Cannot edit pages

It sounds like you may have a problem in the display of your editor caused by the WPedit plugin. Have you tried disabling the WPedit plugin (Plugins -> Installed Plugins -> WPedit, deactivate) to see if it solves the problem?

Hi linux4me2,
I have deactiated WPedit, logged out of WordPress, Logged back into WordPress and the problem is still there

Regards
Genealogist1

Make sure you clear your browser’s cache, too. (In Firefox, it’s Ctrl+F5.) Your browser may be caching the old CSS instead of refreshing it.

Well, you’re already using a default theme, so unless you have added some custom CSS (Appearance -> Customize -> Additional CSS) that affects the editor, the only other thing I can think of is that you have another plugin that’s interfering. You might try disactivating all your plugins, and if that fixes it, reactivate one at a time until you find the culprit.

The other approach is to look at the CSS for the editor using the developer’s tools in Firefox or Chrome to see why you have white-on-white, but from your description of your developer skills, that may be a bit of a reach for you.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by linux4me2.

Hi linux4me2

I have now deactivated all the plugins and cleared the cache in Firefox and this has not rectified the problem.
Whilst I do have white on white when editing; there are also no controls (formatting etc) above the editing area and I believe there are two options for editing ‘text’ and ‘visual’. The white on white text is in the option shows the page in HTML format rather than what the page actually looks like and I cannot select the other option.

How difficult is it to use the developer’s tools?
I normally use Chrome – how should I clear the cache when using Chrome?

Regards
The Genealogist

You can find out how to clear the cache in Chrome here.

There are only two things I know of that can cause that kind of problem with the editor: a CSS conflict or a javascript conflict. Both of those should be cleared up by using a default theme and clearing your browser cache.

I guess it’s possible you have a PHP error–which should be in an “error_log” file in the /public_html or /public_html/wp-admin folders on your server–but it seems unlikely since you’re not using any plugins now.

To use the developers’ tools in Firefox, you just use Shift+Ctrl+k to display the sidebar, which will by default display any errors in console first. You can then right-click on any element on a page and choose “inspect element” to display that item’s CSS. If you click on your editor, you may be able to see what the errant CSS is, and where it’s coming from.

Hi linux4me2

When I go into developers’ tools in Firefox and it displays the Console tab I get the following message:
ReferenceError: tinymce is not defined

Could this be the cause and if so how do I rectify the problem?

Regards
The genealogist

That means there is a javascript issue for TinyMCE, the javascript-based editor that WordPress uses by default. It can definitely cause a disruption in the way your editor displays. Most likely, the cause isn’t TinyMCE itself, but a conflict between it and some other javascript running on your site.

I installed Twenty Sixteen on a test site and checked it, and I’m not getting any errors for TinyMCE, so it looks like it’s something specific to your installation.

If you’ve already deactivated all your plugins and cleared your browser cache, I can’t think of why you’d have a javascript conflict. Are you using the base Twenty Sixteen theme without any modifications?

I guess you might try switching to another default theme like Twenty Seventeen and see if the problem remains.

Hello. There are sometimes problems with new updates. I can see 3 possible issues.
1: The theme is the problem. (many chances)
2: One plugin is the problem. (many chances)
3: Your navigator is the problem. (few chances)

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by zoeloumba.

I thought of a couple other things that might be causing the error. Hotlinking protection can prevent javascript from loading if you don’t have it configured correctly. That would be unrelated to your WP upgrade, and usually happens when you have hotlinking protection enabled, switch to HTTPS, and forget to add the HTTPS to your hotlinking list of allowed sites.

Since you’re already using a default theme, and you have deactivated all plugins and cleared your browser cache, the other thing you could try is a manual update to 4.7.2 on the off-chance that some files were not successfully updated or were corrupted.

Hi linux4me2,
Thanks for your patience I was tired last night and started to make mistakes, so I left further testing until this evening.

I tried uploading and switching to theme twenty seventeen and the problem still occurred.

Hi zoeloumba
Re your comments the problem occurs on both themes 2016 and 2017 therefore probably not a problem.
All pluggins have been disabled
So what are the navigator problems?

Hi linux4me2 again
I do not know what you mean by ‘hotlinking protection’ can you please give me some guidance as to how I check that is not the problem?
I have already updated to 4.7.2 using the button on the dashboard but is this different from a ‘manual update’ ? If it is different then can you please give me guidance as to how to do a manual update?

I have searched around on Google and I don’ seem to be the only person with the same problem. The problem occurred very shortly after upgrading to 4.7.

Your help is much appreciated
Regards
The genealogist
PS In 1 hour I have to go out for 2 hours I do appreciate your help to try and resolve this problem

Hotlinking is the use of images from your site by another site. You can read more about it on Wikipedia. If you’re using cPanel for your web hosting account, you can see if hotlinking is enabled by clicking “Hotlink Protection” in the Security section. If you’re not using cPanel, you can use the file browser for your hosting account or FTP to look in your root web folder, usually /public_html, for a file called “.htaccess”. If you have hotlinking protection enabled, there will be something that looks like this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://yourdomain.com/.*$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://yourdomain.com$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://www.yourdomain.com/.*$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://www.yourdomain.com$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://yourdomain.com/.*$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://yourdomain.com$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://www.yourdomain.com/.*$      [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://www.yourdomain.com$      [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$ - [F,NC]

I think you may be able to have hotlinking protection through a plugin, but since you have those deactivated, that’s not an issue.

The instructions in the Codex will help you perform a manual update. It will make you appreciate automatic updates, but it does sometimes solve issues like you’re facing.