You can try reinstalling the WP installation. There should be an option to do this under Dashboard (upper left) -> Updates. Then press the 'reinstall wordpress' button on that page.

The other thing you can try is go back to the default theme - probably 2010 - and deactivate all the plugins, but it sounds like you've done that already.

Good luck

Hi. Thank you very much for the suggestions. As it is, I have deactivated all plugins, switched out other themes, and have done a complete reinstall. Widgets started out working fine, but now will not permit editing, adding or deleting widgets.

OK, but what did you do right before they stopped working?
Did you try another browser?

Sounds really strange... so unless you let somebody to take a look at it (from inside) there might not be an aswer.

Istvan,

It is really strange! I've tried viewing the the backend using Firefox and IE and the result is the same. The only action right before I noticed the problem was that I put Adsense on the archive.php page. Shortly after that, I found that widgets were not longer working. I deleted the Adsense code from archive.php, but that did nothing to remedy the problem. I have no idea why or how Adsense code would interfere with widgets, but I have no way of knowing if the two events are related in any way.

Evan

Brian,

Thank you for the suggestion; I just gave this a try, but unfortunately it didn't work. Right now I'm wondering if there could somehow be a conflict in DNS records. I don't know why or how this could influence the operation of widgets.

Thank you again,
Evan

Since you made a change in the archive.php file of your theme folder, I would try and re-upload that file through an ftp program, or through your file manager. Might be that somehow the code got messed up.

Leslie

You could check your folder and file permissions: Changing File Permissions « WordPress Codex

If that doesn't fix it, I would do a clean install to a "different" folder. Don't install any plugins, just create and delete a few widgets. If the problem doesn't exist in the new location then it's a problem with the other location and consider moving to the new install. Sometimes a "reinstall" will not clean up possible file corruption. If the problem exists with the new clean install then I would also ask your hosting support for help as they may have tools and access to take a look at a deeper level.

Leslie: Thank you for your suggestion. I just tried uploading a fresh archive.php but the problem remains. Good idea, though!

Brian: Interesting. I've actually deleted the domain and had the hosting company remove all stray DNS records. Then I created a new account for the domain and reinstalled the wordpress files and database. For several weeks there was no problem. Then one day, widgets stopped working. Now, I have actually done an installation of this wordpress site on another domain for a test and it works just fine. Unfortunately, I can't really put the installation on a different domain name. Still, I'm wondering if there isn't some DNS records out there that is somehow interfering.

Evan

DNS records should not interfere with how your internal wp-admin pages work...

I will watch this thread with interest!! It certainly DOES seem to be a bit of a mystery.

Brian and Istvan,

Right. I don't know why DNS records would interere; I'm just reaching. As I think I mentioned, I even deleted the domain from my Hostgator account, wiped it off completely, and then re-established the domain and manually reinstalled all the files. Widgets worked fine for about 2 or 3 weeks and then stopped. I've already deactivated plugins, but I could do that again. Since I cannot add, edit, or delete widgets, I can't remove any scripts running inside a widget. Otherwise, the only foreign script running on the site is Adsense. I wonder if deleting files directly from MySQL would make a difference.

Evan

We might have a winner here... I have no idea what kind of scripts are you running INSIDE your widget(s) - but it is possible they interfere somehow with the proper functioning of the widgets subpanel.

I am NOT saying this is the right diagnosis, just wondering...

Maybe there is something going on with the contents of the widgets. I had a YouTube video in one, a CPA and affiliate banner in another, a vertical adsense block on another, and a text widget giving a list blog posts. Moreover, I have just discovered that the all of the widgets mentioned have vanished from the blog. Now I'm wondering if I should delete the domain again and start over.

The odd thing is, is that I have an identical install running on a test domain without any problem. There just seems to be something funky with this domain.

Evan

Netkid,

Thank you for your advice. Right now, hopefully, Hostgator is running a check for errors on the MySQL database. Following that, I may delete thte domain and start over as you suggest. I hate to do it; I've already done that once, but I may try it using a Fantastico WP install to see if that makes a difference. I switched out themes with the WP defalt and Classic only after the problem manifested just be sure that the problem wasn't an artifact of my current theme. The theme I'm using is the latest version of a Studio Press theme, so I don't think the theme is causing the problem.

Evan

Temporarily until the problem is fixed you can click on "screen options" after going to the widgets screen and then click enable accessibility mode. Now you should be able to add widgets. Inconvenient but....

If you cannot get into the screen options, while on the widget page add this to the end of the url :

?widgets-access=on

Just out of curiosity, Did you take the new WordPress 3.0.5 update around the same time this cropped up. It was released 2 days before you posted. If So It is very likely your having a theme/wordpress compatibility issue . Studio released a new version on the 9th, one day before you posted.

Im just guessing but the release on the 9th may be for compatibility issues with the new WordPress core.

Evan-M,

This seems to be working. I used the url addition, which turned on widgets. At least for the time being I appear to have widgets restored.

Thank you very much!

Evan

The only Java that's running is included with the theme and then there is Adsense. It is strange, though, because I have this version of the theme running on a test domain with the exact same database and WP files, and it is running with no problem.

Evan