Convert emoticons option on Settings > Writing missing

Could be a plugin. Have you tried disabling all plugins to see if that makes any difference?

Yes. Don’t have many plugins, only Visual Builder, Yoast and Contact Form. Still, I tried disabling all of them, but nothing changed.

Curious. Do you see “WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically” which would normally be right below it? Here’s how mine looks: https://i.imgur.com/vspumkc.png

Very curious. No, here’s mine: https://s17.postimg.org/w16gu5hnz/Capturar.jpg

It’s like something has altered the built-in editor or something, perhaps moving those options to a different section. You said you disabled your plugins with no effect. I wonder if your theme’s functions.php has some code in it that is affecting it. I suppose you could change to the default Twenty Fifteen for a moment just to see if that makes a difference.

What is weird is that this is a fresh install. I was editing my website locally (InstantWP) and everything was OK. So, I don’t think is theme related. Just changed to Twenty and the issue is still there.

I got the same issue. I have compared two installations of wordpress- one with missing formatting section and another one which has it. I found out there is a difference in options-writing.php which concerns Formatting option:

<table class="form-table">
<?php if ( get_site_option( 'initial_db_version' ) < 32453 ) : ?>
<tr>
<th scope="row"><?php _e('Formatting') ?></th>
<td><fieldset><legend class="screen-reader-text"><span><?php _e('Formatting') ?></span></legend>
<label for="use_smilies">
<input name="use_smilies" type="checkbox" id="use_smilies" value="1" <?php checked('1', get_option('use_smilies')); ?> />
<?php _e('Convert emoticons like <code>:-)</code> and <code>:-P</code> to graphics on display') ?></label><br />
<label for="use_balanceTags"><input name="use_balanceTags" type="checkbox" id="use_balanceTags" value="1" <?php checked('1', get_option('use_balanceTags')); ?> /> <?php _e('WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically') ?></label>
</fieldset></td>
</tr>
<?php endif; ?>

If you delete <?php if ( get_site_option( 'initial_db_version' ) < 32453 ) : ?> and <?php endif; ?> the section is back.

I also have/had that issue. It is only showing up when it’s a fresh install with a fresh database. If you use the solution fanimator is suggesting, it DOES bring back the options in the Writing section, but they don’t stick if you uncheck the box for the emoticons. So, obviously this is an option they removed from the newest version of the database (but stays when the database is a legacy one).

The way I stopped the emoticon replacement was to edit formatting.php (in wp-includes).

You just make $wp_smiliessearch null, and it doesn’t change out the text emoticon. This was found in the function starting at line 2322. Add in $wp_smiliessearch=”; and that will fix it:

function convert_smilies( $text ) {
	global $wp_smiliessearch;
  $wp_smiliessearch='';

Not sure why this has been removed. Very annoying.

I looked further into this to see if I could just add something to the functions to fix the issue (since I really don’t like updating the core files), and found a much easier fix.

Simply log into your dashboard, then navigate to /wp-admin/options.php

You will see ALL of your WP options listed there. Search for the “use_smilies” setting. You’ll see it is set at “1”. Change the “1” to a “0” (zero), then hit the “save settings” button at the bottom of the page.

@geek Goddess … Thanx a million! This was driving me nutz, as the checkbox also does not show on my 4.4.2 install. (The latest.)

Thanks, @prestonm! By the way, to help others I created a plugin that changes the setting also (for those that don’t want to mess with their options)

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/keep-emoticons-as-text/

oh wow, THANK YOU. I can’t believe they tried to force me into using emoji on my website, gag. ??