How To Troubleshoot Visual Editor Issues

  • Okay.. I have seen a lot of people reporting various issues with the WordPress editor after updating to version 3.9.

    Remember… remain calm!! WordPress would not have released this update if there were problems with the core software. The update definitely works. BUT.. many themes and plugins have been affected by the update.

    Main Reason
    TinyMCE version 4. This is the software used to run the WordPress content editor. The framework has completely changed.. and most all plugins and themes which modified aspects of the tinymce editor will have to be updated. Plupload has also been updated.

    There have also been changes with how WP Galleries are handled, displayed, and processed.

    First
    Empty your browser cache manually, and make sure to clear any caching plugin you are using in your WP admin panel. The content editor is notorious for serving cached files. Manually emptying and refreshing your browser cache may be the answer.

    Troubleshoot
    So, what do you do if your editor is not loading properly??

    1. Deactivate all plugins.. yes, ALL plugins.
    2. Switch to the defualt 2014 theme… because we know it works.
    3. Manually empty and refresh your browser cache.

    These steps are VERY important.. and should be followed concisely!

    Now.. with NO plugins.. the default 2014 theme.. and a clean browser cache… go back and see if the editor loads properly.

    If Editor Loads Properly
    Now.. the editor should load properly. If it does not, skip to the next section.

    We have a working editor again; YAY! Now, we have to get our theme and plugins back.

    Testing Theme
    Start with your theme. Go back and switch to the theme you were using. Then, go back to the editor page. Test to see if the editor is still working properly.

    If it does not… you know the issue is with your theme.

    If it does… continue….

    Testing Plugins
    Now… let’s begin re-activating our plugins ONE AT A TIME. Each time we activate a plugin.. we are going to go back and see if the editor loads properly.

    If a plugin was at fault.. you will eventually find a plugin that causes the editor to load improperly. That is your faulty plugin. You will need to contact the plugin author and see if they are aware of the issue.

    Digging Further
    If you are feeling super savvy… you can dig into this further by exploring the browser console.

    99 out of 100 times the editor does not load properly.. it is a javascript issue of some sort. By using our browser inspection tools; we can usually see the issue in real time.. exactly as it is occurring.. and extract useful information for troubleshooting.

    This Codex Page has more information for how to troubleshoot these errors.

    If Editor Still Loads Improperly
    If, after all of these troubleshooting steps, the editor is still loading improperly… and there are no error or warning messages in the browser console… then something MUCH deeper is going on.

    You may need to manually re-update your WP installation… or work out another solution. In this case, I would suggest starting a new forum topic, explain everything you tried above.. and explaining any other important facts you can determine.

    Closing
    I work in the editor extensively. I can assure everyone it works properly in WP 3.9. I see these issues all the time.. and 99% of the time, it is an incompatible plugin or theme.

    Hope this helps ??

Viewing 14 replies - 31 through 44 (of 44 total)

  • My apologies, and thanks for pointing out a thread no-no.

    I’ve never done any of this before, so I definitely wasn’t aware of any ground rules for threads. I just thought there were some similarities with my problems and what was being discussed here, and I am getting a bit desperate for finding out what is going on. I was just searching for support from as many potential places as possible.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    No worries, we’ll get to the bottom of this, but we’ll do it in your own thread where we already have the history of everything we’ve tried so far with you. ??

    Hello again! I am the original poster! I gave up all that time ago, and went into a depression about not being able to do this….. so have haven’t got any further with this. I’m now back and ready to face it all again. I still don’t seem to be able to do step 2 – when I go to Appearance; Themes, it says that there is an update available and I don’t seem to be able to find out how to update it. I’m still unable to edit my posts, and everything is on private settings, so my website is still sitting ready to go out into the world. My apologies for my lack of know-how – and I’d LOVE some more help so that I can get editing and get my website public! Thank you! (-:

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Can you select any theme from Appearance -> Themes in your blog’s Dashboard?

    When you see there is an update available, are you offered a button to click to update it?

    Hello and thank you for your help. It shows there is an update, but no, no button offered to click to update it!

    I disable the plug ins, changed to twenty fourteen and emptied the cache and the editor now works. Now how do I get Divi to work? It won’t let me update to the new version?

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Where did you get this theme “Divi” from?

    I bought it (-:

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    In that case, please go to their official support channel for help with this. In order to be good stewards of the WordPress community, and encourage innovation and progress, we feel it’s important to direct people to those official locations. Doing this will provide the developer with the income they need to make WordPress awesome.

    Forum volunteers are also not given access to commercial products, so they would not know why your commercial theme or plugin is not working properly. This is one other reason why volunteers forward you to the commercial product’s vendors. The vendors are responsible for supporting their commercial product.

    Thank you…. I’m not sure how to do that but I will find out! Thanks for your help!

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    You’re welcome!

    Wherever you purchased the theme, you should be able to find some sort of contact system. I have yet to find a reputable theme shop without one. ??

    Thanks!

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    You’re welcome!

    I just had to post on this because I figured out MY issue – and I swear it simply isn’t possible for ANYONE else to have this issue.

    Know what was causing my visual editor not to come up?

    Tethering.

    I’m using FoxFi on my cell phone with PDA-Net on my laptop. It’s a tethering solution.

    Turns out that PDA-Net does some “traffic interception” to “hide” tether usage from your cell phone during the act of tethering.

    In PDA-net, I turned OFF the Tether Hiding – and POOF. The visual editor is back.

    So, it says to me that somehow PDA-net was monkeying with things – probably telling my WP site that I am unable to use the visual editor and it defaulted back to the “plain html” one.

    Hopefully this helps someone figure SOMETHING out.

Viewing 14 replies - 31 through 44 (of 44 total)
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