Hello,
I know someone that asked me to help edit their Wordpress site that has Visual Composer. For some reason when I try to use layouts or add elements it is not working. I did some research and found that it could be a licensing issue. They hired someone to create the site and we are not sure about how Visual Composer was procured and that person is not getting back to us.
After looking at the add on, I do not see any licensing settings or options.
So, my question is if I was to uninstall the add-on and then buy a license and re-install, would anything on the site or pages break. What would be the recommended steps to get this up and running.
It depends on a few things
Bear in mind also that if the original dev bought the theme and/or plugin the. Neither you or the client will have any access to updates or bug fixes and there’s a good chance (depending how old the site is) that it may be out of date.
If it were me and they really want to kee hinges as they are then I’d probably get the client to purchase a new copy of the theme package (assuming it does actually come with VC bundled) and overwrote what’s there with a completey fresh and up to date version.
That all said I haven’t seen the site or any of what is going on with it so it is only assumed advice.
If you do not see any licensing option within the settings for Visual Composer, than it is most likely that VC came bundled with your theme, and the licensing section has been removed by the theme author. In that case, you can only obtain updates for VC through the theme author, whenever a theme update has been released.
The most current version for VC is v5.0.1, so check and compare that against the version that is currently installed on your site. If your VC version is older, particualrly if it is less than 4.12.x, you need to update VC first, especially if you are using WP 4.6.x or higher, as older VC versions are not fully compatible with those WP releases, which might explain your issues already.
If your VC really came bundled with your theme, it is also likely that the theme author modified VC, or at the very least, provided additional custom elements for VC, specific to the theme. If so, simply installing the standalone version of VC can cause issues, as it will be missing any modification done by the theme author, and/or custom theme elements might not work correctly.
So your first step should be to check your theme (if it has been purchased from Themeforest), to see if it is in fact bundling VC (reading the theme description on Themeforest should provide you with that information).
Thank you for the reply.
The WP version is 4.7
The VC version is 4.7.4
VC is listed as a plug in- not sure if it is normal to be listed in plug-ins if it is bundled
Theme is Stockholm Child and cannot (easily) tell where it was bought
No updates listed or the theme or VC.
We are waiting to hear from the person who set it up, but no luck so far.
Look like it might be Theme Forest. Since the previous person bought it, we probably do not have access to the updates, since they need to be updated by logging into account and downloading files.
Might need to start anew. Thanks for the help.
VC is out of date then, I think they updated the theme to work with the new version of the plugin too.
Your VC is heavily outdated and NOT compatible with your WordPress version anymore. Without updating VC, you won’t be able to use it anymore, unfortunately.
And even if VC came bundled with the theme, it will still be installed as normal plugin.
There is one theme name “Stockholm” on Themeforest …
… which does in fact include VC as bundled plugin. Chances are that this is the one you have installed.