Posts Do Not Appear in “Categories” Widget

without access to inspect the site, it will be harder to give guidance.
are all of the posts PUBLISHED or in still DRAFT format?

Thanks for your response.

Yes, all the posts are PUBLISHED, not in DRAFT.

I toggled off the “coming soon” page so that you can now inspect my site: https://www.wholeperson.finance

*I tested a categories widget in one of my sites. I noticed The source code of your site’s category widget does not match what I see on my site (using twentytwentyone theme).

*Issue might be related to your theme or a plugin conflict. Try this: install health check plugin which can be used in troubleshooting mode to deactivate all plugins and theme might help narrow down the source of the issue and the next steps can be suggested.
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/health-check/

Does it still behave this way if you delete the Categories widget from your sidebar, then add it back again?

Thank you both for your suggestions.

Lisa, I installed the Health Check plugin. It didn’t detect any problems with the site, but I’m glad to know about this plugin for future use.

Neanderstaal, I know how to delete a widget, but I don’t know how to add one back. Is there a special widget for “Categories,” and if so, where would I find it? I can’t currently find it in the Widgets menu. I have to admit that the widgets aren’t intuitive for me and I find them hard to understand. This is the first time I’ve ever had to fiddle with them. In the past, they all worked as expected.

Thanks again for your help.

Wendy

There is a widget for display of Categories.
View Resource: https://www.ads-software.com/support/article/block-based-widgets-editor/

-Video Workshop for Learning about Block Widgets: https://learn.www.ads-software.com/workshop/using-the-block-widget-editor/

-While using the health check plugin, did you troubleshoot by changing to a default theme and deactivating all plugins?

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the great resources. They were helpful!

I was able to delete my old Categories block and create a new one. That fixed the original problem of the entries in the Categories widget not linking to the posts.

However, it created two new problems. First, I can’t seem to get the Categories widget to display categories if they’re empty. I was previously able to do that, and it’s a function I’d ideally like to have. Second, there’s a thin gray horizontal line between the heading “Categories” and the actual categories listed below this heading. I’ve googled for a way to delete this line, using every combination of words I can think of, and no solution turned up. There’s no line between “Archives” and its content, and that area hasn’t been tampered with, so I must have done something wrong. But all I did was to select a heading which I named “Categories,” and then select the categories widget block from the list in WordPress.

If you could point me in the right direction to solve either or both of these issues, I’d certaianly appreciate it. And thanks so much for your help so far!

Wendy

I think I know what’s happening. The Category widget was originally contained within another object called a Group, along with the Heading. When you removed and re-added the Categories widget, it was no longer contained inside the Group block that it used to reside in. Your theme automatically inserts that horizontal line between each individual widget or group of widgets.

Take a look here for some more info on Group blocks that should help you get your Categories block/widget back into the Group that contains the Heading “Categories” : https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/group-block/

It may be easiest to delete the current Categories widget, then select the Group that contains the Header “Categories” and add a new Categories widget within it.

The empty categories problem is solvable, but may be beyond your comfort level. The Category widget defaults to hiding empty categories. To change this behaviour you need to add custom code to your site. See here for details: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-show-empty-categories-in-wordpress/

If you just want the categories displayed so you can see what the Category widget will look like when those empty categories eventually have posts, an easier solution would be to add a temporary placeholder post to each category until such time as you have actual content in those categories.