This is probably due to a JavaScript error, which is likely a plugin conflict. If you know how to check your browser’s console (Developer > JavaScript Console in Chrome), could you look for possible errors? You can deactivate plugins one by one until you find the culprit.
I’m experiencing a similar behavior, but just in the admin dashboard page. When I HOVER over a menu item, its submenu doesn’t appear, but when I CLICK (and don’t release the mouse button) on the the same menu item, its submenu does appear. I checked out the consoles in both Chrome and Firefox and no errors show up.
The “screen options” and “help” tabs aren’t responding either (just in the admin dashboard page)
If Screen Options and Help are not responding, then it’s definitely a JavaScript issue of some sort. But, it may not be a JavaScript error.
Here are three different things you can do to help narrow down the problem:
Can you check your PHP error logs?
Can you view source on the page and find where scripts are loaded, then visit that URL? There should be two references to this: “wp-admin/load-scripts.php”. Does that link bring you a blank screen?
If you add define( 'SCRIPT_DEBUG', true ); to wp-config.php, does it fix your problem?
Scripts are loaded either in the <head> section or just before the closing </body> tag.
Visiting “wp-admin/load-scripts.php” brings a blank screen.
If I add define( ‘SCRIPT_DEBUG’, true ); to wp-config.php it fixes the problem.
Visiting “wp-admin/load-scripts.php” brings a blank screen.
Just to be clear, I meant the full URL to load-scripts.php, which would probably look like this: wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=1&load=jquery,utils,json2&ver=3.5-RC2.
The rest of this post assumes that still gives you a blank screen, which means there is a fatal PHP error happening somewhere. I would love to track this down. So:
Remove SCRIPT_DEBUG. Open up the file wp-admin/load-scripts.php for editing (the same way you would wp-config.php). At the very top, it says error_reporting(0);. Change that 0 to a -1, so you have error_reporting(-1);. Then visit the same load-scripts.php. You should not be receiving a blank screen, but rather an error.
If you still receive a blank screen, add a second line to the mix:
error_reporting(-1);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
After that, if you are still seeing a blank screen, do you think you could locate your PHP error logs anywhere?
Oops! I didn’t understand you before.
Ok, I’ve made the changes you’ve told me and now when I visit both instances of /wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=….. I get the following error:
Notice: Undefined index: load in /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 119
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:119) in /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 144
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:119) in /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 145
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:119) in /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 146
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:119) in /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 149
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:119) in /......../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 151
Just chiming in that I’m getting the same issues as OP.
Following Nacin’s instructions I get these errors for …/wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=1&load=admin-bar,hover…
Notice: Undefined index: load in /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 117
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:117) in /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 142
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:117) in /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 143
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:117) in /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 144
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:117) in /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 147
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php:117) in /...../wp-admin/load-scripts.php on line 149
My reference to “…/wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=1&load=jquery,utils,json2&ver=3.5-RC2-22928” does not return any errors.
Can both of you convert & to & before visiting those URLs? Browsers are weird.
I changed & to & and that causes my reference to “…/wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=1&load=jquery,utils,json2&ver=3.5-RC2-22928” to error out the same as “…/wp-admin/load-scripts.php?c=1&load=admin-bar,hover…” does.
Sorry, my instructions didn’t come through correctly in these posts here.
You’re viewing a URL in your browser that likely has these characters in it (with spaces omitted):
& amp ;
I need those converted to just an ampersand, thus removing amp and ;.
There’s no good reason for load-scripts.php to return a blank screen.
Are any of the sites you are reproducing this on public? Can you share a link? Could I additionally convince any of you to let me go into the server and test? (If you, you may email me at nacin -at – wordpress.org.)
Hey Nacin,
The urls I visited did have just ampersands, they weren’t encoded.
You can test on mine. Do you need ftp access or just an admin login?
Look away for a day and…well, wow…
FWIW, I’m getting the same results as the other posters here. And I can certainly give you whatever access you require to my test site if needed. Just let me know what specifically you need.
Heh, we do that in a bug sprint at the end 😉 Have you tested with turning off all the plugins, Cyndy? Or a different theme?
I’ve noticed that some plugins/themes are forcibly calling older versions of jQuery UI and cause that behavior.
I did turn off all of the plugins I had and with nothing running it was still not working. I see WP.com’s stats aren’t loading in the Dashboard, too.
I did change themes, but not in relation to this and I didn’t use any of the default themes so let me go see what that does. I saw the other thread about the Twenty Twelve theme and all. And I do know that all the themes I was playing with didn’t make the menus on the Dashboard magically work. (I think I only swapped out a few StudioPress themes.)
It’s interesting that it’s only on that one page. If things are calling for older versions of things, I find it kind of strange that it’s only on one page of the entire admin panel.
