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Hello! I’m hoping someone out there can help me out with this issue I’ve been scratching my head about for some time now.
At my place of employment we have a WordPress site on our intranet. Recently, while modifying some Custom widgets we had created a while back and populated with ‘custom menu’ elements, every single one of the ‘custom menu’ elements within the custom widgets magically jumped out and ended up in the ‘inactive’ section.
This was a huge issue, as that meant that all of the 170+ pages on our site were suddenly without sidebars.
I’ve understandably been tasked with figuring out why this happened so it doesn’t happen again. Also, I inherited this site, and as such, I can’t figure out why some of our widget areas have little ‘X’s on them, and some don’t. I know the ones I create have ‘X’s on them, but how did the other’s get there without ‘X’s?
Here is a link to a screenshot that might be helpful: http://www.jakerevans.com/menu-issue-image/
Wish I could grant access directly to the site, but it’s on our intranet.
Oh and also, the only widget areas whose menus did not jump out, were the ones with the ‘X’s.
Thanks a lot for any help!!!!
Hi Jakerevans,
I’m guessing that happened after a WordPress update? A few versions ago they changed the handling of Widgets for security reasons, that is most likely what caused your problem.
Thanks,
RikardHey Rickard, thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately no, as far as I can tell, it happened either right after I deleted and re-created one of the custom widget areas, or right after I modified the contents of an existing custom widget area… I actually don’t even have the ability to upgrade WordPress without coordinating downtime with our server guys.
Also, forgot to mention that this also happened on our Sandbox site (which is about a 90% exact copy of our production site) yesterday in the same manner. I created a new widget area, and next thing I knew, all of the menus had jumped out and over to the inactive section.
Also, the widget areas that don’t have ‘x’s on them… they seem as if they’re part of the theme by default, however these are definitely not widget areas that are included out-of-the-box with Enfold. For example, on my own site I use Enfold, and when I check it out right now, the only widget areas that do not have ‘x’s on them are Footer – Column 1, Footer – Column 2, Footer – Column 3, and Footer – Column 4, and from there on, any widget areas that I create have ‘x’s on them. However on our prod/sandbox sites, nearly all of them are without ‘x’s, as if they’ve been made a default part of Enfold.
Could you point me in the right direction for poking around in the code maybe?
Thanks
-Jake
Hi,
It sounds like there might be a plugin conflict, would you be able to deactivate all plugins to see if that is the case? If not then please send us a temporary admin login so that we can have a closer look. You can post the details in the Private Content section of your reply. If you have a step-by-step on how to reproduce the error that would help as well.
Thanks,
RikardSimilar things have happened to me. I notice when I change themes (ex: from Enfold parent to an Enfold child), the widgets in widget areas get shifted or thrown in the inactive area. This also happens when you modify the number of footer columns, so I think it’s an issue with how Enfold identifies the custom widget areas it creates.
@FindlyTalent
Can you provide us admin access, so we can have a look into it? Deactivate all plugins while testing and make sure to sue newest theme and WordPress version.Regards,
AndyThanks again for the replies! Unfortunately I can’t grant any kind of access, because it’s on our company INTRAnet. As far as plug-ins go, I haven’t deactivated them and tried again, however I’m a little skeptical, as we only have two or three plug-ins running, and they’re major, well-known and tested plugins. Will try it out though. Meanwhile, can anyone think of any other things that might be occurring??
I’m sorry I can’t grant that kind of permission either, we have almost 100 clients on our multisite. It’s easy enough to recreate, just create a site with maybe 3 footer columns, add something to each, then try lowering or increasing the number of columns in the Enfold setup and see if the widgets in the widget areas shift.
Hey!
@FindlyTalent: The footer column works OK if I change the footer columns number in the Footer Settings panel. If you decrease the number of the columns, the widgets of the last footer columns will be assigned temporarily to the inactive section and if you increase the footer column number, the widgets will go back to their assigned widget areas. Did you upgrade WP from a version older than 4.2? The register_sidebar function on version 4.2 requires an id so if you upgrade from version older than 4.2, you’ll encounter that issue: https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_sidebar
@Jakerevans: Did you upgrade WP from a version older than 4.2? Unfortunately, we won’t be able to fix or re-assign the custom widgets automatically, we’ve tried via database but failed. This is because of the updated register_sidebar function on version 4.2. You have to re-assign the widget manually to their respective widget areas. We are very sorry for the inconvenience.Cheers!
IsmaelOkay, thanks again everyone for all the replies!
So I can reliably re-create this issue: On our sandbox site, I currently have all of the widget areas empty. I drag a few custom menus into a few widget areas, navigate to a different page and come back to make sure that the custom menus stayed in their widgets (they did), and then I delete one of the custom widget areas I had created in the past. I click ‘OK’ on the prompt, and then the widget area gets deleted. I leave the widgets page, come back, and at that point, all of the custom menus have jumped out of their widget areas.
Recreating a custom widget area does not cause the menus to jump back in (Wasn’t hopeful it would, but thought I’d try).
I can add and modify as many widget areas as I want, but a soon as I delete just one of them, all the custom menus jump out.
On our sandbox site as of right now we’re running WordPress 4.3.1, and it was upgraded from the previous version as soon as 4.3.1 was available. On our production site we’re currently running 4.2.3.
@ismael: Based on the info I just provided above, are you saying that there’s no way to prevent this and/or make the menus jump back inside their correct widgets? I know you said that there’s no way to fix the widgets if I upgraded from a version older than 4.2, but we upgraded from the last available version.Any other thoughts/suggestions anyone? At the very least, we know exactly what not to do now.
Thanks!
-Jake
Hi!
I’m sorry but I think we are not on the same page and the issue that you’re describing is different than those previously reported. It will be difficult to help you since we can’t access the dashboard. I’m actually referring to the issue with the register_sidebar function starting WP 4.2 (https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_sidebar). If you are on version 3.9, 4.0, 4.1 or any version older than 4.2 then upgraded to the latest version 4.2, 4.3 etc. All widgets will be relocated in the inactive section because the custom widget areas you created before WP 4.2 don’t have ids by default and WP doesn’t know where to assign the widgets because it doesn’t recognize the custom widget areas. All you need to do is to assign the widgets back to their respective widget areas. If you’re wondering why the widget areas have no id, it is because WP versions older than 4.2 doesn’t require id in the register_sidebar function. However, the issue in your installation is quite different. If you can create a stage or test site, we’ll check it there.
https://kriesi.at/support/topic/sidebars-are-removed-or-shifted-after-update/#post-496735
https://kriesi.at/support/topic/custom-sidebar-blank/
https://kriesi.at/support/topic/error-when-creating-custom-widget/Cheers!
Ismael
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