4.3 Update: Featured Image Metabox Disappeared

I am running on the Genesis Framework, which seems to be in order, as well.

Please humor me: what version of the Genesis framework are you running?

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the response. I am running the following:

Genesis Framework: Version: 2.1.3

News Pro: Version: 3.0.2

Strangely, if I put an image in the article/post itself, it is pulling it as the featured image.

we had similar issues on a client site @peoples_pundit. Are you by chance running any caching plugins? If so, deactivate them(it) and see if your metabox returns. Its an inconvenience to say the least. Issues with all the major caching plugins.

Did it really disappear, or is it just hidden?

In the upper right corner of the screen is a Screen Options button. Click it. It’s a dropdown.

Here, there are checkboxes to show or hide specific parts of the page. Make sure the Featured Image box is checked. It will remember your setting, no need to save.

I know Otto that you have to ask that b/c of some, but that’s not it. In fact, it’s not even an option check.

As far as caching diawrence, I have purged everything from CloudFlare and deactivated Hyper Cache. Still, nada.

Okay, so, Featured Image is a core part of WordPress. If that item is actually *missing* from the Screen Options for a normal Post or Page, then something is intentionally removing it. Which means a plugin or the theme.

So, standard debug applies. Deactivate and reactivate and switch themes until you figure out what is removing it.

Hi Samuel,

I have. I am wondering if something didn’t go wrong with the update. Do you know where in the core it is, perhaps. That would save me the time of going through it. Everything was fine, no changes made to the site, until the update.

Thanks

Indeed. Thanks for you help. That was definitely it. I replaced the file, and viola! Weird, though. I’ve never had that happen, or anything like it.

The same thing happened to me: Box was there but when I returned from the modal Set Featured Image screen, the image I had selected wasn’t there, although WP attached it to the post in wp_options table (no thumbnail, though). I deactivated “W3 Total Cache” v. 0.9.4.1 (plug-in) and the Featured Image functionality returned to normal under WP 4.3. Good opportunity to clean up the plug-ins.

After an update, always clear all caches.

We ran into this issue too, it turned out it was related to a new feature introduced in 4.3 that allows customization of the “Featued Image” labels for a specified post type.

If you are using the “post_type_labels_post” filters somewhere in your code (usually to give the default post types a custom name), make sure you add these newly added labels, or the metabox will not be displayed:

// Change default post labels
add_filter( 'post_type_labels_post', function( $old_labels ) {

  $labels = new stdClass;

  $labels->name = __( 'News', 'namespace' );
  $labels->singular_name = __( 'News item', 'namespace' );
  $labels->add_new = __( 'New news item', 'namespace' );
  $labels->add_new_item = __( 'Add news item', 'namespace' );
  $labels->edit_item = __( 'Edit news item', 'namespace' );
  $labels->new_item = __( 'New news item', 'namespace' );
  $labels->view_item = __( 'View news item', 'namespace' );
  $labels->search_items = __( 'Search news items', 'namespace' );
  $labels->not_found = __( 'No news items found', 'namespace' );
  $labels->not_found_in_trash = __( 'No news items found in trash', 'namespace' );
  $labels->name_admin_bar = __( 'New news item', 'namespace' );
  $labels->all_items = __( 'All news items', 'namespace' );

  // Newly add in WP 4.3:
  $labels->featured_image = __( 'Featured image', 'namespace' );
  $labels->set_featured_image = __( 'Set featured image', 'namespace' );
  $labels->remove_featured_image = __( 'Remove featured image', 'namespace' );
  $labels->use_featured_image = __( 'Use as featured image', 'namespace' );

  return $labels;

} );

(edit: added remove_featured_image and use_featured_image)

Hey bvandreunen,

Thanks for putting that up. I forgot to mention that last week. In the WordPress Google News Plugin, we had to push out an update for this, as well, because it changes “Posts” to “Articles” instead.

No doubt, others will find this helpful.

@ bvandreunen
WHere would you place the code you quoted above?