Unable to add a new topic or question on the WordPress Forum when using Mac

  • Unknown's avatar
    meetvekaria · Member ·

    The Publish button is greyed out without any explanation or error alert shown. (See screenshot)

    THis only happens on both Safari Mac and Safari iOS.

    I am able to add questions through Windows.

    Please fix this urgently. Several other funcitonalities on wordpress also break on Safari on both MacBook as well as iPhone.

  • Unknown's avatar
    staartmees · Member ·

    Apparently, you didn’t enter a title, nor did you post a question. Pure logic, you can’t publish your thread.As you didn’t fill out

  • Unknown's avatar
    meetvekaria · Member ·

    Apparently you did not even consider to check the issue before posting unhelpful comment to the topic.

    • Ideally you should check the issue yourself to understand what the user is facing before replying.
    • If you cannot replicate the issue, you should say so and ask for more information.
    • If you do not have the platform to test this issue, ignore the topic and move on. It is not compulsory on this forum to reply to a topic even when you have nothing useful to contribute.
    • Have some empathy for the users on the forum. They are seeking help here. They do not seek the kind of condescending and ineffectual response provided by you.

    And just to help your lack of imagination in understanding the pure logic of this issue, attached a screenshot with values entered in the fields.

    Hope this helps.

  • csabarakasz · Staff ·

    Hi @meetvekaria,

    Thanks for the detailed report and your patience while this was reviewed. I’m sorry for the frustrating experience — not being able to type in modals or publish forum topics is definitely not how things should work.

    I’ve been looking into this on our end. We’re aware that macOS Tahoe introduced some changes to how Safari handles focus in web applications, and this has caused issues for some users with input fields in pop-up modals (like the ones you’re describing in the Theme Editor and here on the forums). However, I tested on Safari 26.4 on a Mac and things worked correctly for me, which means something specific to your setup is triggering this.

    To help us pinpoint the cause, could you help us gather some diagnostic information from Safari’s developer tools? Here’s how:

    Step 1 — Enable Developer Tools Go to Safari → Settings → Advanced and check “Show features for web developers”.

    Step 2 — Capture Console Errors

    1. Go to https://wordpress.com/forums/?new=1
    2. Press ⌘⌥C (Command + Option + C) to open the Web Inspector, then click the Console tab.
    3. Click the 🚫 (clear) button in the Console to start fresh.
    4. Now try filling in the forum topic form — enter a title and description, tick both checkboxes, and attempt to click Publish.
    5. Take a screenshot of everything that appears in the Console (especially any red or yellow messages).

    Step 3 — Check for Blocked Resources

    1. In the same Web Inspector window, click the Network tab.
    2. Reload the page (⌘R).
    3. Look for any entries that show (blocked), (canceled), or a status of 0.
    4. Take a screenshot of the full Network list.

    Step 4 — Share your Safari Privacy settings Please take a screenshot of each of these:

    • Safari → Settings → Privacy (we especially want to see whether “Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection” is set to “In Private Browsing” or “In all browsing”)
    • Safari → Settings → Security

    Step 5 — A couple more checks Could you also let us know:

    • Is Lockdown Mode enabled on your Mac? (You can check in System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll to the bottom)
    • Do you have any security or ad-blocking software installed? (e.g., Norton, AdGuard, Little Snitch, NextDNS, or any DNS-level filtering)
    • Does the same issue happen if you try Chrome or Firefox on this same Mac? (This would help us confirm whether it’s Safari-specific or a system-wide issue)

    The Console and Network screenshots are the most important pieces — they’ll show us exactly what’s being blocked or failing, and we can take it from there.

    Looking forward to your reply!

  • Unknown's avatar
    meetvekaria · Member ·

    Hey @csabarakasz

    Thanks for the detailed troubleshooting steps.

    Please find my findings:

    Step 1: Done. Already on.

    Step 2: After clear console logs, when I reattempt to fill the details on the WordPress forum > add new topic page, there is no web activity happening, so the console logs stay empty. Hence, there is nothing to take screenshot there.

