Title: Cannot select parent when creating/editing a page Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Cannot select parent when creating/editing a page * [robin1229](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin1229/) * (@robin1229) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/) * I am using WordPress Version 3.0.1 to create a site, using a child of the Twentyten theme. After creating 19 pages, I noticed that the dropdown for choosing the parent page, which normally appears under Page Attributes, was no longer there, having been replaced by just the word Template. This means that I can’t add new pages to the navigation for the site. Also, Right Now on the Dashboard page, shows 0 pages. * I can’t think of what I might have done to cause this. * Thinking there could be a problem with the database, I wiped it and started anew. * Before creating any pages, I activated some different themes, but ultimately went back to Twentyten. During this process I checked several times to be sure the dropdown for choosing a parent theme was in place. After creating two pages, I went to create a subpage and noticed that the dropdown was no longer there, and had been replaced with Template. The only thing I can think of that I did was activate my child theme of Twentyten. I reactivated the parent Twentyten but the dropdown for choosing the parent was still gone. * I would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions. Thank you! * Robin Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652433) * It sounds like there’s an issue with the 2010 child theme. Can you start again but this time do not upload your child theme? * Thread Starter [robin1229](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin1229/) * (@robin1229) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652464) * Thank you for getting back to me. We wipe the database and started again. I activated the Suffusion theme and did not use a child theme. I tweaked some of the theme’s settings, such as background color, wrapper color, etc., but did not tweak anything regarding pages. The Choose Parent box was in place when I clicked on Add New page. * I opened the existing About page, changed the title, pasted in some text, unchecked the boxes for comments and trackbacks, changed the page from public to private, and selected the template for single left column. As this is the only page, there was no parent to select. After saving the page, I decided to look at a couple of the other available templates. Everything seemed fine. I changed back to the single left column template and updated the page. * I then navigated to Menus and created a menu. It was then that I noticed that the Pages box read “No items” and the Add to Menu was missing. I looked at the Dashboard; and where it showed 1 page previously, it now shows 0. I clicked on Add New page, and the Choose Parent box was gone, having been replaced by the word Template. * The problem exists in both Safari and Firefox on both Windows and OS X Snow Leopard. * Any ideas on what could be causing this? I can’t think of anything I’ve done that is out of the ordinary, and the problem has occurred with two different themes. * Thank you. * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652470) * It might be a problem with your database or the MySQL server. You’ve ruled out themes, browsers and I’m assuming you’re not using any plugins, yes? So that only really leaves the database & server(s). * One thought, though – where were you pasting this text from? * Thread Starter [robin1229](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin1229/) * (@robin1229) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652480) * Thanks for getting back to me. * I had exported the first 19 pages I created before I wiped the database, and then opened the XML file in MacVim. I copied and pasted only the text content from the XML file into a page. * Thread Starter [robin1229](https://wordpress.org/support/users/robin1229/) * (@robin1229) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652481) * My only active plugin is WP SuperEdit. However, the problem occurred before I installed and activated it. * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652503) * What happens with a fresh install and pages created where the text has been ** typed** in? * [my8](https://wordpress.org/support/users/my8/) * (@my8) * [15 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652610) * Hello. I had a same problem I hope it was same as yours. I use wordpress 3.0.1 Japanese version so I don’t know exactly how to translate the words on the admin panel(or controll panel?) in English but it’s dead simple hope you understand. * 1 Publish the pages. 2 Press the apply button. 3 The parent button will work. * Hope it’s work for you!! * [Tim](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bloxblox/) * (@bloxblox) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652619) * Thanks my8 (mate?) * Your solution worked for me. * I had the same problem – no parent dropdown, 0 pages on dashboard. * I had every page in draft while I was adding them all. * I don’t think this is how it should work, but it looks like you can’t use parents that are in draft. * I published some and they’re now available as parents, and counted on the dashboard. * [Marcus (aka @msykes)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/netweblogic/) * (@netweblogic) * [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652654) * I really needed pending pages to show, so I wrote the following, in case someone finds it useful. paste it within your functions.php theme file. * only downside is on the quick edit list of pages, you can give a page itself as a parent, but I can live with that. * ``` post_type="articles" ){ $post_statuses = array('pending','publish'); $post_exclude = is_numeric($_GET['post']) ? ' AND ID!='.$_GET['post']:''; $query = "SELECT * FROM ".$wpdb->posts." WHERE (post_type = 'page' AND (post_status='".implode("' OR post_status='",$post_statuses)."') AND $post_exclude ) ORDER BY menu_order, post_title ASC"; $pages = $wpdb->get_results($query); $output = ''; if ( ! empty($pages) ) { $output = "\n"; } } return $output; } add_filter('wp_dropdown_pages','multi_status_dropdown_pages', 100, 1); ?> ``` Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘Cannot select parent when creating/editing a page’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [admin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/admin/) * [menu](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/menu/) * [page](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/page/) * [parent](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/parent/) * [subpage](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/subpage/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 9 replies * 5 participants * Last reply from: [Marcus (aka @msykes)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/netweblogic/) * Last activity: [15 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-select-parent-when-creatingediting-a-page/#post-1652654) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics