Cannot move or edit widgets

Have you tried:

– deactivating all plugins to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).

– resetting the plugins folder by FTP or PhpMyAdmin. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems.

– re-uploading the wp-admin and wp-includes folders from a fresh download of WordPress.

– increasing the memory available to PHP:
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/253495#post-1017842

I tried the 1st 4 options already, and have now also tried the 4th one, but still nothing.

However, something that I now notice too is that *none* of the dropdowns on the widgets page (and only on that page) work, i.e. I cannot open any of the menus on the left either to get into Plugins, Users, Tools etc., nor at the top where it says “Screen Options”, “Help” and “New Post”. When I click on the actual words it will open whatever page I need to get to, but the little arrow won′t do anything. When I′m back in any of the other pages (like Plugins, Settings, whatever), the arrow dropdowns work again. This is making me think there might be something wrong with wp-admin/widgets.php?

I sure hope not, because my PHP knowledge is limited, but let me have your thoughts on this pls.

Have you tried using another browser? Or another computer?

Like I said above: Firefox, Safari and IE9 all didn′t work. Cleared my cache too… nothing. ??

Just tried it on my laptop (i.e. another computer), same problem still.

Hailp?

Try re-uploading all files & folders – except the wp-content folder – from a fresh download of WordPress.

Hi esmi, not trying to be rude, but did you read what I wrote above? I already tried that. ??

(and that actually meant to say “I tried the 1st **3** options already…” btw, and now have tried the 4th you suggested too)

did you read what I wrote above?

Yes I did. Did you? You only uploaded the wp-admin & wp-includes folders previously…

Oh sorry, I didn′t think of the actual “loose” files, just thought of the 3 main folders! Will try that now, ta.

esmi, still no luck…. ??

Going to have to leave it till the morning now, but bring on any other suggestions in the meantime – much appreciated!

Okay, can anybody help please?

I don’t know if this will help but I’ve seen very similar problems caused by two different but related things.

1) A plugin was de-registering the bundled jQuery-UI and loading its own custom jQuery-UI.
2) I haven’t noticed it recently but Firebug used to lock up some of the wp-admin panels. This was especially pronounced on the widget page.

These are related because both are essentially Javascript issues/applications, so you can probably generalize to ‘javascript issue’. My first thought was ‘plugin’, and after that ‘theme’, and after that try “using another browser”, and try using “another computer”. Sounds like that has all been covered though.

I guess I’d try using FireFox + Firebug with the console and the script tab enabled and see if you get an error.

Maybe also put define('WP_DEBUG',true); in your wp-confing.php and see if that doesn’t provide any clues.

Sorry, but jQuery and javascript stuff is way over my head.

Is Firebug easy to use for the layman? I′m just a web designer not a programmer, only know HTML & CSS and basic PHP and SQL database management… would someone like me have a clue what to look for using Firebug?

Firebug will make your life so much easier you will cry. Seriously, the first time you right click and use ‘Inspect Element’ you will cry tears of joy. (Chrome has a very similar tool, actually.)

Mostly, what Firebug does is help you find and manipulate HTML and CSS, which is good for you even if it doesn’t solve this problem, but it is pretty handy for Javascript debugging too. If you enable the panels I mentioned you will get warning about Javascript errors, and I fully expect that you have some of those.

Added Firebug, but I just see a lot of red writing, but don′t know what to do with it or how to understand what is happening…

I′m at the point now where I want to just backup everything and do a completely new installation of WP and then import all my data again and see if that fixes the problem…. actually, I shall try that! I will create a new folder with a fresh WP install and then import all my stuff…. and see what happens. :O

Also try this plugin: https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/widgets-reset/