    But assuming you wanted to take the screenshot of situation, I have followed these steps instead, which are different to what you have suggested. Hope this helps:

    • Open the forum website on new fresh Private window and login
    • Open Web Inspector
    • Refresh the WordPress Forum > Add new topic page
    • Take screenshot of the web inspector > console log
      (Note, there are many resources from WordPress that failed to load in the Source Map)

    Step 3: Could not find any entry where a status of zero or rejected is shown.

    Step 4: Privacy Settings Details

    • There are three settings in the Privacy Tab in Safari Settings. All three are turned on for me.
      • Prevent cross-site tracking (tried disabling this also based on response on the other question where you had replied, but the issue persists. So this is not stopping us.)
      • Hide IP address from tracking
      • Require ToudhID to view Private tabs
    • There are three settings in the Security Tab in Safari Settings. All three are turned on for me.
      • Warm me when visiting a fraudulent site
      • Enable javascript
      • Warm before connecting to a website over HTTP

    Step 5:

    • No, lockdown mode is not on.
    • There are no separate tools or apps installed on the Mac that block ads or do DNS level filtering. However, there is an ad-blocking extension on the main browser. However, as I am trying to do it on a private window with all the extensions disabled, so that should not be an issue.
    • Won’t be able to test it on any other browser as this is the only browser I have on this device.

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks.

  • csabarakasz · Staff ·

    Hi @meetvekaria,

    Thank you for taking the time to go through all of those steps. I really appreciate the detail.

    I’ve gone through your console output carefully and compared it side-by-side with what I see on the same page (/forums/?new=1) on my own Mac with Safari 26.4. Here’s what I found:

    The console errors on your end are essentially identical to mine on a working session. The source map 404 errors, the “Store already registered” warnings, and even the aiAssistantLink.addEventListener TypeError — all of those appear on my end too, and the page works perfectly fine for me. So none of these are the cause.

    I also looked into the “Blocked connection to known tracker” entries in your console (Parsely, Google Tag Manager, Facebook, Hotjar). These are analytics and tracking scripts that Safari’s privacy features block, but they’re all passive observers designed to work independently from the page. Blocking them shouldn’t affect form functionality, and many Safari users browse with these blocked without issues.

    So here’s where we are: Your console output looks normal, your privacy and security settings are standard, Lockdown Mode is off, and there are no extensions in play. Despite all of that, the form still doesn’t work for you and I honestly can’t see the cause from the console alone.

    I want to be upfront with you: without being able to reproduce this on our end, there’s a limit to how much we can diagnose remotely. What we need now is to narrow down where the problem lives: is it Safari specifically, something system-wide on your Mac, or possibly something at the network level (like a DNS filter or firewall)? That’s why I have two requests that would really help us move forward:

    1. Please try a different browser — even just temporarily

    I know you mentioned you only have Safari on this Mac, but downloading Chrome or Firefox takes just a couple of minutes and you can remove it afterward. This is genuinely the most valuable test we can do right now:

    • If the forums page works in Chrome/Firefox → the issue is Safari-specific, and we can file a targeted bug report with our engineering team.
    • If it’s also broken in Chrome/Firefox → the issue is system-wide or network-related, which points us in a completely different direction.

    Without this comparison, we’re essentially troubleshooting in the dark.

    2. A HAR file from Safari

    A HAR file captures the full network activity of the page — including things that might not be obviously visible in the Network tab. It could reveal quietly failing requests that the console doesn’t surface. Here’s how to export one:

    1. Open Safari and go to https://wordpress.com/forums/?new=1
    2. Open Web Inspector (⌘⌥I)
    3. Click the Network tab
    4. Reload the page (⌘R)
    5. Try filling in the forum title and interacting with the form
    6. Right-click anywhere in the Network Name column list and choose Export HAR
    7. Please save the file and email it to help@wordpress.com, referencing this forum thread. (It’s worth noting that HAR files can contain sensitive data (cookies, session tokens, auth headers). Sharing them on a public forum thread is not advised!)

    These two pieces of information will tell us definitively whether this is something we can fix on our end or whether it points to something in your local environment. I want to make sure we’re spending your time on the right path rather than guessing.

    Thanks again for your patience. I know this has been a challenging process and I appreciate you sticking with us!

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