Cannot Enable Block Editor

Hi @jaimemarchwinski. That’s really odd. I’m not sure why it was working for me earlier, but I get the same error now. I’ve re-enabled the WP Engine default mu-plugins and that seems to bring the admin back.

I think the best solution would be to try recreating your site on a fresh WordPress install, as that seems to be a workable solution for now.

I don’t quite understand this recommendation given that I need to enable the block editor on an existing site. Given a site with content and settings, can you clarify your suggestion?

Hi @mrwweb

No problem, I would be happy to clarify. I believe that it’s possible that the Classic Editor plugins are still affecting your site in some way, perhaps there is still some data there left in the database.

I suggested a fresh install because this would remove the possibility of that data being left over, which is affecting your ability to use the Block Editor on your site.

I have not been able to replicate this issue with a bare install on my own test site, and you haven’t been able to do so on another newer site as well.

I know that this isn’t an easy solution, so let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Jaime

Hi @jaimemarchwinski. I think I have found the issue, and I believe this is a bug in The Events Calendar.

The Classic Editor plugin sets an option classic-editor-replace that has either the value classic or block. I found that The Events Calendar does not seem to use the expected editor in two situations, treating the “classic” option OR activated plugin as sufficient to use the classic editor.

Here are all the possible combinations of the option value and the plugin activation state.

Option	Value	|  Classic Editor Plugin	| TEC Editor
--------------------------------------------------------------
block 		|  deactivated			| block
block 		|  activated			| classic
classic 	|  deactivated			| classic
{unset}		|  deactivated			| block
{unset}		|  activated			| classic
classic 	|  activated			| classic

I would expect that TEC use the Block Editor for the first four scenarios and the classic editor for the last two.

To replicate, you’ll need to not just enable the Classic Editor plugin but save the page on Settings > Writing to set the database option. Otherwise, you’ll be toggling between the 4th and 5th combinations which are both expected.

Hi @mrwweb

Thank you for going through that thorough testing. We have actually explored this issue in the past and have determined that what you are seeing is expected behavior.

It seems that the Classic Editor plugin is overwriting the option to use the block editor, is that correct?

As you can see in this article, we link our users to the Classic Editor plugin if they’d like to keep the Classic Editor, so it is doing its job:
https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/k/using-the-classic-editor-to-manage-events/

Does that help to clarify things?

Thanks,
Jaime

@jaimemarchwinski

It seems that the Classic Editor plugin is overwriting the option to use the block editor, is that correct?

That is not how I would characterize it. There are two scenarios where the user clearly shows intent to USE the block editor but The Events Calendar shows the Classic Editor anyway.

I can’t see how this is expected behavior, and it doesn’t even align with how I think the TEC code is intended to work, based on the stuff I found. Here are the two cases where I see unexpected behavior:

1. The Classic Editor plugin is deactivated or deleted, but the option to use the Classic Editor is left behind in the database (classic-editor-replace = classic). The deactivation/deletion of the plugin shows clear intent to use the Block Editor, but The Events Calendar unexpectedly shows the Classic Editor anyway.
2. The Classic Editor plugin is activated and set to use the Block Editor. The saved option (classic-editor-replace = block) shows a clear intent to use the Block Editor, but The Events Calendar unexpectedly shows the Classic Editor anyway.

Looking at your documentation, I don’t see anything to suggest that either of these situations (previously using Classic Editor but not anymore or using Classic Editor but setting it to use the Block Editor) is expected to revert The Events Calendar to using the Block Editor.

Hi @mrwweb

Thanks for your thorough response. I did some further testing here with the Classic Editor plugin.

As long as the Classic Editor plugin was activated, I was unable to use the Block Editor within our plugin.

However, what differs from what you were describing is that when I deactivated and/or deleted the Classic Editor plugin, the Block Editor worked immediately on my site.

So, what I would recommend here would be to manually remove that option from the database so that you can use the Block Editor again.

Does that work for you?

Thanks,
Jaime

As long as the Classic Editor plugin was activated, I was unable to use the Block Editor within our plugin.

Hope you can get that bug fixed soon!

However, what differs from what you were describing is that when I deactivated and/or deleted the Classic Editor plugin, the Block Editor worked immediately on my site.

Here are the exact steps to replicate the bug on a clean install. I just confirmed.

1. Brand new install of WordPress
2. Install The Events Calendar and Classic Editor plugins
3. Update TEC Settings to Use Classic Editor
4. Save the settings on Settings > Writing with “Classic” editor selected
5. Deactivate the Classic Editor plugin

Result: TEC uses the Classic Editor.
Expected Result: TEC uses the Block Editor.

So, what I would recommend here would be to manually remove that option from the database so that you can use the Block Editor again.

This can be resolved in two different ways:

• Delete the classic-editor-replace option in the database
• Activate the Classic Editor plugin, change the setting to “Block” on Settings > Writing, deactivate the Classic Editor plugin.

Yes, I can do these things, but please please please report this as a bug to your developer team. This cannot possibly be the intended behavior where settings aren’t honored and the ghosts of previously installed plugins prevent a feature from working.

While we’ve finally found a workaround for this issue, it’s not resolved until the bug is fixed.

Hi @mrwweb

Thanks for your response. I have logged a bug report detailing this issue so that our developers can look into it.

We will update you within this thread when a fix for this issue has been released.

Thanks for your patience and understanding here!

Cheers,
Jaime

Ticket: BTRIA-530

Great! Thanks, @jaimemarchwinski!

No problem, we’ll update you here when this is resolved!

There’s been no movement on this ticket for more than a week, so I’m going to close it as resolved.

If you still need assistance with this, please open a new ticket and we’ll be happy to help.

Cheers,
Eugene.

@eugenetribe It doesn’t really seem like this should be closed until the actual bug (Ticket: BTRIA-530) is resolved. I’ve updated the status.

@mrwweb Thanks for your thorough research… I ran into the same problem and thanks to your – Delete the classic-editor-replace option in the database – solution I could solve it after a few hours of testing and trying.
Good work!

@eugenetribe – the issue still exists so it should be kept open.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Webtaurus.

This issue still seems unresolved? Just spent best part of a day trying to figure out why events dates weren’t saving and events were generating 404 errors.

Came across this thread. Had to turn the “Activate Block Editor for Events” setting off and on in TEC to get Events to save, but still no Block Editor displaying.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by marcusjwilson.

I have this same problem with a site that was using the Classic Editor plugin. I disabled the plugin, no block editor for a new event. I completely deleted the plugin, still doesn’t work. This data: classic-editor-replace is not in the database.

I then used Health Check to troubleshoot, with theme Twenty Twenty and only the Events Calendar enabled, I still don’t get the block editor for a new event.

There is no setting in the Events Calendar for managing the block editor.