Can’t delete posts, media, products, anything

  • I was initially using the “bulk actions” to move many items (or just one) to trash or to delete things. Doesn’t matter if media in media library, posts, products, they couldn’t be deleted that way but I could delete them one-by-one (e.g. go into edit post and delete it from the single post editor) but now I cannot delete even in the editor. No deletes or move to trash allowed at all.

    I’ve turned off various plugins but not anything with that.

    When I try to delete, I get “error in moving to trash” only.

    Advice? ideas? Thanks!

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    I’ve turned off various plugins

    – Not “Various” try deactivating ALL (yes all) plugins temporarily to see if this resolves the problem (plugin functions can interfere). If this works, re-activate them individually (one-by-one) to find the problematic plugin(s).
    – If that does not resolves the issue, try switching to the unedited default Theme (Twenty Twenty, etc.) for a moment using the WP dashboard to rule out any theme-specific issue (theme functions can interfere like plugins).

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by t-p.
    Thread Starter swedishbuttercup

    (@swedishbuttercup)

    Yeah, when I say “various” I mean one-by-one but not all at once — but now that I’ve even done that (all at once), it STILL is a problem. I thought it was a plugin but it seems not to be. That is why I’m HERE asking. I have no where else to ask this question. It’s not the theme either — I changed that temporarily and it was not the problem.

    Moderator t-p

    (@t-p)

    Please check the error logs on your server for a more specific error message, which may give a clue to why this is happening on your website/server. If you need help locating them, ask your hosting provider to help you with that.

    If you cannot find error logs or if you don’t find any helpful info in the error logs, try Enabling debugging

    Since it is not a plugin or the theme causing the issue the only one of three things I can think of that would cause such an issue is database write permissions, a damaged database, or a server configuration issue. I’d suggest checking database permissions first, then if the problem persists proceed to repair the database in phpMyAdmin, and if the problem persists after both those things then call your hosting provider and ask them to take a look a the configuration for you. If you are really nice most hosts will help you even though they technically are not there to provide help with WordPress.

    Thread Starter swedishbuttercup

    (@swedishbuttercup)

    We just enabled debugging, surprisingly the action of hitting “trash” button on an individual media library item doesn’t do anything there looking at the debug in the wp-content, and we looked at the apache error logs — nothing shows in either one when the error occurs. A “clean” error message. No errors on the back end just the dang message and no ability to move anything to the trash. Same for bulk move to trash. This is same for media library, posts, products (if woocommerce is on)

    Thread Starter swedishbuttercup

    (@swedishbuttercup)

    Using PHPMyAdmin, I had tried to repair the database (thinking that could be the problem) two weeks ago. I’ve been putting off making updates to this website but now need to do something. I may just restore from a backup done before the problem started. Little will be lost if I do that.

    Restoring from a backup is certainly one solution. Honestly, if little would be lost it might be your best bet at this point if this has been an issue for two weeks or more.

    Thread Starter swedishbuttercup

    (@swedishbuttercup)

    I am seldom on this particular site and did some clean up of the files 2 weeks ago (unattached media library files deleting) and it was then that it started as a problem. Since I seldom use the site, not much has happened in 2 weeks but me troubleshooting and finding nothing. Bummer.

    Ah ha, do not delete things from the media library directories. That almost definitely caused the problems. If you want to delete media that is unused do it through the wp-admin media library screens not from the servers file manager (or our FTP client). Restoring to a backup from before you started deleting items from the media library should fix the problem and might be the only way to fix the problem.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
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