Ghost Release: 5.12.4

TL;DR

Ghost v5.12.4 is a hotfix release that addresses a critical bug where paid email previews stopped working in emails. The issue was caused by recently introduced email sanitization that removed HTML comments from post HTML, breaking both the paid preview functionality and Outlook conditional comments. This release reverts those changes to restore proper email functionality.

Highlight of the Release

• Fixed critical bug with paid email previews
• Restored support for HTML comments in emails
• Fixed compatibility with Outlook email clients

Migration Guide

No migration steps are required for this release. The fix is automatically applied when upgrading to v5.12.4.

Upgrade Recommendations

This release is highly recommended for all Ghost users who utilize the paid newsletter functionality. The bug fix addresses a critical issue with paid email previews and ensures proper email rendering in Outlook clients.

To upgrade:

• For self-hosted Ghost installations, use the Ghost-CLI to update to v5.12.4
• Ghost(Pro) users will be automatically updated to the latest version

Bug Fixes

Email Preview Bug Fix

This release fixes a critical bug where paid email previews stopped working in emails. The issue was caused by recently introduced email sanitization that removed HTML comments from post HTML, which had two major consequences:

1. The <!--members-only--> HTML comment was being stripped, breaking the paid content preview functionality in emails
2. Outlook conditional comments like <!--[if !mso !vml]--> were being removed, affecting email rendering in Outlook clients

The fix reverts the email sanitization changes to restore proper functionality for both paid email previews and Outlook email compatibility.

New Features

No new features were introduced in this release. This is a bugfix release focused on restoring email functionality.

Security Updates

No security fixes were included in this release.

Performance Improvements

No specific performance improvements were included in this release.

Impact Summary

This release addresses a critical bug that affected paid email previews and email rendering in Outlook clients. By reverting the email sanitization that was stripping HTML comments, Ghost has restored the functionality of paid email previews that depend on the <!--members-only--> comment tag. This fix is particularly important for publishers who rely on paid newsletters as part of their business model, ensuring they can properly preview and send emails with paid content sections. The fix also restores compatibility with Outlook email clients by preserving conditional comments used for proper rendering.

Full Release Notes