Title: Shortcode not working
Last modified: November 28, 2016

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# Shortcode not working

 *  Resolved [JJ](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jimmyj352/)
 * (@jimmyj352)
 * [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-179/)
 * I just happened to notice that the Waiting countdown I had in my sidebar (using
   a widget) no longer was showing the countdown. Instead it just shows the shortcode
   text:
 * [waiting name=”Retirement”]
 * I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but I’m guessing it was in the past couple
   of weeks. I tried disabling other plugins to see if there was a conflict with
   another one, but it didn’t make a difference.
 * Have you seen this issue before or any thoughts on how to fix it?
 * Thanks,
 * — Jim
    [http://www.routetoretire.com](https://www.routetoretire.com)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Plugin Author [plugin.builders](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pluginbuilders/)
 * (@pluginbuilders)
 * [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-179/#post-8491454)
 * Hi, Waiting has its own widget, use that. What are you using now?
 *  Thread Starter [JJ](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jimmyj352/)
 * (@jimmyj352)
 * [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-179/#post-8493084)
 * Haha, I never even knew the widget was there – I’ve been doing a text widget 
   with the shortcode in it for a while now. 🙂
 * I just tried the Waiting widget and it shows up blank on the page. I also tried
   switching the theme and that didn’t make a difference.
 * I left the widget on the page since it showing up blank doesn’t hurt anything.
 * If I do an Inspect Element, it looks like the widget is there, but it’s blank
   in between the span tags.
 * Any thoughts?
 *  Plugin Author [plugin.builders](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pluginbuilders/)
 * (@pluginbuilders)
 * [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-179/#post-8496184)
 * Hi, no, the shortcode isn’t there. Make sure you have countdown created in Waiting
   page and Waiting widget active with one countdown selected.
 *  Thread Starter [JJ](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jimmyj352/)
 * (@jimmyj352)
 * [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-179/#post-8497777)
 * Well, I fixed it. I tested the shortcode in a page and it showed up just fine.
   For some reason it just stopped working in widgets. Then I found this article:
 * [https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/05/wordpress-shortcodes-complete-guide/](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/05/wordpress-shortcodes-complete-guide/)
 * It had this blurb in it:
 * > A shortcode in a widget before enabling the functionality
   >  With WordPress, 
   > we can enable this functionality with a single line of code. To be able to 
   > add shortcodes in widgets, add the following:
   > add_filter(‘widget_text’, ‘do_shortcode’);
 * I added that to the functions.php in my child theme and everything worked just
   fine again. No idea why that would have stopped working, but hopefully this helps
   someone else out if they run into the same issue.
 * Thanks for your help!
 * — Jim
    -  This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by [JJ](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jimmyj352/).

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Shortcode not working’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/waiting_86b7d6.svg)
 * [Waiting: One-click countdowns](https://wordpress.org/plugins/waiting/)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/waiting/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/waiting/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/waiting/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/waiting/reviews/)

 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [JJ](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jimmyj352/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-179/#post-8497777)
 * Status: resolved