Used widgets not showing

  • Resolved tucsonsam

    (@tucsonsam)


    16 years, 7 months ago

    I originally started using the theme Daleri Sweet, but in trying to change the Introduction, I totally lost the sidebars.

    I had put some widgets in the sidebars.

    Now, no matter what theme I try to use, the widgets are listed as “Used” and so are not available to put on the sidebar, and the sidebar shows no widgets being used.

    I am currently using Blue Hue 1.6, and under “Available Widgets” “Show Used Widgets”, the following are listed: Calendar, Archives, Links:Blogroll, Recent Posts, Tag Cloud, Categories, Text: Introduction

    Under “Current Widgets” “Sidebar 1” it says you are using 0 widgets in the sidebar.

    On the actual blog page, the following is in the sidebar: Search, Pages, Archivers, Categories, Blogroll, Meta

    I’d like to at least put Calendar there, and the Text:Introduction that shows up on some other themes but not this one, and would like to try out Tag Cloud.

    Do these things have to already be a part of a theme before you can use them, or what am I doing wrong?

    Can anyone help?

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Thread Starter tucsonsam

    (@tucsonsam)

    I’m seeing a pattern here. There are many perhaps very basic questions that are not being responded to. Others get short-shrift with caustic comments about reading the documentation.

    It would make this forum more useful to newbies if people would take the time to respond courteously, being mindful that there is a lot of new information to digest and a new lingo to absorb. Searching for functions can be difficult it one doesn’t know the name of the function, and the documentation isn’t always clear or doesn’t always provide enough information for some of us.

    That said, I’d like to close this topic, because I did finally either figure out what I was doing wrong, or found a theme that accepted all my widgets, or both. I’m not quite sure, but things are working now.

    A word to the wise for other newbies – it is very easy to forget to “Save” after making a change.

    I now have this problem too and am not sure how to get the widgets back… Help, anyone? Is there a way to reset?

    Update: I “fixed” this problem by installing a theme that had 3-4 sidebars and then removing my Used Widgets so that all Widgets were unused again. Then I returned to the theme I actually wanted. Ghetto, but it works.

    Hopefully future WP updates can refine the Widget panel to avoid this issue in the future…

    shellyd

    (@shellyd)

    i just tried kristanlh’s fix, and still have the same problem – “used” widgets are not showing in the sidebar. here’s a screenshot of my widget admin page:

    https://screencast.com/t/p8g98IVRgUS

    meanwhile, the only widget showing on the blog page itself is the search tool. wha…? Has anyone figured out what is going on here?

    Here’s a Widgets Reset plugin. It will completely remove all widgets.

    shellyd

    (@shellyd)

    You, my friend, are a lifesaver. Worked like a charm. Thanks! Nice plugin!

    btr57

    (@btr57)

    I am only one day into my WP journey but immediately bought a template that came with two sidebars and a number of widgets eg search, archives, recent posts, categories, blogroll, meta, etc. I want to remove a few and change the position of others but can’t see them in the admin panel.

    In fact, the admin panel only refers to the left sidebar and not the right one, and all widgets are shown as available and unused rather than six of them used (3 left and 3 right).

    If I reset them all with the plugin above, will I be able to get back the versions I bought in the template (with special icons, etc)?

    rparker

    (@rparker)

    Greenshady, thanks for the Widgets Reset plugin, but it’s giving a fatal error, below:

    Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.
    Warning: require_once(/home/.server/rossjamesparker/rossparker.com/public/wp-content/plugins/widgets-reset/settings-admin.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/.dennis/rossjamesparker/rossparker.com/public/wp-content/plugins/widgets-reset.php on line 39

    Excellent, nice one Justin, your plugin saved my weekend.

    I solved my problem by using kristanlh’s method. THANKS!

    The Steps (looks long but very fast)

    1. Deactivated the Theme where my blogroll widget was ‘missing’
    2. Actived the WordPress default theme
    3. Located the blogroll widget “Links” in the sidebar
    4. Removed the blogroll sidebar widget and saved my changes
    5. Reactivated my original theme
    6. added the Blogroll links widget to my sidebar & saved changes
    7. Done!

    Voila! All better now.

    Seemed faster to do this then download and activate a plugin.

    Jinfinite8

    Is this a bug?

    It happens when one changes themes and the themes have different sidebar ids. The widgets used on the previous theme’s sidebar id are not available in the new theme which uses a different sidebar id.

    If I change the new theme to use the same sidebar id as the previous theme, in the register_sidebar function, then the previously used widgets show up in the admin panel for widgets but they do not show up on the Web site.

    As a user, I would expect the widgets to reset when changing to a new theme and to remember widgets per theme. Or to be able to see in the admin panel all sidebar ids that are holding on to widgets making them unavailable even if they are from themes other than the currently activated theme, and then be able to copy or import the other theme’s sidebar widgets to the new theme’s sidebar.

    Currently it has to be done by using the Widget Reset plugin as a workaround or by remembering to remove all widgets from a theme before changing to a new theme which is inconvenient if one wants to change back and forth between themes.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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