Workaround Needed to Make Patterns Editable and Detached

Hello @bigvibes

There is not an easy way to revert this change. I suggest you to bring your suggestion in the Request and Feedback forum:
https://wordpress.org/support/forum/requests-and-feedback/

I think it may be a good User Experience improvement.

Kind regards,
Jair.

Hi @bigvibes,

This is the new content-only editing for patterns in WordPress 7.0, and there’s an official opt-out for unsynced patterns (dev note). Add this in a small mu-plugin, a child theme’s functions.php, or a snippets plugin:

add_filter( 'block_editor_settings_all', function ( $settings ) {
	$settings['disableContentOnlyForUnsyncedPatterns'] = true;
	return $settings;
} );

The editor checks this every time it loads, so it also works for patterns already placed in existing posts. You don’t need to re-insert them.

Two notes:

• Synced patterns will still show “Edit original”, because editing them changes every page that uses them. Detach is still the way to change just one copy.
• Without code, double-clicking inside a pattern also opens it for editing, which is quicker than the button.

There’s also an open Gutenberg issue asking for an on/off switch in the editor.

Hi @bigvibes ,

That’s not the intended behaviour. With the filter active, an unsynced pattern should act like a normal group of blocks, so the separator should be clickable directly.

What you’re describing (text editable, separator locked) is exactly how content-only mode works: text and images stay editable, design blocks like separators and spacers are locked. So content-only is still active for that pattern. Two usual reasons:

1. The snippet isn’t loading in the editor

Open a post, press F12 → Console, paste this and press Enter:

wp.data.select( 'core/block-editor' ).getSettings().disableContentOnlyForUnsyncedPatterns

If it returns undefined, the code isn’t running in wp-admin. Common causes: the snippet plugin is set to “Frontend only” (it needs “Run everywhere”), the snippet isn’t activated, or the mu-plugin file is inside a subfolder (WordPress only loads files placed directly in wp-content/mu-plugins/). Reload the editor after fixing it.

2. It returns true, but the pattern is still locked

Then the lock comes from the pattern itself, which this setting doesn’t override:

• The pattern’s wrapper block has "templateLock":"contentOnly" saved in its markup (common in theme and plugin patterns). Open ⋮ → Code editor and look at the first wp:group line. Remove "templateLock":"contentOnly" along with the comma next to it, then switch back to the Visual editor. To stop it coming back on new inserts, remove it from the original pattern too.
• Or it’s a synced pattern (toolbar shows “Edit original”) or it sits inside a template part like the header/footer. Those stay locked by design; Detach is the way for synced patterns.

If you share what the console check returns and where the pattern comes from (your own saved pattern, the theme, or a plugin), I can narrow it down further.