Jetpack Update Causing Problems for WordPress 3.5 Users

The most recent update for the Jetpack stats plugin has caused numerous unexpected problems for web developers who have upgraded to WordPress 3.5. The update, version 2.1.1, disables the ability to add media, which is a key functionality for WordPress users.
When a WordPress 3.5 users click on the “Add Media” button in their admin panel after updating to JetPack 2.1.1, nothing happens. The button simply fails silently. Some users have found that the update also broke linking, but this is not something that has not been reported as often as the “Add Media” bug.
When the update was released, it took a while to figure out that the bug was with JetPack itself, rather than something else relating to WordPress. There have been several other issues with WordPress 3.5 and plugin updates – the Bulletproof Security plugin caused some issues for upgrading users, and the fix for that issue required people to FTP to their sites to remove a file, something that many WordPress users are not necessarily familiar or comfortable with. There have been a lot of complaints about these issues on the official WordPress forums.
The good news is that the Jetpack issue was easier to fix. Simply disabling Jetpack and re-installing WordPress 3.5 (which can be done simply through the site’s control panel) fixed the issue. If users want to be able to run plugins that require Jetpack, then a good workaround is to re-install Jetpack and enable it without linking it to WordPress.com.
The bugs have not been widely reported, yet, but the developers are working on a fix, and have a good track record for solving such issues so there should be a fix available soon. Users that are still running WordPress 3.4 should not encounter any issues.