Hello everyone,
For about two months, I have been missing the admin sidebar on the left (see screenshot). I cannot find any option to “enable” it, either in the settings or anywhere else. Even when using an incognito browser window, the same issue occurs.
Does anyone have an idea what might be causing this?
Best regards,
Mr. Xurrent
Welcome to the forum 
Have you tried safe mode? This could rule out the possibility that the issue is caused by a plugin or a component.
You could also check if there are any error messages in the browser console.
Hi there,
I actually just tried this out, and coincidentally, the admin sidebar is available via “safe mode”.
Can you tell me which plugin or component might be causing this issue?
To narrow it down, you can first disable only plugins in safe mode, and then only themes. This will at least tell you where to look.
Generally, you’ll find both in the admin sidebar — now that you can see it again. Plugins have their own section. You can also append /admin/plugins to your forum’s URL. You’ll find themes in the Appearance section or under /admin/config/customize/themes.
It’s likely a customization specific to your forum, as I haven’t read about any other forum having this issue so far. Without knowing which non-Discourse-team plugins you’re using, which theme components, and what customizations you have, it’ll be hard to guess.
Only plugins published by the Discourse team itself were enabled.
I disabled all plugins – the issue persists.
The “Foundation” theme is being used; regardless of which theme I preview, the admin sidebar on the left is missing everywhere.
No components are installed.
Have you narrowed down whether it’s a theme or plugin issue by testing the various safe mode options?
I just tested it out.
If I only enable the option “Trigger an error for deprecated JavaScript functions”, the error also appears in “safe mode”.
have you looked in the browser console for errors?
That doesn’t surprise me, since neither plugins nor themes are disabled. However, this doesn’t answer whether the issue stems from a theme or a plugin.
Does the sidebar work when you disable only the themes?
Then we could rule out plugins as the cause. Otherwise, I would proceed systematically and disable unofficial plugins.
And if that doesn’t help either, then only option 3 remains.
Will it be enough is this kind issue? Or does it need rebuild in every round?
That’s exactly what I meant by my previous statements.
In other words, on the one hand, I had gradually disabled all plugins (which didn’t change the error behavior), and on the other hand, no matter which of the three top options I disabled, the admin sidebar on the left was still displayed in “safe mode”.
If I enable the option “Cause outdated JavaScript functions to trigger an error”, the admin sidebar on the left is no longer displayed in “safe mode”.
Hmm. That’s unusual. I would have expected an either/or situation. So, it must either be an issue with the interaction between a plugin and the theme, or neither is the cause.
I think the browser console could really help now.
There, I am shown two errors:
Great! Here you can see on which line of code the problem occurs.
The code seems to be the solution to this problem Changing the target audience of Enable form templates incorrectly creates an Update Discourse option in the left sidebar - #2 by zogstrip
The error listed there doesn’t actually reflect the issue I’m experiencing.
Furthermore, the post doesn’t make it clear to me what exactly I need to change to get it working again 
.
I suspect your issue stems from the changes made to fix the linked problem. I’m not sure if there’s anything you can change here. Hopefully, someone with more insight into the code will have time to look into it soon.
