I had a client contact me to let me know that when they try to edit a post or a page, all they see is HTML.
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My first suggestion was to try clicking on the tabs to the top right of the body editor, obviously they’re just in “Text” mode and need to switch to “Visual” mode.
However, I did not expect the response she sent.
“I have no such tabs, I only have a button to switch to full screen edit mode.”
I requested her login because from my login everything worked fine. But sure enough, when I was logged in with her user info, no tabs!
But then I remembered, there’s this silly setting in the User Profile screen. “Disable the visual editor when writing”.
Get there this way: Users => Edit (user with issue) => first option top of screen
I UNCHECKED the box, clicked save, and everything was fixed.
Who would be pleased with a 5 minute fix, she was, but so was I! 😉
“OMG, what did you do? I see the visual and text tabs were added. Probably easy for you! Wow, thank you!”
Using Gutenberg or the Block Editor?
In the new WordPress editor, these tabs no longer exist. Instead, if you want to use the “Text” tab to enter code or markdown, there are now blocks for that!
The HTML Block
The Markdown Block
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thank you! and YES I was experiencing the same issue and could not figure it out for the life of me!
I dont have tabs either. I dont have the box checked either. How else can I get the tabs?
I’m not sure…You may need to deactivate your plugins to see if there is a conflict.
This is a year and a half late, but I also had the same issue. I had no tabs and the checkbox was not checked, which I found weird and annoying. To fix it, I first checked the box and saved my profile and then unchecked it again. That worked.
OMG…thank you! I have been trying forever to fix this issue. I never thought it would be such an easy fix.
Also worked for me… thanks for the suggestion.
Ha, have just wasted 25 minutes. Thanks for saving my sanity
I tried Bruce’s fix, but unfortunately it didn’t work for me. Neither did Chris’ suggestion about the plugins. Any other ideas? 🙁
Also struggling with this issue, tried both Bruce’s and Chris’ fixes, none worked :/
WP version: 4.9.1
Thank you very much. you were one year and a half late for them. but just on time for me!!
Thank you so much for the solution. It worked like a charm! 🙂
Damn! its work perpecly, thank so much for the tips 🙂
Thanks man …i was really pissed off due to the missing Visual Editor …and i got it back in seconds with this information…thanks
thanks it works for me
Thank you very much………………
Woohoo! thank you!!! I couldn’t figure this out for the life of me.
Thank you very much. Solved the problem………
Here’s a similar problem: We’ve been editing our cart and checkout page (WooCommerce) and all the edits updated perfectly on the live site.
So we closed the page editor and all is good. But when opening the page editor again, the entire content editing section is missing!
This happened for both these pages, but all other pages are still editing completely fine. There is no problem with the store and the checkout flow is not compromised, it’s only the editing in the backend that’s missing.
The only thing different from usual is that we’ve added some javascript from the SSL provider.
Anyone with an idea here?
Using the latest version of both WordPress and Woo?
Are you using the Woo default pages for Cart and Checkout, or did you create a new page and use the shortcode / page selection?
Have you tried deactivating all plugins except for Woo to see if there is a conflict?
Where did you add the Javascript, in the page editor? Have you tried removing that JS to see if that’s the conflict?
– Chris
thank youu …..its working.
I tried this solution and it didn’t work for me. Do you have any other suggestion.
Thanks for your help.
Sincerely,
LeBaron Washington
ACTUAL LIFE SAVER…over 2 years later!
Thank you!
OMG! Thanks!!! I looked all over…
THANK YOU!!
For me, the box was unchecked to start, but I checked it, hit save, then unchecked it and saved again. That did it.
Then I realized… I created my admin user directly through the database (the other site admins were on vacation when I needed to create my account, and I had database access) — so I must have neglected to create some meta row that would have controlled this setting. So by saving my profile I probably created the missing rows.
I was practically tearing my hair off trying to find a solution for this and I didn’t realize that little option was added to every user. Thank you so much!
Wow, thank you SO much for this help and quick fix!! My visual editor is back and I couldn’t be happier 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing!!
thank you!!! lifesaver – had to check and save then uncheck but worked phew!!
I feel like such a dummy. I even remember checking that damn box. Been trying to fix the same thing for days. All the advice and stupid things I read and tried have been so far from the cure. I have polluted my WP vps with unwanted plugins. I actually got so fed up I deleted every page I had created, reinstalled WP, even tried a different theme. Now I cant even title my pages the same and redo everything from memory as bits of the old site conflict. So now I need to somehow wipe WP completely clean of old site remnants and I can finally start over from memory. Any further help to get that accomplished (Start from a clean install) would be appreciated.
Thankyou so much for the solution to what started this madness.
hi
thank u so much for this solution
its working
thanks for sharing this post
Chris – you rock! I have to admit – I first smacked myself on the forehead with this one, then had a really good laugh. Although there was a reason I disabled it to begin with, but now I can’t remember why. Thanks for sharing this!
Thank you very much for this.
my box was unchecked. I tried to check then uncheck until I realised I got an error because of a missing screen name. added a screen name, checked the no visual editor bux, saved. then unchecked and saved again. its back and fixed now ^^ thank you I’ve been looking for this for days. a stupid feature to say the least.
thanks u soooooooooooooo much 🙂 i was facing the same problem thanks alot
I have tried this solution and it did not fix it. This user has always had the tabs to switch until recently. I went in and clicked the box, saved it, logged out, logged back in, unchecked the box and saved and logged out again and still no luck. Any suggestions?
