Version 3.5 Upgrade Breaks Widgets

[vancouverfamily]

Hello, I see another thread of the issue I’m having that seems not to have a public answer: https://tri.be/support/forums/topic/dashboard-widgets-missing/ Was this resolved, and how?

I’m having the same problem. I upgraded to 3.5 on both Calendar Pro and Community Events. Using WordPress 3.9. Widgets disappeared. So I disabled all plugins, and reacted them one-by-one. Calendar Pro is causing the Widgets to disappear.

I’ve also activated the Debug plugin but I’m not savvy enough to use it properly. Can I get some assistance please? Thanks.

My site is in maintenance mode, but I can provide an Admin account to a Support staff if they would like to login.

[Casey D]

Hello vancouverfamily,

Thanks for reaching out! I’ll be happy to help.

It seems like a possible theme/plugin conflict is likely.

• Is it all widgets or just The Events Calendar related widgets?
• Could I get a screenshot of the widgets page? Depending on how the page loads could reflect what the error is.
• What theme are you using? Seems like a StudioPress theme?
• Is this the debug plugin you are using? https://wordpress.org/plugins/debug-bar/ I’ve never used it but it might be helpful.

If you like, you can send us account information for a second admin account in a private reply. I don’t think it will be necessary, but may be helpful!

If you can get back to me on this stuff I can get you back up and running!

Cheers!

– Casey Driscoll

[vancouverfamily]

This reply is private.

[Casey D]

Thanks for getting back to us so quickly!

We are very familiar with this problem. We had a bug in our 3.5 Pro update and it cause some db issues.

We recommend upgrading The Events Calendar Pro to 3.5.2. Here are the notes on the release with a fuller explanation:

https://theeventscalendar.com/release-events-calendar-pro-3-5-2-hotfix/

 

If you install this plugin it will fix the db problem and fix your widgets:

 

It should be relatively painless. Sorry you are experiencing this! Let me know if that doesn’t work for you!

– Casey Driscoll

[vancouverfamily]

Hello again,

I downloaded PRO 3.5.2. Completely deleted 3.5.1. and then installed 3.5.2. My widgets are still doing the same disappearing deal. I can the cleanup plugin too and it didn’t fix the problem. Could you login and check this error for me please?

[Casey D]

Hello vancouverfamily,

Sorry that didn’t fix it!

Would you mind if I installed and activated the debug bar plugin? https://wordpress.org/plugins/debug-bar/

It would also be great if you could add this line to your wp-config.php file.

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );

– Casey Driscoll

[vancouverfamily]

I’ve installed and activated the debug bar. Also placed the define code in the the config file. It’s all set for you. Let me know if you need FTP access. Thanks!

[Casey D]

Hello vancouverfamily,

Sorry I forgot a piece of info!

Make sure you have a back up first. We haven’t had problems with the cleanup plugin yet, but safe is better than sorry.

Once the clean up plugin is installed, you have to go to the Event Settings page and click the “Merge Duplicate Recurring Events” button at the very bottom. This will run the clean up.

We’ve run into this widgets problem several times and it’s nearly always this problem and solution.

Does this make sense? If that still doesn’t work, let me know.

Cheers!

– Casey Driscoll

[vancouverfamily]

Thanks for getting back to me again. Yesterday, when I installed the cleanup tool, I did go to Event Settings and I did run the duplicate cleanup tool. I ran it again just now as follows:

1. Deactivate Debug toolbar.
2. Ran clean duplicate tool under Settings > Misc > “Duplicate Recurring Events”
3. Checked Widgets after tool finished running. Widgets still not showing. Only 6 show.

Can you go in and run it for me? If you need FTP to re-activate the debug bar, please let me know. I can provide a set of credentials.

[Casey D]

Hi vancouverfamily,

I talked to the devs and we think we know what the problem is.

The countdown widget that is failing tries to grab every published event and put it into memory. Your server isn’t strong enough to handle all 5,323 published events at once, so it gets stuck and fails. (recently, this ‘too many events’ problem was tied to the duplication problem, thus my previous replies)

This is a fault on our end and we’re looking into implementing a better solution for our next release, so thanks for bringing this to our attention!

Here are your current options today though:

1. Upgrade your server. Not always the best situation, nor something we typically recommend, but it might work for your case.
2. On the Event Settings page, set the “Create recurring events in advance for” setting to 12 or 6 months, if it is viable for your site. This should drastically lower the amount of events you currently have published.
3. Remove the problematic widget, by adding the following code to your theme’s functions.php file:

remove_action( 'widgets_init', 'tribe_countdown_register_widget' );

From what I can tell of your site, I would choose number 3, but it would be up to you.

Does this make sense? Let me know if one of these don’t work for you.

Cheers!

– Casey Driscoll

[vancouverfamily]

Hello again!

I added remove_action( ‘widgets_init’, ‘tribe_countdown_register_widget’ ); to my functions.php file and reduced recurring events to every 12 months and all my widgets are back. Thanks! I guess this means that if I wanted to show a register widget for the calendar, I couldn’t now — that’s what the widget was I removed in functions.php, yes?

[Casey D]

Close!

You wouldn’t be able to show the ‘Events Countdown’ widget, the stuck one at the end of the list here: http://192.64.118.36/~relizbpq/vancouverfamilymagazine/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/widgets.png

So you shouldn’t see an ‘Events Countdown’ widget on the widgets admin page anymore. You removed it, and all the others are allowed to load.

All widgets get registered to the widget queue during the widget initialization process (widgets_init). So ‘tribe_countdown_register_widget’ is just a function we have in our code that creates and registers it to the queue.

Does that make sense? Cheers!

– Casey Driscoll

[vancouverfamily]

Yep — makes sense! Thanks!

[Leah]

Hi there,

I just wanted to update you here. We were not able to fix this issue in time for our upcoming release (3.6). However, it is still very much a priority and we hope to have it corrected in the next maintenance release. We will keep you posted on our progress. Thank you for your patience and support!

Best,
Leah

[Leah]

Hi there,

I just wanted to drop in and update you on the status of this issue. We are working on the upcoming 3.7 release and are happy to say that a fix for this issue will be included. Please keep an eye on your Updates and Plugins pages for an update prompt. If you have any trouble or continue to see this issue after updating, please start a new thread and we can assist you from there. Thank you for your patience while we worked on this issue.

Best,
Leah

[Author]

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