Ghost Release: 5.40.1

TL;DR

Ghost v5.40.1 is a bug fix release that addresses a critical issue with member newsletter subscriptions not saving properly in the Admin interface. This patch fixes a regression where members who were previously not subscribed to any newsletters couldn't be added to newsletters due to a conflict with deprecated subscription properties.

Highlight of the Release

• Fixed critical bug preventing member newsletter subscriptions from being saved in Admin
• Resolved issue where previously unsubscribed members couldn't be added to newsletters
• Corrected handling of deprecated subscription properties to prevent conflicts with new newsletter data

Migration Guide

No migration steps are required for this patch release. The fix is applied automatically when updating to v5.40.1.

Upgrade Recommendations

This update is highly recommended for all Ghost installations that use the newsletter feature, especially for sites where admins need to manage member newsletter subscriptions.

The bug fix addresses a critical issue that prevented adding members to newsletters in certain scenarios, which could impact your content distribution and audience engagement.

As this is a patch release with minimal changes, the upgrade process should be straightforward with no breaking changes.

Bug Fixes

Newsletter Subscription Fix

Fixed a critical issue where member newsletter subscriptions were not being saved correctly in the Admin interface. The bug was caused by an oversight in handling the deprecated subscribed property on member data:

• Previously, when a member had subscribed: false set (a deprecated property), it would override any new newsletter subscription attempts
• This particularly affected members who were not previously subscribed to any newsletters
• The issue occurred because a necessary check for the existence of the newsletters property was accidentally removed in a previous bug fix
• Now, the system properly handles both the new newsletters data structure and the legacy subscribed property, ensuring subscriptions are saved correctly

This fix resolves Team issue #2783 and ensures that admins can successfully manage newsletter subscriptions for all members.

New Features

No new features were introduced in this patch release. This is a focused bug fix update addressing a specific issue with member newsletter subscriptions.

Security Updates

No security fixes were included in this patch release. The focus was on fixing the newsletter subscription bug.

Performance Improvements

No specific performance improvements were included in this patch release. The focus was on fixing the newsletter subscription bug.

Impact Summary

This patch release fixes a significant bug in Ghost's newsletter subscription system that prevented admins from adding certain members to newsletters. The issue specifically affected members who were not previously subscribed to any newsletters, as their deprecated subscribed: false property would override any new newsletter subscription attempts.

The fix ensures that newsletter subscriptions are properly saved for all members, regardless of their previous subscription status. This is particularly important for Ghost publications that rely on newsletters for audience engagement and content distribution.

While this is a small patch in terms of code changes, it resolves a critical functional issue that could have significant impact on a publication's ability to reach its audience effectively.

Full Release Notes