WordPress has become ubiquitous in the online world because it is readily available and because both paid staff and unpaid volunteers constantly work to update the software. Many of the updates are released to address security concerns and it is wise to keep your WordPress install current.
Similarly, WordPress theme designers regularly update their software as well. There are literally hundreds of free and paid themes out there – because I publish multiple sites, I made the decision several years ago to standardize on two robust theme frameworks – Thesis and Genesis. A framework adds functionality to the basic WordPress install, while child themes or skins designed for the framework give a site its unique look and feel. This site is built on Thesis 2.x and the Pearsonified skin. You can view a Genesis framework site with a child theme at ssdAnswers.com.
As these updates have been released, however, I began to see a recurring problem – my visual site editor stopped working.
Generally the visual editor buttons are there when I create a new post or page, but the minute I save the draft or go back into re-edit, I am faced with a totally blank editing box when the Visual editor is selected and a blank editing box when the text editor is selected as well.
If I refresh the Visual edit page, nothing happens. If I refresh the text edit page, I do see the html code which I can edit.
Obviously, WordPress posts and pages are a lot easier to edit with the Visual editor. There are numerous threads at WordPress.org discussing this problem and numerous solutions, none of which seem to work.
In WordPress 3.9, a different problem arises. The Visual edit buttons do not disappear, but the “link insert” button does not function properly.
However I have found a solution that does currently work for me in my set up. A WordPress.org forum member named Baki Goxhaj posted the following solution back in 2010, and it is working for me:
Open your wp-config.php and add this line of code at the bottom of the file before the “require_once” line:
define('CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS', false );
Thanks to: http://www.techiecorner.com/1656/wordpress-visual-editor-not-working/
In order to perform this fix, you will need an FTP program. Once you FTP into the directory where your WordPress installation resides, copy the wp-config.php file to your local hard drive. Open it with a text editor (I use metapad on my Windows machine) and insert the define line before the “require_once” line. Save the wp-config file and upload it back to your WordPress directory.
Click on the Dashboard, then proceed to edit your pages and posts. The Visual Editor will be restored.
It may be that this solution does not work for every instance of the disappearing Visual Editor but it worked for me.
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