Block Widgets: Widget disappearance and Visibility issues
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Howdy!
I’m running into some odd issues with Block Widgets on the Hever theme. I’m currently using FF 93.0 (64-bit) on Win10Pro PC
First: when I added a widget in WP Admin widgets.php and updated the footer and then moved to Widgets in the Customizer, the widget I added in WP Admin did not appear there. The Customizer>Widgets section was empty.
Secondly, after successfully adding a block widget, I added visibility settings to it in the Customizer (after much trial and error), but these settings did not work as expected or changed unexpectedly:
- If I define visibility as Hide if Page is Contact, for example, the widget will still sometimes appear even if I hard refresh the browser window. It is not consistent.
- If I define visibility as “Hide this block” and save my changes, I come back later and find that this setting has flipped to “Show this block.”
It’s a bit maddening, to say the least, and I’m not sure what the solution is. I can certainly try again with a different browser (likely Brave or Edge) but only when I’m back at the computer late tomorrow.
Thanks for any suggestions and advice.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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The Customizer>Widgets section was empty.
Oof. Let’s see if we can figure this out.
On this, were the widgets gone altogether? Did you need to add each of them back, or did they reappear after some finagling?
I’ll be trying to figure this out on a test site, too.
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Just gone. I had to recreate and re-add the widget and I believe I did that from within the Customizer, but don’t hold me to it.
On the visibility issue, I don’t wonder if “Show this block” isn’t the default setting that just resets itself each time one opens the Customizer>Widgets. That’s what happened right before I posted above.
The problem is that this is a Schrödinger’s Cat issue because I can’t see that without opening the Visibility settings to check. If I were to work on something else in the Customizer and then Save my changes, would the reverted “show” setting take precedence? I don’t know.
Thanks for testing. I’ll check back tomorrow (my time).
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Thank you — I haven’t been able to reproduce the issue where widgets disappear, but I did see the visibility issue you’re talking about and am getting more eyes on that.
Would you happen to remember what types of widgets were previously on the site?
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Would you happen to remember what types of widgets were previously on the site?
In this case that’s easy. None. The widget I added originally to the footer before the single image block was a group comprising of a spacer, image, spacer and paragraph blocks.
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Oh wait, do you mean what widgets were there and then were moved to inactive when I changed theme to Hever?
That’s a long list of dead widgets that you can see at Inactive widgets at WP Admin>Appearance>Widgets Because of the changeover to Block widgets and how they display there, it’s honestly difficult to identify many of them other than the usual suspects.
If you mean something else, please let me know.
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Thank you. Would you mind if we toggle the workaround for this site for now so we can see those?
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On ablogdemo?
Yes, that’s fine, but please remove the workaround when this is resolved. 😊
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Thanks for confirming Jen! I’ve toggled the workaround so are you able to now see the inactive widgets here as expected?
You should be able to examine them as normal, as well as drag the back into an active widget area to reactivate.
Also this is something we’re still seeing here and there with older themes and the widget block editor, so we’re actively collecting reports and sharing those with ur devs, so if you spot this again let us know.
Stay awesome friend! :)
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Hey staff-totoro, thanks for that, but now I’m pretty confused.
ablogdemo is nothing more than a test site that I used to report the oddities I was running into while adding new Block Widgets and that happened to be while using the Hever theme on the site. (The block widget visibility issue is also happening on another site that I admin, also using Hever, but that is not an address I’d share publicly or wish to have any changes made to it.)
I understood that @supernovia was interested in seeing the inactive widgets on ablogdemo, as she said,
Would you mind if we toggle the workaround for this site for now so we can see those?
Thanks for any clarification.
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Sorry for the confusion. I read this thread a few times before taking any action, but apologies if missed what was intended here.
I’m able to see the inactive widgets on ablogdemo but you were getting help with your other site (not mentioned here) instead? I saw that @supernovia mentioned this:
On this, were the widgets gone altogether? Did you need to add each of them back, or did they reappear after some finagling?
Reading that more closely now I see you did not actually confirm that… the conversations appears to have moved into some other areas. To clarify, your concern is not with the missing widgets if you visit
/wp-admin/widgets.phpbut instead with the visibility settings of the widgets themselves? -
Hi again,
Possibly you were just OK-ing @supernovia to test something for our own reporting purposes but you did not have a need to toggle the widget workaround youself?
Thanks for clarifying my clarification of my earlier clarifying statement! I’m not being so clear!
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All the interaction concerned ablogdemo as I was testing these issues there.
Possibly you were just OK-ing @supernovia to test something for our own reporting purposes but you did not have a need to toggle the widget workaround youself?
Yup, that’s it and you’d have to clarify with her what her intent was, and thanks for the chuckle, too!
Hope that’s clear! ;)
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Thanks as well. OK I’ll leave your site as-is for now, so that @supernovia can complete her investigation. :)
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Thanks, Jerry. :)
@supernovia – now using the workaround on ablogdemo, the widgets both follow the visibility setting I created and also kept that setting. No change to that setting occurred when reopening the Customizer.I’ve uploaded screenshots to the media library on ablogdemo showing this.
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Thanks, I was hoping for a list of widgets that were active on the Hever site that lost widgets. The test site had quite a few inactive widgets including several that are defunct, so that doesn’t really narrow it down much. Still, I’ve made note of what was there.
Would you be okay if we apply the workaround to the real site?
Also to sum up where we’re at:
– Widgets become inactive on old themes: duplicated and filed
– Widgets might go inactive on Hever: not duplicated yet, but I think it’s related to the first issue
– Widget visibility with legacy widgets: inconsistent duplication
(edited for clarity!)
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OK, thinking about this more, I think we may have over-complicated this. For now, let’s assume the Hever issue is related to the bug with other themes. That’s being worked on; if it doesn’t resolve the problem in Hever, we’ll revisit that.
So one bug is being solved, and we’re gathering info on the visibility stuff. Thanks for the Github link on that!
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Would you be okay if we apply the workaround to the real site?
Since that is on a brand new site using Hever, I’m not sure what information this would give you? Since I am not the site owner, I would also need to consult with them about this (and of course have them post here if they agree). I prefer not to have them locked in to something that would eventually go away.
I can tell you that they currently have a FB Page Plugin widget (added recently) as well as a Widget Group Block, whose visibility setting kept changing, so I removed the visibility setting so it displays across the entire site in the footer.
I was hoping for a list of widgets that were active on the Hever site that lost widgets.
Would it help to know that when I opened the widget.php dashboard originally, there was nothing in the active widgets section before I added the same Widget Group and updated? When I then moved to the Customizer>Widget section, that Widget Group did not appear there at all.
Thanks for the update and sorry for any trouble. If you have the information you wanted from ablogdemo, would you please remove the workaround there? TIA :)
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Hi again,
Would it help to know that when I opened the widget.php dashboard originally, there was nothing in the active widgets section before I added the same Widget Group and updated? When I then moved to the Customizer>Widget section, that Widget Group did not appear there at all.
It does, yes. Currently we’re looking at that (a visit to widget.php) as being the action that causes the widgets to disappear. This has been tough for us to replicate though, which has made it difficult to investigate.
Thanks for the update and sorry for any trouble. If you have the information you wanted from ablogdemo, would you please remove the workaround there? TIA :)
No appologies from you, friend. We appreciate your help. I’ve set the test site back to the current widgets interface, and you’re good to go.
Thanks again!
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