Navigation block doesn’t work at all

I’ve experienced the same thing with Twenty Twenty Three, so at least you’re not alone.

I can’t get the import menu to work on the front end, though it works fine in the editor. Creating a new menu works in the editor and the front end.

I was thinking initially that it was some kind of caching issue, so I disabled my caching plugin (Litespeed) and made sure I cleared the browser cache, but neither made any difference.

I’m thinking bug, since you deactivated all plugins and still had the same issue.

I don’t think this is specific to Twenty Twenty Three. I believe it’s a bug in the Navigation Block, or perhaps an issue with specific menus.

I created a new post in a test site using the Twenty Sixteen theme, then added a navigation block and attempted to import the “main menu” for the site, the same one that failed in the Twenty Twenty Three theme.

The menu displayed just right in the Editor, but on the front end it was a mess, displaying all the pages for the site.

Thank you for reporting this @damen02. I have never run into this issue myself, so I am not sure what to suggest.

• Are you noticing this on just one website or is this a recurring problem on multiple sites?
• Did it happen from the very beginning or did it work fine initially?
• Could you share a link to your site and/or try to reproduce it on a testing site using https://app.instawp.io/ or a similar service?

Thank you!

Hi Alvaro @mrfoxtalbot, thanks for replying.

I tested this in two completely different websites.

It happened when I tried ti switch from Astra to TT3, then tried to us an existing menu. Never worked.

Since I’m working on the site, I needed to switch to another theme in order to continue. Sorry I can’t show the issue.

It happened when I tried ti switch from Astra to TT3, then tried to us an existing menu. Never worked. Since I’m working on the site, I needed to switch to another theme in order to continue. Sorry I can’t show the issue.

Hi @damen02 just to confirm you move from the TT3 theme to another theme?

If your site was moving from Astra to TT3 you might have some challenges with the menu if the Astra was a classic theme. The TT3 is a block theme with a different file structure from the classic themes.

I would suggest creating a new menu when the site is on the TT3 theme as @linux4me2 mentioned.

Let me know how that goes if you decide to move back to the TT3 theme.

Hi, thank you all for your replies.

I was able to get ride from this with a simple action.

Just for clarifiying:

The editor allows to select an existing classic navigation menu and bring it to the new site editor converted to a new navigation block. That part works ok. Navigation block and all its menu items are showed perfectly in editor. The problem was that this is not reflected on fornt-end.
No matter haw many times I click Save or Update.

The solution was picking a menu item in Editor, changing its label, and then Save. Now the old classic menu is converted to a new navigation block and “Shows perfect on front-end”. That’s all.

I think there is a kind of bug in the way Editor saves changes.
Hope this is useful for somebody.
Thank you all.

Hi @damen02,

The solution was picking a menu item in Editor, changing its label, and then Save. Now the old classic menu is converted to a new navigation block and “Shows perfect on front-end”. That’s all.

Nice work!

It does sound like there’s a bug in the Navigation block.

I have run into the same problem with two sites that I am converting from Oxygen Builder to Guttenberg. Imported Classic menus show perfectly in the editor but not on the front end. I used Daniel’s workaround and it fixed the problem.

Thanks!

I’m not able to replicate this issue on my test site, however, l check GitHub and l found a report that could be related to what you mentioned. Navigation block shows different menu in admin and different on frontend

https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/50706

Please feel free to add your own experience there

Hi @thelmachido, in order to reproduce it, I have to use menus created with the old menu system (Appearance > Menus), so with an old non-block-based theme active, then activate a block-based theme like Twenty Twenty Three and attempt to import the old, classic menu into the Navigation Block and not make any changes to it before saving it and viewing it in the front end.

Hey @linux4me2 – I just tried out that process (Starting with a classic menu and then switching to a block theme) and couldn’t recreate the issue.

I’m glad you’ve got the workaround in place and working for you – and we’ll keep an eye out for any further reports of this happening.

IWith your question answered, we would love if you would mark this topic as resolved in the sidebar. This helps our volunteers find the topics that still need attention and more people will get helped, possibly like you did.

Hi @jordesign,

It’s interesting that you can’t reproduce it. The workaround does seem to solve the problem.

I’m not the original poster, so I can’t mark this as resolved. That will be up to @damen02. : )

Hi @linux4me2

It’s interesting that you can’t reproduce it. The workaround does seem to solve the problem.

I’m not the original poster, so I can’t mark this as resolved. That will be up to?@damen02. : )

That being the case – could you please open a new thread/issue for your case (as it sounds like it could be different) which would allow @damen02 to mark this one as resolved.

. If you were able to try the process with only your theme, and no plugins active – that would help narrow down the issue.

Hi @jordesign

The workaround @damen02 came up with worked for me, so I don’t need to open a new thread. Thanks though. There’s no reason to keep this thread open for me.

@linux4me2 Ah – apologies for that confusion – glad it’s all working. I’ll mark this as resolved from my end ??