Categories disappeared. Still show in database, not in admin

  • Very odd problem(s). And it has caused an actual, physical headache. I don’t feel well.

    Site’s been up for about a year, working fine. I edited a theme file (‘sidebar.php’), uploaded, overwrote the existing, and all of a sudden, every category is missing from the “All Categories” tab in my categories pane, and no categories exist on any post. However, the categories appear in the “Most Used” tab of the admin pane, BUT when I select a category from that list and update a post to see if it fixes, the category actually disappears from the ‘Most Used’ tab, and still nothing shows up in the “All Categories” tab. Stranger yet, when I add a category, select and update the post, the category disappears (per this problem) BUT it shows up in the database. Wow.

    Every category for every post type is experiencing this issue. And every/any category shows up in the database.

    Been searching everywhere for a fix. Have found old threads that suggest emptying /tmp folders – nothing in mine. I have not run through every single plugin, though have disabled a few known to be more troublesome, nothing. Had/Have not updated any plugins for ~2 weeks.

    Have uploaded original theme file, imported older databases, and updated to latest WordPress just today (after noticing the problem) Nothing is changing/fixing this.

    What happened?!

    Appreciate any help all. Thanks.

    -EDIT-
    ALSO, all posts still exist, just can’t get to them through the category. URL shows .com/post-name as set in my permalink structure.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • @wordpressearcher your question is a bit confusing, probably why you haven’t gotten any replies yet.

    First, the “most used” pane in the write/edit screen is for Tags, not Categories…those are two different things, although both are taxonomies, they are not the same thing. So is it your Tags that have disappeared, or your Categories?

    And when you say you edited a sidebar.php file, that would only effect what is displayed on the front end of your site, not the backend – so are you saying your Categories list disappeared from your site’s front end sidebar? Or do you really mean that when you are in your backend (Admin) and go to Posts >Categories, there are none in the list?

    Is it possible that you’ve been adding Tags to your Posts, not Categories, and that’s why they don’t show up on the Admin page for Categories? Did you look at your Tags?

    Perhaps if you can clarify and provide either a screenshot (if it’s a backend problem) or a link to your site (if it’s a front end problem) it might help the volunteers to be able to help you.

    Thread Starter wordpressearcher

    (@wordpressearcher)

    Thanks Trisha,

    When creating a new post, the most used tab in the Category metabox is for categories, is it not? Regardless, every category, tag and taxonomy is “missing”.

    Editing of that particular file was the last thing I did before this problem occurred, just offered it for good measure. I understand it would not (necessarily) have anything to do with this problem.

    The categories and tags are completely gone from the backend, and I cannot actually add categories to any post type. As I said, they’re still visible in the “most used” tab in the metabox containing the Categories available on your site, but I cannot assign any post a category or tag (new or current), nor can I see them when I add/create new ones in admin, but they are added and visible in the database.

    It is not possible I’m confusing tags and categories. “Mysite.com/category/’X'” where ‘X’ is any category, will not appear, because the categories are seemingly ‘missing’.

    OK actually that is helpful.

    It sounds like something in your core WP files may have corrupted, as you can see them in your database (I’m guessing using something like phpMyAdmin, yes?)….so you know they are there, you just cannot see them in your back-end.

    Sometimes this can happen when you ‘update’ WP as often the old version files are left in place and the new ones copied in, so you have a mix of old and new core files.

    BUT BEFORE trying a fresh install of WP, I would make sure it’s not an errant plugin, by deactivating ALL plugins to see if it cures your problem….if it does, reactivate them one-by-one to see if you can isolate the problem plugin.

    If it’s NOT a plugin problem, then I would try a fresh install of WP, be sure to not overwrite your /wp-content/ folder or your wp-config.php file. This will not impact your database, but it’s always wise to do a backup first.

    An easy way to do this is – AFTER BACKING UP your /wp-content folder and your wp-config.php files – is to delete everything else BUT those two – rename /wp-content folder to something like /wp-contentKEEP, then upload a new downloaded and unzipped version of WP.

    It will upload the /wp-content folder that it comes with, you can delete that when you’re done uploading and then rename YOUR folder back to /wp-content

    You should NOT need to do the ‘install.php’ part, since you’re already installed….and your existing wp-config.php has your current database connection.

    That’s what I would do if I were having this problem.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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