Yoast Tabs Not Working in Editor

@achanne

We’re sorry that you’re having trouble with Yoast tabs not working on the editor.

Looking at the JavaScript errors, to clarify, could you please temporarily disable the ACF Content Analysis for Yoast SEO plugin and see if it makes any difference?

In addition, we would like some more information.

– Does the issue resolve if you clear your cache and cookies?
– Does the issue resolve if you use a different browser such as Chrome or Firefox?
– Also, can you make sure you are using the latest WordPress version 5.8.1?

Hello,

We are using the latest version of WP and I have temporarily disabled ACF Content Analysis for Yoast SEO plugin but the problem is still the same. I have also tried different browsers – Firefox, Chrome, and Edge – and also with cache cleared but it still does not work in any browser. With ACF Content Analysis for Yoast SEO disabled, here is a screenshot of the console in Edge: https://alvenh.com/screenshots/yoast_seo_error.png

Please let me know. Thanks.

Hi @achanne

A partially loaded or blank Yoast SEO meta box likely means there is a conflict with another plugin or theme on your set up, since there are also JavaScript errors appearing in your browser’s console.

`ften, we see problems occur in combination with another plugin or theme. The fastest way to rule out any conflict, is to deactivate all non-Yoast plugins and switch to a standard theme like Twenty Twenty.

Please test this on your development or staging site, if you have one. If not, we recommend using the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin. This plugin has a troubleshooting mode, which does not affect normal visitors to your site.

If you’re unfamiliar with checking for conflicts, we’d like to point you to a step-by-step guide that will walk you through the process: How to check for plugin conflicts

Hello,

As suggested, I have used the troubleshooting plugin to run Yoast SEO with all other plugins disabled, with a different theme (Twenty Twenty One), and even tried in private browsing mode, and with cache cleared but none of those or any combination fixed the problem. I even tried with Jquery Migrate Helper installed and activated but that did not solve the issue. Meanwhile, the error console continues to show the same error in which there is “nothing to repeat” with invalid regular expression: /^*-+:*$/ in post-edit-1740.js:1.

BUT…here is something interesting: The site owner/writer started having the issue on Sunday after updating Chrome browser (it was fine before browser was updated). However, in Edge on the owner’s computer, Yoast SEO continues to work without any problems…at least for now. On the other hand, on my own computer, Yoast appears broken in editor on all browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and Edge).

Please let me know. Thanks.

Just following my last reply with more info: The site owner has updated Edge when the computer restarted, and now Yoast SEO doesn’t even work in Edge anymore. So I’m pretty sure browser updates are causing the plugin to break. Could you please look into this and let me know. Thanks.

I am also having this same issue, and is actually very similar to another I experienced before with a file getting cached wrong from my client’s CDN, Imperva. However, this doesn’t appear to be the same root cause.

We have found this to be consistently broken in Chromium while on Linux and Mac but it works on Chrome and Firefox. My client is using Windows with Edge and is seeing this across the board.

Obviously, something is off so I did a comparison of the post-edit-1700.js file from Yoast directly and what is served on production (we are running v17 and I see this issue also exists in 17.4 which is -1740.js) and I found that the regex is being malformed so it no longer has white space after the astrisk. Here’s an online diff https://www.diffchecker.com/5wodZFV8, scroll down until you see highlight lines of code.

E.g. /^*-+:*$/ when it should be /^ *-+: *$/

At this time this doesn’t appear to be an issue with Yoast but something down the line causing the file to be reformatted?

Hi @achanne & @brainfestation

Thank you for providing this information.

I tried to update my Chrome browser on my M1 MBP to the latest version (Version 95.0.4638.69 (Official Build) (arm64)) and when I try to create a new post, there doesn’t seem to be any JavaScript errors in the browser’s console, and the Yoast SEO meta box is working as expected.

Just to clarify, with a default WP theme such as TwentyTwenty, and only Yoast SEO v17.4 as the plugin enabled, could you provide a screenshot of the reported error message (the initial topic related to files regarding the yoast acf glue plugin) in the browser’s console? Is it still something along the lines of:
Uncaught SyntaxError: Invalid regular expression: /^*-+:*$/: Nothing to repeat:

But now referencing the Yoast SEO plugin files instead of the Yoast ACF analysis?

We recommend that you log a bug report here (along with all of the necessary browser versions and setup) – https://yoast.com/help/how-to-write-a-good-bug-report/

Thanks!

@brainfestation @mikes41720 I have posted my bug report at GitHub. I have also found three interesting things (which I have just added to my bug report post): you can actually predict if Yoast will work in editor without even having to go to your site – in other words, bypassing all plugins, themes, and other site components completely. By going to view-source directly (i.e. view-source…/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/js/dist/post-edit-1740.js), do a ctrl+f search for /^*-+ (no spaces)and if you find it exists twice, Yoast SEO will not work in editor in that browser.

The second interesting thing is if I add a single line comment at the top of the js file post-edit-1740.js (for example //THIS IS A COMMENT), then do a view-source, comment disappears if it has been reformatted by the browser. If the comment is there, Yoast should work properly (you will also find that the regex will be valid – i.e. with the spaces before the *)

And finally, even if the code appears the way it should be and/or if Yoast is working properly, Ctrl-F5 may cause the “bad” version to reload, breaking Yoast.

Hi @achanne

Thanks for creating a bug report here. One of our developers has responded to it here. It looks to be an issue with your chosen CDN/WAF, as the JS code is changed between your server and client browser, which is causing this issue, and which looks to be outside of our scope to address.

We’ll be closing this forum thread. Please do feel free to respond to that GitHub issue for further solutions and findings. Thank you.

We are also running on Imperva and a few days ago we cleared the cache with them to mostly success but some editors at our client’s team are still facing the same issue. We will be working closely with our systems team and Imperva to try and resolve this.

@brainfestation We are using SiteLock for security, and it looks like SiteLock has outsourced to Imperva. I cleared the Trueshield cache in our Sitelock dashboard and was able to restore functionality of the Yoast SEO but only temporarily as the plugin was broken again on refresh. I called SiteLock and they said the only thing they can do is whitelist the application’s IP address. Hopefully, I sent them the correct IP address and this will solve the issue.

We found clearing the cache only worked temporarily as the problem would come back within ~20 minutes roughly. Our systems team added this file to no longer be cached by Imperva and so far we have been able to prevent this issue from recurring so far for our client.

@brainfestation Is this a file that you simply add to the plugin folder? If so, does it only work if you’re signed up with Imperva (and thus have an Imperva settings dashboard) or does it work with third parties using Imperva (such as Sitelock)? If it works with all, would you be able to share the file? Thanks.

@achanne this is the file that is breaking in the Yoast plugin. I can’t speak to Sitelock specifically, but we have direct access to Imperva so we were able to disallow them from caching the post-edit-17400.js file where the error is occurring.

You may be able to request Sitelock look at doing the same. The path to this file would be /wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/js/dist/post-edit-1740.js.
NOTE: The last numbers in the file name are specific to the version of Yoast you are running on the site so if you update to the latest version, 17.5, the file name changes to post-edit-1750.js. So Sitelock may need to ensure any future versions are disallowed from caching.