“MORE”-THE [WORDPRESS BLOCK]-

-as of [17 DECEMBER 2025]-

-WORDPRESS PROFILE LINK-

-[content] before this [block] will be shown in this [excerpt]-

*CATEGORY* —>

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*SYMBOL* —>

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*[BLOCK INSERTION] EDITOR SCREENSHOT* —>

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*CONTROLS* —>

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You said:

if i insert a “more” block into a post, it leads to a critical error on site when i try loading the post even after deleting the “more block”. subsequent attempts to save changes after deleting the block will give me an “update failed” bar.

ChatGPT said:

Thought for 17s

That behavior (front-end “critical error” right after inserting More, then “Update failed” even after deleting it) almost always means the More marker is triggering a PHP fatal in your theme/plugin stack, and the editor can’t reliably talk to WordPress to save (often a REST API / JSON response issue).

Here’s the fastest, lowest-risk way to get unstuck and isolate the cause.

1) Get the site out of “critical error” mode (so you can work)

Check your admin email for the WordPress “There has been a critical error…” message and use the Recovery Mode link if it exists (WordPress includes this for fatals).
If you can’t reach wp-admin reliably, temporarily disable plugins:
- In your host file manager / FTP: rename wp-content/plugins → plugins.off
- Reload the post on the front end.
If it still errors with plugins off: temporarily switch themes by renaming the active theme folder (WordPress will fall back to a default theme if present).

This tells you immediately whether it’s a plugin or theme fatal.

2) Remove all More markers from that post at the source

Even if you “deleted the More block,” it can leave behind markers in the raw content.

Edit the post → menu (⋯) → Code editor
Search for and remove any of these (all of them):
- 
-  … 
Update again.

If updating still fails, don’t assume the More marker is still there—the editor may simply be unable to save.

3) Fix the “Update failed” (Block Editor can’t save)

When WordPress shows “Updating failed”, a very common root cause is the Block Editor failing to reach the site’s REST API, leading to “not a valid JSON response.” Site Health will usually flag this.

Do these in order:

Tools → Site Health → Status
- Look for REST API or Loopback request errors.
Settings → Permalinks → Save Changes (no changes needed)
This often clears rewrite / REST routing weirdness.
Temporarily disable anything that can block REST requests:
- security/firewall plugins, “hardening” plugins
- Cloudflare/WAF rules, Basic Auth, maintenance mode, coming-soon plugins
Try disabling browser extensions that inject into editors (notably Grammarly has caused editor issues for some users).

4) If the More block specifically triggers the fatal: find the conflicting component

Once the site loads again (Step 1), re-enable plugins half at a time until inserting More breaks it again.

Common culprits:

Plugins that filter the_content aggressively (shortcode builders, “read more” customization plugins, optimization/minify that rewrites HTML, etc.)
Having the Gutenberg plugin installed alongside core block editor can cause nasty version-mismatch issues; testing with it disabled is a good idea.

5) Get the exact fatal error (so it’s not guesswork)

Turn on logging briefly:

In wp-config.php:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);

Then reproduce the error once and check:

wp-content/debug.log

The line that names the plugin/theme file causing the fatal is the “smoking gun.”

If you tell me your WordPress version, theme name, and any key plugins (especially security/cache/content-builder), I can help you interpret the debug.log line and suggest the specific setting/plugin that usually breaks on .

Use the More block to shorten your blog entries so that only the first part of a post is displayed.

This guide will show you how to use the More block to display just a portion of the post followed by a “read more” link.

In this guide

About The More Block

The More block can be used to keep your blog posts concise. It displays only the initial part of your post content in places where an excerpt is more appropriate than the full post content. This can include the homepage, archive pages, and subscriber emails.

This is an example of what the More block could look like after you have customized it and published the post. The final design will depend on your site’s theme:

An example of what the More block looks like on an archive page.
If your theme is built to display the post’s full content on archive pages, then the More block will insert a “Read more” link below the text. If your theme is built to display excerpts on archive pages, the More block will be ignored. If you use a classic theme that supports Content Options for Blog Display, be sure to choose “Full post” if you’d like to add the “read more” option to posts manually.

Add the More Block
To add the More block, click on the + Block Inserter icon and search for “more”. Click it to add the block to the post.

💡

Using your keyboard, you can also type /more on a new line and press enter to quickly add a new More block.

Type /more on a new line, then press Enter on your keyboard to quickly add the More block.
Using the / inserter to quickly add the More block
For more information, visit our detailed instructions on adding blocks.

When you add the More block, a link is placed directly after the text above the block, pointing the reader to the full post. You can put this link anywhere in the text and customize it to say whatever you want.

To change the “read more” text to something else (like “Continue reading” for example), click into the text area and type to customize the wording:

Click and type within the text area to customize the wording of the More block.
More Block Toolbar
When you click on the block, a toolbar of options will appear above or below it:

More block toolbar.
The More block has the following options in its toolbar:

Change block type.
Drag the block.
Move the block up or down.
More options.
More Block Settings
When you select a block, you will find additional block settings in the right sidebar. If you do not see the sidebar, you may need to click the Settings icon in the top-right corner to bring up the settings. This icon looks like a square with two uneven columns:

An arrow pointing to the “Settings” icon in the top right of the WordPress Editor.
Click the Settings icon to open the block settings
When you toggle on the option to “Hide the excerpt on the full content page“, all the text that’s above the More block in your post will not appear once the reader clicks the “Read more” link to view the full post.

Toggle the option to ” Hide the excerpt on the full content page” within the More block settings.
Add the More Tag in the Classic Editor
If you’re using the classic editor, the equivalent of the More block is the More tag. You can add a More Tag anywhere in your post so that only the first part of the post is displayed on the homepage, archive pages, and in subscriber emails.

When you do this, a link will be placed directly after your excerpt, pointing the reader to the full post.

You can add the More Tag following the instructions below:

Create a new post and add content to it as needed.
Point your cursor to the spot in the post where you want the More Tag to appear.
In your toolbar, click on the “Insert Read More tag” button. You can find the “Insert Read More tag” button in the first row. Once you click it, the split will appear in your post:
Add the More Tag in the classic editor.
Customize the More Tag
To customize the text that shows after you’ve inserted the More Tag, follow the instructions below:

Click on the Text tab in the upper right corner of the post editing area to open the HTML Editor.

Look for

4-5 minutes 11/30/2018

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