Sidebar not saving widgets WordPress

Matt Taylor comments:

No. Everything looks as normal.

Matt Taylor comments:

When the page is refreshed or navigated away from and then back to the widgets appear in the Inactive Widgets section.

Pippin Williamson comments:

If the widgets don't work in the default theme either, then it's no an issue with your coding. It's probably a plugin conflict. Deactivate all plugins and test.

Matt Taylor comments:

Just deactivated all plugins and removed mu-plugins folder, no changes.

Pippin Williamson comments:

Do no widgets save, or just some of them? Is the site running on a local WP install or on a live server?

Matt Taylor comments:

I failed to mention that the main widget area is saving the widgets which to me would suggest that my arrays are jacked up somewhere. Of course I could be wrong...

No widgets save in any area outside of the primary sidebar, id: sidebar-widgetarea.

Pippin Williamson comments:

Do they save in other widget areas?

Pippin Williamson comments:

Oops, I mean do they save in the primary widget area?

Matt Taylor comments:

Just the primary area. Not in the other seven.

Pippin Williamson comments:

Create a new widget area by copying the code from the primary, then very carefully change the names. See if that area saves. If so, you have your problem solved.

Matt Taylor comments:

I have done that twice already. :/

Pippin Williamson comments:

Have you tried making another widget area with as few options as possible, to make the margin of error much less?

Matt Taylor comments:

Yes of course.

Pippin Williamson comments:

Have you tried running the theme on a different server? Perhaps on a local WP install? As Rashad said, it might be a problem with your hosting config.

Matt Taylor comments:

Yes I have tried it on other web hosts, no change.

Pippin Williamson comments:

I found a solution.

Apparently assigning an ID to each widget breaks it. Remove


'id' => 'footerL-widgetarea',


from each widget and everything should work fine.

Matt Taylor comments:

That was the first thing I tried. Even uninstalled the theme.

Rashad Aliyev comments:

If it's not happened after installing some plugins then it may causing from your hosting settings.

Rashad Aliyev comments:

Try to change this code with yours please.

P.S: Don't forget backup your files.

<?php

/*** WIDGETS ***/
// Check if widget area is active source: http://themeshaper.com/registering-new-sidebars-for-custom-page-templates-the-smart-way/
function is_pagetemplate_active($pagetemplate = '') {
global $wpdb;
$sql = "select meta_key from $wpdb->postmeta where meta_key like '_wp_page_template' and meta_value like '" . $pagetemplate . "'";
$result = $wpdb->query($sql);
if ($result) { return TRUE; } else { return FALSE; } } // is_pagetemplate_active()
// Register widgetized areas
if ( function_exists('register_sidebars') ) {
register_sidebar(array(
'name' => 'Sidebar',
'id' => 'sidebar-widgetarea',
'description' => __('This is right sidebar & is the primary widget area.', 'sidebar-widgetarea'),
'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="%2$s widget sidebar-widget">',
'after_widget' => "</div>",
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title sidebar-widget-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>' ));

register_sidebar(array(
'name' => 'Footer, left',
'id' => 'footerL-widgetarea',
'description' => __('Widget area for the footer, left side.', 'footerL-widgetarea'),
'before_widget' => '<section id="fwal"><div id="%1$s" class="%2$s widget footer-widget fw-left">',
'after_widget' => '</div></section>',
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title footer-widget-title fw-left-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>' ));

register_sidebar(array(
'name' => 'Footer, middle left',
'id' => 'footerML-widgetarea',
'description' => __('Widget area for the footer, middle left side.', 'footerML-widgetarea'),
'before_widget' => '<section id="fwar"><div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s fw-rightblock">',
'after_widget' => '</div></section>',
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widgettitle fw-rightblock-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>' ));

register_sidebar(array(
'name' => 'Footer, middle right',
'id' => 'footerMR-widgetarea',
'description' => __('Widget area for the footer, middle right side.', 'footerMR-widgetarea'),
'before_widget' => '<section id="fwar"><div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s fw-rightblock">',
'after_widget' => '</div></section>',
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widgettitle fw-rightblock-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>' ));

register_sidebar(array(
'name' => 'Footer, right',
'id' => 'footerR-widgetarea',
'description' => __('Widget area for the footer, right side.', 'footerR-widgetarea'),
'before_widget' => '<section id="fwar"><div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s fw-rightblock">',
'after_widget' => '</div></section>',
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widgettitle fw-rightblock-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>'));


function emp_template_widgets_init() {
if(is_pagetemplate_active('page-altsidebar.php') || is_pagetemplate_active('page-altsidebar-noslidertimecomments.php') ||
is_pagetemplate_active('page-altsidebar-nothingelse.php') ) {
register_sidebar( array (
'name' => 'Page Template - Alternate',
'id' => 'sidebarAlt-widgetarea',
'description' => __('This is the sidebar for an alternative sidebar page template.', 'sidebarAlt-widgetarea'),
'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="%2$s widget sidebarAlt-widget">',
'after_widget' => "</div>",
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title sidebarAlt-widget-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>' ));
} // end test for active template

if(is_pagetemplate_active('page-WPECsidebar.php')) {
register_sidebar( array (
'name' => 'Page Template - WPEC',
'id' => 'sidebarWPEC-widgetarea',
'description' => __('This is the sidebar for a WPEC page.', 'sidebarWPEC-widgetarea'),
'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="%2$s widget sidebarWPEC-widget">',
'after_widget' => "</div>",
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title sidebarWPEC-widget-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>' ));
} // end test for active template
} // test_template_widgets_init()
add_action ( 'init' , 'emp_template_widgets_init' );

register_sidebar( array(
'name' => 'Page Template - 404',
'id' => '404-widgetarea',
'description' => __('Widget area for 404 error pages.', '404'),
'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="%2$s widget 404-widget">',
'after_widget' => '</div>',
'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title 404-widget-title">',
'after_title' => '</h3>'));
} // end widget areas

?>

Rashad Aliyev comments:

Did you tried my codes? I think it'll work ;)

Matt Taylor comments:

I'm getting the exact same result my friend. :/

Matt Taylor comments:

This issue happens regardless of which widgets are used. I have tried both custom and WP default to no avail.

Eddie Moya comments:

Ok, so to sum this up...


You cant save changes to widgets in the wordpress backend widget editor. The problem happens only on this theme, and even when you deactivate all other plugins?

I seem to recall a similar problem once upon a time. However mine ended up being a problem with the widget itself, not the theme. If you have isolated this to the point where it can be other other than the theme, I think we need to consider looking at the entire theme and running it.

Matt Taylor comments:

Is it possible that the array is malformed?

Eddie Moya comments:

Sure, it can be any of many things. Without being able to run the theme through netbeans and trace the arrays, it would take too long to figure out by guessing. If you can post the theme somewhere for us to download, that would help speed things up.