These are the fixes we’ve shipped since Hotfix roundup: August 31–September 4, 2026.
Newspack
- On sites running Perfmatters with Newspack’s defaults, and occasionally on other sites, pages with an Iframe block reloaded the frame after opening, so readers had to press Back two or more times to leave. The frame now stops reloading once it has loaded, so an embed of live data refreshes only if the embedded page updates itself. (newspack-blocks@4.31.2)
- On sites with Lite Site turned on, text-only pages showed any post requested by its ID, including drafts, private posts, and password-protected posts. Those now show a not-found page and stay out of the listing. Lite pages also show the correct publish date and any custom byline, and CSS no longer appears as text. (newspack@6.49.5)
- On sites using WooCommerce Subscriptions, readers with a complimentary $0 subscription received a $0.00 receipt each time it renewed, even though they had never purchased it. Those subscriptions now renew without sending a receipt, and access continues as before. Subscriptions brought to $0 by a coupon still send their usual emails. (newspack@6.49.4)
- Pages with many Content Loop or Content Carousel blocks were slow to open and save in the editor, sometimes to the point of hanging; one save on a homepage with 28 blocks looked up 185 posts to show 62. The editor now looks up only the posts a page shows, and blocks without a More button load their posts faster. (newspack-blocks@4.31.1)
- On sites that sync reader data to an email service provider (ESP) with the Newsletter Selection field turned on, that field had not updated since Newspack 6.37.0 (April 2026). It now updates whenever a reader’s details sync, including after every newsletter change. A contact keeps the old value until it next syncs. (newspack@6.49.3)
- On sites showing Jetpack’s sharing buttons, bots crawling the buttons’ links—up to eight per article—added heavy load to the server. The links now appear only when a reader hovers over, taps, or clicks a button, and old links lead to the article itself, which can be served from cache. Sharing works as before. (newspack@6.49.3)
- On sites with a content gate that includes the Newsletter Subscription Form block, Insights counted registrations made through that gate as direct sign-ups. They are now credited to the gate. (newspack-newsletters@3.40.3, newspack@6.50.1)
Story Budget
- In Story Budget, contributors were able to create budgets and rename, archive, or reorder budgets created by anyone, including administrators. Creating and changing budgets is now limited to editors and administrators by default. Other Story Budget users can still see budgets and open their stories, but no longer have controls to change them. (newspack-story-budget@1.2.5)
Newspack Network
- On sites sharing content through Newspack Network, authors were able to pull any post, including other people’s drafts and private posts, and unlink or relink any post received from the network. Those actions now require permission to edit the post, which editors and administrators have. In Story Budget, Pull now shows authors a permission error on stories they can’t edit. (newspack-network@2.22.7)
Newspack Elections
- On sites running Newspack Elections with the classic Newspack theme, the editor offered no Template setting for election profiles, so their layout couldn’t be changed. Profiles can now use One column or One column wide. The choice takes effect with Newspack Elections v2.0.3 or later, which carries the matching fix. (newspack-theme@2.26.1)