Menu won't save if Child Theme is active

Menus are saved in the WP options table for each theme. It is slightly different for multi site so let me know if this is multisite WordPress.

If the menu location is not saving, it may be that the “theme_mods” option was not generated correctly when you activated the Child Theme.

You can try a couple of things:

1. First, check if there are any javascript conflicts messing with the menu location being saved correctly. From the Menus page, right-click and select “Inspect Element” to bring up the developer panel. Check the console for any javascript errors. Fill out our support form and paste them into the message box.

2. Deactivate the Child Theme, then reactivate it to reset the “theme mod” options.

3. Go to the CTC Parent/Child tab. Check that the parent and child themes are selected from the menus and check the “Copy Menus, Widget and other Customizer Options” box. Click “Generate/Rebuild Child Theme Files.”

In any case, use our support form for further assistance. It lets you provide more details about your setup that will help identify the problem.

Thanks, -jf

I think that a something is wrong with the SQL that updates the theme mods and is causing an error. None of the theme mods can be adjusted for any theme other than 2012. I tested on 2015 and it did not take either.

I recommend two things.

1. Modify your wp-config.php file to enable debugging.

Around line 80 or so, change this line:

define('WP_DEBUG', false);

to:

define('WP_DEBUG', true );

2. Try go to the menu page and try setting the location again. If my theory is correct it will throw a SQL error to the browser.

3. Once we see where it is failing we can deactivate the plugin that is causing the problem.

After enabling WP_DEBUG:

WordPress database error: [Table 'wp_options' is marked as crashed and should be repaired]

In PHPMyAdmin, checking options table reports:

wp_options check warning Table is marked as crashed
wp_options check error Size of datafile is: 98404 Should be: 3889...
wp_options check error Corrupt

Repairing options table resolves the issue.