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Glad you figured it out. I don’t monitor this site.

Yea you guys need to know how to edit databases by hand for this fix. If you have no clue just reinstall. Unless someone out there wants to make a script to fix the problem.

Well I have a girlfriend so I don’t think it will work out.

Did this fix your problem?

Ok guys here is the deal; the problem is not in the wordpress files, it is in the database. Any time reinstalling the files does not fix something the problem might be in the database. I’m not an expert at mySQL but I know what I am doing most of the time. You will have to know how to get into your database and edit values. The easy fix for those of you that do not have a clue when it comes to mySQL is to backup your stuff, dump the database and make a new one. It is a pain but it does work. Looks like one of the wordpress updates messed up this setting in the database making the admin interface hide the widget. I run my own server so I’m able to use the mySQL GUI Admin tools to get into my databases for problems like this. I run about 6 wordpress sites and only one of them had this problem. My fix was to copy settings from one database to the broken one and it worked; the widget popped right up.

Ok here is what you are looking for:
SELECT * FROM wordpress.wp_options
WHERE option_name = ‘widget_categories’

Edit the option_value to: a:1:{s:12:”_multiwidget”;i:1;}

This is the default for wordpress and should make it pop back up ware you can then configure the widget.
Feel free to ask question if you guys want more info; only took me a hour or so to come up with this fix.