How to avoid alphabetical menus and submenus

Try the simple Page Ordering plugin: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/simple-page-ordering/ and then using it to reset the order of your pages. Or you could use a custom menu if your theme supports them: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/WordPress_Menu_User_Guide

Thank you cube colour. I think I had done the latter. Chunk only supports one menu and under Appearance/Menus I had dragged the pages into the desired order. This worked until yesterday – when it suddenly stopped working.

I tried uploading the plugin you suggested. I activated it but then could not see how to use it (documentation not suitable for lay person). I tried to deactivate it and hopefully coincidentally at that precise moment my wp database collapsed! There was a message saying that either my username and password were wrong or the host’s database server is down. So just for the moment I dont have a website at all ??

I will try the plugin again, but I remain mystified why the custom menu worked and then stopped working.

If you are already using a custom menu, the plugin I mentioned won’t have any effect.

My best guess (and please bear in mind that it is only a guess without being able look at the site/files/database) is that it sounds like the database may have become corrupted and the menu settings were not being read correctly. This seems to correspond with the larger database problem you have. Do you have a recent database backup from a time prior to the menu problem occurring?

Oh noooo!
In my enthusiasm I have completely revamped my website in two days and not backed up at all! Before using wp I virtuously synchronised with my local copy. Ironically, I was about to synchronise the wp files as you wrote your message.
Thank you for your help and I think one has to say that from wp org’s point of view the topic is resolved, even though I have a bit of headache to deal with.

Just a postscript without much hope that anybody can help me. My wp database is up and running again but the menus are still all alphatebised, ignoring my custom ordering.
Out of desperation I have numbered the Diary submenus, so that my blog comes at the top, but this is not really feasible for the whole site.
I live in hope that someone might have some solution for me.

Did you select a menu location in wp-admin > Appearance > Menus. Click the Manage Locations tab at the top and select a location.

Do you know what, keeslemeijer? I think you might just have cracked my problem!
In fact I had just noticed that at the foot of the menu page under Edit Menus there is a section Menu Settings and I have just spotted that Theme locations-Main Menu box was unchecked.
I checked it and hey presto, everything is working again! I don’t remember unchecking it, but I am most grateful to you for pointing me in the right direction.
Thanks to you and cube colour, fingers crossed my problem is solved.
Hopefully this bad experience and the outcome may help someone else in the same position.
Oh, and by the way. I’m backing up my wordpress files now!

Hello
I’m sorry to bother again – and I don’t know whether this should have been a new thread.
My last message was prematurely optimistic. It is obvious to me now that my menu problems mean that the the menu part of the database must be corrupted. The last item on my main menu keeps dropping off, and the two Menu Settings boxes don’t stay checked. There is a certain randomness to the sequence of these events.
Given that I don’t have a backup pre-dating these problems, can you advise what I should do? Is it enough just to delete the menu and create another one? Or is there some file within wp that I should throw away and re-download?

First make a backup of your database as it is now:
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Backing_Up_Your_Database.

See https://www.maketecheasier.com/fix-corrupted-wordpress-database-2/2013/04/02

Also try:

– 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).

– switching to the default theme to rule out any theme-specific problems.

– re-uploading all files & folders – except the wp-content folder from a fresh download of WordPress. by using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides. You may need to delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folders first on your server. Read the Manual Update first.

I was half-way through keesiemeijer’s helpful list when by accident I came across another discussion under Troubleshooting:
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/menu-size-limit

Pennies have dropped – the problems always start when I attempt to add a 91st item to my menu/submenu list!!!
Of these, 47 are under my Travel>India 2005 submenu

Ideally I would like to have a side menu on the India 2005 page, listing the 16 places I visited. But until I have worked out how to do this, I fear that I will have to create an India 2005 page with links to these places.

I’ll let you know if this solves my problems. If I’m right, it is worth noting that misbehaving menus may be a symptom of the 90 item limit.