Raw shortcode text appearing on a WordPress homepage often means the shortcode handler no longer exists. In one support case, a site began displaying shortcode markup directly on the homepage after recent site changes, making it look as though PHP or page-builder updates had broken the layout.
The investigation showed that the homepage depended on a shortcode provided by a legacy WPBakery add-on called Marvelous Hover. That plugin was no longer installed, and available BlogVault backups did not show evidence that it had been present recently. Rather than trying to restore an unsupported plugin, the developer recreated the shortcode behavior in the theme so the intended content rendered correctly again.
Issue background
A WordPress homepage began displaying raw code-like text after recent site maintenance. The report initially suggested that PHP updates may have caused the issue.
The site also had a recent WPBakery Page Builder update, so page-builder compatibility was another reasonable possibility to investigate.
The visible problem was not a PHP fatal error. Instead, WordPress was printing a shortcode directly into the page because no active code was registered to process it.
Diagnosis
The developer inspected the homepage content and identified an intended shortcode that was being rendered as plain text.
The next step was to determine where that shortcode was supposed to come from.
Legacy documentation showed that the shortcode belonged to a WPBakery add-on named Marvelous Hover.
However, the plugin was missing from the site.
The developer then reviewed available BlogVault backups going back to late July and did not find evidence that Marvelous Hover had been installed during that period.
That meant the team could not confirm when the plugin disappeared or whether it had been removed by the recent maintenance work.
Likewise, the reported server/PHP changes were not visible in the BlogVault activity history, so those changes could not be verified as the cause.
The confirmed technical issue was narrower: the page still contained a shortcode, but the code that defined that shortcode was no longer available.
Resolution steps
The documented fix was:
- Inspect the homepage output. The developer confirmed that the visible text was an unprocessed shortcode rather than a PHP error message.
- Identify the shortcode source. Legacy documentation connected the shortcode to the Marvelous Hover WPBakery add-on.
- Check whether the plugin was still installed. Marvelous Hover was not present on the site.
- Review recent backups. The developer checked BlogVault snapshots going back to late July but did not find the plugin there either.
- Avoid relying on an unavailable legacy plugin. Because the plugin could not be restored confidently and did not appear to have current support, the developer did not make the site dependent on it again.
- Recreate the shortcode behavior in the theme. The missing shortcode was manually implemented in the site theme so the existing homepage content could be processed again.
- Verify the homepage rendering. After the shortcode was restored, the intended content displayed instead of raw shortcode text.
- Leave room for future design changes. The client was told that the recreated output could be modified later if they wanted the section changed.
The source task does not document restoring the Marvelous Hover plugin itself, rolling back WPBakery, or reversing PHP changes. The completed fix was the recreation of the missing shortcode in the theme.
Final outcome
The homepage was restored by recreating the missing Marvelous Hover shortcode logic directly in the theme.
This allowed WordPress to process the existing shortcode again and display the intended content instead of printing the shortcode as plain text.
The available evidence did not establish that a PHP update or WPBakery update removed the shortcode handler, and recent BlogVault backups did not show the Marvelous Hover plugin installed. For that reason, the resolution focused on the confirmed missing dependency rather than attributing the issue to an unverified update.
The broader lesson is that raw shortcodes usually indicate a missing or disabled shortcode provider. Before rolling back WordPress, PHP, or a page builder, identify which plugin or theme code originally registered the shortcode and decide whether that dependency should be restored, replaced, or recreated.
If your WordPress site starts displaying shortcode text after an update or migration, contact Freshy. Our WordPress team can trace the missing shortcode handler and restore the intended output without relying on unnecessary rollbacks.
