Footnotes disappear on edit
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Hello, I’m delighted that you have added Footnotes. However, there seems to be an instability problem with it. I’ve inserted 18 footnotes into my article and that was straightforward. However, when I insert further edits into the main article – new boxes or simple spacing or extra words etc – the footnotes completely disappear from the bottom of the article to be replaced by a box that says ‘Your footnotes will go here’ or some similar message. I can reverse the edits to get them back but once the footnotes are in it will not allow further editing of the main text. If I save the work with the message box the footnotes are gone forever. Can someone investigate please as this appears to be a bug?.
WP.com: Yes
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I think that I have solved my problem. If I create a ‘Footnotes’ block first at the end of my work and then go back and insert each footnote’s individual number within the main text then this seems to solve the instability problem. This is instead of inserting the footnotes first into the main text and then hoping that they appear in a block at the end of the work. I’m not sure if this is what WP intended or if my solution is just a ‘work around’ the problem but at least my footnotes have stopped disappearing when I add later edits to the main text so it will do for me.
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I have the same problem, even when trying your workaround. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.
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Noticed something similar on zawieruszony.blog. About 15 footnotes disappeared just when I left and got back to block editor. Not nice, another 2 hours wasted trying to restore it. If I won’t be able, there will be 2 hours wasted on adding this beforehand.
Just about in time I’m wondering whether to stay here on WordPress.com with subscrpition or move on to something new.
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Sorry, my ‘work around’ doesn’t work. I went back to my article and the ‘footnotes’ block at the end containing my 18 footnote entries had cleared itself again. I’m going back to the old method of including footnotes as clearly the new footnotes ‘improvement’ is unstable. WP please sort this issue as it is an annoying waste of time.
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Hello everyone!
Thank you for sharing your experiences with the new Footnotes block. There is a known issue that sounds very similar to your experiences, and I wonder if these are related: https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/issues/79384.
In the reported issue, the problem is directly related to the footnotes being added in a nested block, is it possible that when you see this same problem, the footnotes are being referenced from a nested block?
If so, the good news is our team is aware of the problem, and it will be fixed in WordPress 6.3. If not, please provide any additional information you can here so we can investigate further and ensure the team is aware of any additional issues with the Footnotes block so we can get those fixed!
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you!
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Thanks for your reply.
The problem is similar to your example but not identical. Everything seems to work perfectly in the new WP Footnotes at first appearance – numbers add to text, footnotes appear in formatted/nested block, typed notes are accepted against each number in that block, movement between typed numbers in the main text and new footnotes in the nested box is fine, saved work with footnotes appears in the preview screen and later in the published screen versions BUT all footnotes completely disappear after going back for further editing of the main text or when simply doing nothing but saving and switching off between separate editing sessions, leaving the nested box/block showing empty again when I return and reopen the work, but with the footnote numbers still appearing in the main text above it. That may well suggest that the problem is within the nested box/block as you suggest – I don’t know – but, whatever it is, it doesn’t work as it should.
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@davidlewispogson, thank you for letting us know! I tested this and was able to duplicate the problem regardless of whether the footnotes were nested.
I’m filing a new bug report here:
https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/issues/79864Thank you!
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Alright, friends, this is resolved.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to restore notes from revisions in my testing. I had best luck just pasting over my paragraphs with plain text in my test, then re-adding the footnotes.
But they have spotted the cause and fixed it, so notes will work going forward. I hope this helps! Thank you again for the clear report!
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Thanks for the update and for resolving the bug so quickly. I look forward to trouble-free use from now on subject to me testing it first. If you don’t hear from me then you can assume that all is well.
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What a timely thread! I’ve retyped my disappearing footnotes, and they no longer evaporate. Thank you, davidlewispogson, for bringing this up, and thank you, staff-dragon and supernova and WordPress, for responding so quickly with a fix.
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Well done Supernovia. I’ve run a quick test and it seems to work fine now. Thanks for your efforts.
A happy customer.
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As of today, August 19, 2023, the problem with the disappearing footnotes is still there. I just wasted hours of work on footnotes in a few articles only to see them gone.
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All I can say is that the last time I tried it (28/7/2023), following WP’s assurance that it was fixed, it worked for me. Best to wait for Supernovia at WP to comment further if it is no longer working.
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@sathirdance
I understand your frustration with this issue, but we’d be happy to look into this for you. Can you please provide the URL of the page where you added the footnotes that disappeared?
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I just encountered this problem today (Aug 19th) This is the link to the unpublished page: https://wordpress.com/post/mexicoministry.org/81 It says the footnote block has “encountered an error and cannot be previewed.”
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Thank you for your response. This is the link of one article I unpublished because of the missing notes. I was also unable to make anymore to the post. The only option was to unpublish the post and make a new one.
https://sathirdance.wordpress.com/?p=9736&preview=true#10df2d66-ef16-4a14-b9ed-2cf3a56ed7d4
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Hi @mmsgpageadmin and @sathirdance thank you for those details. I’ve checked both of your footnotes sections and see that they are empty at the moment. When did you notice that the content went missing? As soon as it was added and you next returned to edit them? Or were they there for a while but disappeared suddenly?
Also do you have any other posts or pages on your site that do have footnotes still? Or is this an issue with any footnotes on your site? I’ve been trying to replicate this issue on my test site but I’ve yet to have footnotes disappear. Thanks for the additional info!
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Hi,
When did you notice that the content went missing? As soon as it was added and you next returned to edit them? Or were they there for a while but disappeared suddenly?
In the case of older content to which I’ve added footnotes, the notes disappear once I’ve finished adding them and go through the post to review. An error message appears, indicating that the block can no longer be used. However, the footnote numbers within the text continue to be visible. Furthermore, I’m unable to make any further edits to the text since I’m unable to save or update it. I have to unpublish it and make a new post.
Also do you have any other posts or pages on your site that do have footnotes still? Or is this an issue with any footnotes on your site?
I currently have posts that still retain their footnotes. I added footnotes to more than 20 articles; however, I’m regretting that choice now.
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