You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page. For Admin User

We are getting the “You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page” when trying to search posts in the Dashboard. The admin user can search Pages and a custom Post type that we have set up for the site. As far as I can tell searching posts is the only place this error is showing up.

I have tried a couple of things that I have found in the forums. I replaced the salt values in config.php; I also set the db version back one version in the options table to force a database update but neither has had any effect.

I cannot update the WP install because we have customized the site to the point we are concerned about what an update would do. Also I cannot turn off all of the plugins and turn them on one by one. It is a production site and turning off the plugins is not an option. I have tried turning off specific plugins and trying to search posts but have not been successful in finding a culprit. I know I have ruled out the first option for a fix and the first trouble shooting option but unfortunately this is what I have to work with. The curious thing is that we only get the message when trying to search through the posts, not pages or custom post types.

Anyone have an idea about this?