Forms broken

Hi Alex,

Thanks for reaching out and explaining the situation with your client’s site and Ninja Forms. It sounds like you’ve encountered a bit of a hiccup after migrating the site. Encountering issues after a site migration can happen, though it’s not necessarily common. It often depends on the specifics of the migration process, such as how data is transferred and any differences between the local and live server environments.

However, forms not appearing in the Ninja Forms dashboard is something we can work through. Before you consider exporting and re-importing forms ( yet again ), there are a couple of steps you can take:

1. Check for Conflicts: Sometimes, themes or other plugins can interfere with how Ninja Forms operates. Try deactivating other plugins temporarily and switch to a default WordPress theme to see if the forms reappear in the dashboard.
2. Clearing Caches: Clear any site, plugin, or browser caches. Stale cache data can sometimes cause issues with plugins not displaying data correctly.

If the above doesn’t resolve the issue, a fresh install of Ninja Forms might be the way to go. Here’s how to completely remove the plugin and its data:

1. Uninstall the Plugin: Go to the WordPress dashboard, deactivate Ninja Forms, and then delete it. Note: This removes the plugin but not necessarily all its data.
2. Remove Additional Data: Ninja Forms stores its data in your WordPress database. For a complete cleanout, you’ll need to manually remove Ninja Forms data from your database. This can involve tables named similarly to %nf% or %ninja_forms%. Please back up your database before making any changes.
3. Fresh Install: Once the plugin and data are fully removed, you can install a fresh copy of Ninja Forms and import your forms.

If you’re unsure about any steps or need more detailed guidance—especially with database modifications—our Customer Success team is here to help. Also, before you start, it might be worth reaching out to see if any additional insights or easier fixes are available.

Hi Shaylee,

Thank you for your answer and sorry for my delay. I am back up and running, half-mast tho’…

Full disclosure, I was also talking to the support through the Ninja Forms website, and I apologize for not closing this ticket. In the heat of such a transfer, every straw could be a solution, and I was grasping.

Now with a little distance, let me catch up.

The direct support suggested that I call each form by their ID, directly in the browser. Publishing them, will bring them back to the dashboard for editing.

This would be the link to call them: SITEURL/wp-admin/admin.php?page=ninja-forms&form_id=#######

Replace the #### with your form ID.

This worked sort off. The forms were back in the dashboard, but without all the actions…

This website was created 2016. So, it was an old Ninja Forms install. Pre v3. That’s why I have “_nf_’ entries in the db and “_nf3_” entries. By calling the forms by it’s ID, and clicking the “publish” button, the basic form got saved to the “_nf3_” tables, but the actions were still in the “nf_” tables.

Bottom line, I will probably still follow your description and completely remove Ninja Forms, drop the tables and start from scratch.

So, thank you for your input! It was not lost in vain!

Cheers,
Alex