dcrowthe

Thank you so much, I opted to switch from the custom template to the simple template and that fixed the problem. Thanks so much for the quick response and the solution! Much appreciated.

Thanks – let me know what he says

Shanse2, thank you so much. I think that you identified the root cause of the issue.

I didn’t have a db.php file in the wp-content directory. Instead, I added:
define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8’);
define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);
to the wp-config.php file and the blank text edit box with the 0 word count AND the question mark in the black diamond problems went away from all of my posts.

My database/website was created many years ago, so my questions are:
1. How do I tell what charset the database is?
2. If it is the old Latin1 charset, do I need to change the database to UTF8?
3. Are there any problems with specifying the charset in the wp-config file without changing the underlying database charset?

Thoughts from the experts out there?

I have deactivated all plugins and have switched to the default theme at the same time.

Absolutely. The problem is occurring on every single post and page at https://barbequelovers.com

Example posts:
https://barbequelovers.com/grills/accessories/mr-grill-18-inch-grill-cleaning-brush-review
https://barbequelovers.com/recipes/beef-recipes/pancetta-gruyere-burger-with-grilled-vidalia-onions

Example pages:
https://barbequelovers.com/about
https://barbequelovers.com/restaurant-reviews

All of these posts/pages in the wp-admin area have the main content area blank in both the visual editor as well as the text editor and the word count on the bottom says 0.

I enabled the debugger within the wpconfig.php file and enabled the error console via chrome.

There were no errors on the console…only the following statement:
JQMIGRATE: Migrate is installed with logging active, version 1.4.1.

I cleared the cache and reloaded the page…no change.