secondary sidebar problem after updating php 5.2=>5.3

Resolved jkf1
(@jkf1)

7 years, 3 months ago

Hello,

So I just recently updated my php to 5.3 and I noticed an issue after it updated. I suddenly have this section

Secondary Sidebar Widget Area

This is the Secondary Sidebar Widget Area. You can add content to this area by visiting your Widgets Panel and adding new widgets to this area.

at the bottom of every page. I would like to remove it, but it appears to be a theme issue. (We use a child theme of genesis) Last time I tried to mess with anything in the theme, my organizations site was down for a week. So I figured I would ask for help on this before trying to change anything in there as it is the part of our website I understand the least.

Anyone have any advice for what I need to do to make this go away? The website is http://www.jackkempfoundation.org

Thanks in advance!

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)
(@sterndata)

Volunteer Forum Moderator

7 years, 3 months ago

Try dropping an empty text widget there.

I assume whoever wrote the theme is testing to see if there are no widgets and displaying that message if that’s the case.

Thread Starter jkf1
(@jkf1)

7 years, 3 months ago

The funny thing with this is that there is no “secondary sidebar” widget section for me to place a widget in. There is no secondary sidebar and I have no idea where it came from.

Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)
(@sterndata)

Volunteer Forum Moderator

7 years, 3 months ago

That’s very odd! What sidebar areas do you have under appearance->widgets? Maybe on called “Alternate Sidebar”?

Thread Starter jkf1
(@jkf1)

7 years, 3 months ago

I have the primary sidebar. It has the about page sidebar, the navigation sidebar for the kemp forum section, and then our main sidebar. All of these are functioning normally.

Then there is the interviews sidebar which has our oral history archive sidebar, also functioning normally. Those are the only sidebar categories in our widget section. The other widget sections are Home 1-3, Footer 1-4, Footer Nav, Copyright Text and Navigation Tooltip. All of these are functioning normally.

Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)
(@sterndata)

Volunteer Forum Moderator

7 years, 3 months ago

This may be a plugin or theme conflict. Please attempt to disable all plugins, and use one of the default (Twenty*) themes. If the problem goes away, enable them one by one to identify the source of your troubles.

If it’s the theme,then you need to contact whoever wrote that theme for you. (It appears to be custom.)
jen2295
(@jen2295)

7 years, 3 months ago
Hello!
I just updated to WordPress 4.7.1 and I have a similar issue! When I added a blank text box, the secondary sidebar was still there, but just blank. I can’t get rid of the secondary sidebar from the widgets page.
Can you guys please help me? My site is thebomberjacket.com.
I am also using Genesis.
Many thanks,
Jen
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by jen2295.
jen2295
(@jen2295)

7 years, 3 months ago

Ah, I updated EVERYTHING, cleared my cache and it looks okay! PHEWWW. Sorry for the false alarm. 🙂

Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)
(@sterndata)

Volunteer Forum Moderator

7 years, 3 months ago

Jen: in the future, please open a new thread for your issues rather than “me, too”ing. Thanks.

game writer
(@scrybbler)

7 years, 2 months ago

I had this issue too when I updated WPress to 4.7.2. Dropping a text widget into the sidebar didn’t help although it was a good idea. The solution for me was to update Genesis, which fixed it completely.
lorenleonard
(@lorenleonard)

7 years, 2 months ago
Thanks game writer (@scrybbler). This solved my issue with a couple Genesis themes after upgrading to WordPress 4.7.2.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by lorenleonard.
jepcmart
(@jepcmart)

6 years, 11 months ago

If using genesis, put the following in your functions.php:
remove_action( ‘genesis_sidebar_alt’, ‘genesis_do_sidebar_alt’ );