t see this problem. This lagging issue only occurs with the Gutenberg paragraph block. It’s not as pronounced on the bottom-most block when adding new content to the article. However, editing blocks in the middle of an article is a horrendous blogging experience.
The real problem is that the Gutenberg team seemed intent on solving a problem that didn’t exist. Calypso (the previous editor) worked perfectly fine and eventually became a great experience. Calypso started out a little rough in the beginning, but smoothed out and became quite speedy. Unfortunately, in the year since Gutenberg’s release, Gutenberg has not been anywhere near as lucky as Calypso. In fact, Gutenberg’s launch time is still 5-10 times longer than Calypso. Waiting a minute or two for the editor to appear is frustrating. Meaning, with Calypso, you can be in the article editing in a few seconds while you’re still waiting for Gutenberg to finally load.
It’s long past time for the WordPress team to give up on Gutenberg. Gutenberg is not getting better or faster. If anything, Gutenberg is now worse than ever. Gutenberg has now become so bad, I’ve been forced to move back to using the Classic block / Calypso to blog. There are times where Gutenberg’s blocks even get cursor confused. I’ll click on one block and the cursor will jump to some other random block when I begin typing. Sometimes Gutenberg won’t even place the cursor into the block and chooses to highlight the whole block instead… preventing editing at all. It’s frustrating and laughable all at the same time. I mean, how can a group like WordPress get an editor so wrong? It’s a text editor. It’s just not that hard.