Could be a plugin conflicting with the editor. Trouble shoot by turning off all plugins.
https://wp.me/PisGP-1Zg
Chris
Gosh! This has been a life saver! It worked for me too! Thank you.
Thank You – had been racking my brain why I wasn’t seeing the Visual and Text tabs.
Thanks a lot for sharing this information 🙂
Hello Chris,
Thanks for this. It seems soooo simple now – Cheers!
Yes!!! Still there and causing the problem! What could be the thought in putting that there?
Thanks for your posting this answer!!!
Thank you! You fix make my day. 🙂
Thanks Chris
You just saved my life.
Why would anyone need that setting – I don’t know how I managed to change it.
YES!
I could see the html/text tab but my colleague couldn’t.
I would have had to look at about 4 places permissions would have been applied but would have missed this one.
aws cloudfront users (or similar cdn or proxies) should check if cache is forwarding “User-Agent” header. WordPress code is checks for browser type before showing these tabs. I searched a lot until i realized this is the problem.
Wow, so glad I found this. Thank you !
CJ, glad this worked for you!
Thanks for leaving the comment!
Be sure to follow on Twitter @chrisegg for future post/solutions.
– Chris
oh my god! Thanks!
THANK GOD! Thank you!
I disabled EVERY plugin, toggled the checkbox 3 back and forth 3 times, changed to a different theme 10 times, did a wordpress update. Still nothing.
Hey Brandon, sorry this simple fix didn’t work for you. What else have you tired? If you’d like I’m happy to take a look for you. You can send me a direct email at chris[at]mywpgeek.com.
Thanks
Chris
I have the visual and text editor buttons available on my screen (box, as mentioned in user profile, is left unchecked), however, I am only able to view the html text via the text editor. When I click on the visual button, nothing happens. Any ideas? Thank you!
Hi Cara,
Do you use any theme builder plugins or does the theme have any custom builder functionality built in?
– Chris
You are the Boss!!
Many thanks for that!!!
I’m having the same problem. I checked Users = Profile AND that box is ALREADY checked off. Yet, my problem persists. I see what looks to me as code. I cannot edit my drafts. I am disappointed.
What now. I want that happiness in 5 minutes. I’m exhausted. I’ve been dealing with this since May 08th… help me. Thank you.
Are you using a theme builder or builder plugin like beaver builder or divi or visual composer ?
Have you tried checking the box, clicking save. Then I checking the box and clicking save again?
I managed a ton of wordpress sites, more from a security and update side from a hosting provider point of view. I usually run a script to add myself a user. I’ve had this same issue described above. Essentially if your user was created with older WP version, within the ${prefix}_usermeta table is an entry called “rich_editing”. If this is set false or missing completely, you will not get the Visual/Text tabs in the editor. As another person commented, simply checking the disable box in your user’s profile, saving, and then unchecking and saving seems to add the appropriate entry.
You are my hero <3
Hey glad I could help!
Tried checking and unchecking….doesn’t work. Funny thing is, no one else on our team has this issue, only me!
Thanks. Although my box was not checked, I had no visual editor. Checking the box, updating the profile, unchecking it and updating the profile restored the visual editing function.
It appears WordPress someone was confused.
A great help, thanks.
Missing WordPress visual editor.
In the User, Profile, I tried checking and unchecking.still doesn’t work.
I even tried restore of backup, it still does not work.
what else can I do?
Matt
Exactly the answer I was looking for…
Thank you
You seriously saved me from STRANGLING my wordpress site. Thank you.
hi. sites that i manage on AWS for a company ‘lost’ classic editor. Its disappear from all sites inside the container. I think it can be occur by the installation of WAF (firewall) on proxy server of company. Im on investingation of this case. I tried the check / unckeck option inside user profile panel but its does not works. keep in touch.
There’s another fix that isn’t mentioned–if you’ve updated WordPress, it may now have Gutenberg installed as the text editor. I had no tabs visible (visual, text, site builder). If you install the plug in “Classic Editor” they all reappear. Had I called GoDaddy first, it would have saved me hours of web searching
Thank you!!!! 🙏 😊
You are a lifesaver!! Fix it in 2 seconds!!! 😀
Wow!! This is fantastic. What a shame I didn’t come across it before a two day nightmare of deleting plugins and adding them back one by one, only to learn that the problem wasn’t resolved.
Thank you!
This was DRIVING ME INSANE. I couldn’t understand why this wasn’t showing up. Then remembered I added myself as a user through phpmyadmin because the client didnt understand how to add my into their default wordpress setup. I had to check the box, click save, then uncheck the box, and click save again. The tabs showed up after. Thank you for this article. ::bows intensely::
Thanks a lot! Saved a lot of time!
Thank you! That was driving me crazy last night and I totally forgot that setting!
Thank you! I just fixed mine, it’s much appreciated!
Many thanks!
I came back to the site more than 2 years ago and decided to finally solve the problem. I messed around with plugins and settings, then I googled for an hour until I finally found your advice. What a stupid hook by WordPress.
I have tried the same but still not working. However, on my local setup, everything is working fine. Please help me.