Desktop site no longer facilitates editing
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Since the middle of last week I have been experiencing severe problems with the WordPress desktop site. If I attempt to edit a draft or published post, I am for the vast majority (say, more than 90%) of the time not able to type text in paragraph, quotation or other text blocks. No cursor appears. I can highlight text, but not type, cut, copy or paste. I can still move the blocks and resize image blocks.
This is the case in both Chrome and Edge. I have no problems with other websites in the same browsers on the same machine. The WordPress mobile site is working normally (though subject to its normal limitations and bugs).
Since the mobile site and apps’ own problems render them unusable for my purposes, I have essentially lost my blog with eight years of writing, plus a couple of years of draft writing.
Can anyone help solve the problem or advise how I might be able to migrate my content to another platform?
Help appreciated.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there, it might be a caching issue. Have you already tried logging out, clearing your browser cache and cookies, which will also log you out of other sites you may be logged into, and then shutting down and reopening your browser window and logging back in? https://wordpress.com/support/browser-issues/
If that doesn’t help, post back here with the exact browser and OS you are using.
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Thanks for your reply. I have tried that and the problem remains. I am using Edge 132.0.2903.70 (up to date) and Chrome 131.0.6778.86 (up to date) on Windows 10.0.19045.
The problem is the same in both browsers and across multiple blog posts. It seems it is possible to edit text for a few seconds before the problem occurs.
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Both browsers are build on Chromium. What if you use Firefox which uses the Gecko engine?
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Do you have any browser extensions or apps installed that deal with filtering content? I’m thinking of something Grammarly. If you do, can you try deactivating those?
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Thanks for the further replies.
I have tried Firefox (version 133.0, up to date), with a clean install and default settings, but the problem is the same. In any case, as I mentioned, the mobile site works fine on Edge for Mobile, which is also based on Chromium. (In that case am using Edge for Mobile version 131.0.2903.68 on a Pixel 6, running up-to-date Android 14.) So it does not appear that Chromium is the problem.
No browser extensions are installed. No filtering software is installed, except Bitdefender Total Security. I have tried temporarily switching off Bitdefender and that does not solve the problem.
I am not convinced the browser is the source of the problem.
I have also observed that I am able to edit the title of posts, though still not text or quotation blocks. As I said before, I can also edit image and gallery blocks.
So to recap briefly, the problem is common to the desktop site across multiple browsers, but is not present on the mobile site with browsers using the same engine. The problem affects all posts after a few seconds (though not initially). It only affects Paragraph and Quote blocks. Other aspects of the desktop site work normally.
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I see another user is apparently experiencing the same bug:
https://wordpress.com/forums/topic/unable-to-edit-published-posts/#post-4065579
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If you use the browser inspect tool, do you see any errors? If so, can you drop a screenshot here?
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I have run the browser inspect tool and there are a large number of errors. I will post the screenshots in additional replies below.
I have also noticed that the fault is actually triggered by using my laptop’s touchscreen to scroll. If I only use the touchpad, no fault occurs. It seems that using the touchscreen locks the page at the block selection level, and I am then unable to select the content within the block.
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I have tested the site on two different laptops (a Microsoft Surface Pro 6 running Windows 10 and a Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 running Windows 11). Both present the exact same problem. It does not seem, therefore, that the problem is related to the specific device or operating system.
I would be grateful for assistance on this, as it threatens the continuation of my site. Thanks.
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