WordPress Upgrade To 6.6.0 Adds Unwanted Underlines To All Anchors – Help Center

We're receiving reports that clients are seeing underlines on all links throughout their WordPress website. The culprit appears to be the upgrade to WordPress 6.6.0 coupled with the popular Divi theme (or Divi theme builder) from ElegantThemes.

This is the offending line in your WordPress 6.6.0 CSS:

:root :where(a:where(:not(.wp-element-button))) { text-decoration: underline; }

There are a couple of workarounds available, but the easiest is to downgrade to WordPress 6.5.5 until the WordPress Core developer release a fix in version 6.6.1.

UPDATE: Divi Fixed This In Version 4.27

UPDATE: Divi fixed this in version 4.27:

version 4.27 ( updated 07-17-2024 )

- Fixed all links having underlines coming from new styles released in WordPress 6.6.

If you are unable to upgrade Divi due to licensing or technical issues, our managed WordPress hosting plans include access to our Divi license to keep your website up-to-date and secure. Reach out to support for more details.

If you're not using Divi or you're still having trouble, try one of the solutions below. But, for most people, upgrading WordPress to 6.6.1 and Divi to 4.27 should fix the problem.

Upgrading Themes and Plugins Won't Fix This

Note that upgrading Divi to the latest version does not fix the problem (even if you're several versions behind). Your plugins are probably not the problem, so don't bother trying to deactivate each one to figure out if there's a conflict.

Restoring the website from a backup only works if the restore includes the wp-admin and wp-include folders in addition to your wp-content folder. Some backup plugins only restore your wp-content folder and database, which won't work because you need to revert the wp-admin and wp-include folders too.

The best, fastest option is to downgrade WordPress to 6.5.5

Install the WP Downgrade | Specific Core Version plugin (free) by Reisetiger from the WordPress repository. Don't worry that it hasn't been updated in a year. It's a very simple process, so regular updates are not necessary.
Activate the plugin and go to Settings > WP Downgrade
If you don't know the version you were on before the upgrade to 6.6.0, use 6.5.5 (the direct previous version).

Sources:

We'll update this help article as we receive more information. Reach out to support if you need help.

Related to

UPDATE: Divi Fixed This In Version 4.27

Upgrading Themes and Plugins Won't Fix This

The best, fastest option is to downgrade WordPress to 6.5.5

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