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Troubleshooting Guide: Why the Role Editor Menu is Missing in the Members Plugin

33 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Members – membership & user role editor plugin

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One of the most common issues users encounter with the Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin is the sudden disappearance of the 'Roles' or 'Role Editor' menu. This can be a frustrating experience, especially when you're logged in as an Administrator and expect to have full access. This guide will walk you through the primary reasons this happens and the steps you can take to resolve it.

Why Does the Role Editor Menu Disappear?

Based on community reports and troubleshooting threads, the missing menu is almost never a direct bug in the plugin's code. Instead, it's typically caused by one of two scenarios:

  1. Incorrect Administrator Capabilities: The most frequent cause is that the necessary capabilities for managing roles have been inadvertently removed from the Administrator role. The Members plugin uses specific capabilities like create_roles, edit_roles, and list_roles to control access to its menus. If these are missing, the menu will not appear.
  2. Plugin or Theme Conflict: In some cases, another plugin or your theme might be interfering with the Members plugin, preventing its menus from loading correctly. This is less common but is always worth investigating.

How to Fix the Missing Role Editor Menu

Solution 1: Restore Administrator Capabilities (Most Common Fix)

This solution involves manually adding the required capabilities back to the Administrator role using a simple code snippet.

  1. Install and activate the free Code Snippets plugin from the WordPress repository. This provides a safe way to run code without editing your theme's functions.php file.
  2. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Snippets > Add New.
  3. Paste the following code into the code editor: 
    $role_object = get_role( 'administrator' );
$role_object->add_cap( 'create_roles' );
$role_object->add_cap( 'edit_roles' );
$role_object->add_cap( 'list_roles' );
$role_object->add_cap( 'delete_roles' );
  4. In the 'Code Snippets' settings on the same page, locate the 'Run snippet everywhere' option and change it to 'Run snippet once'.
  5. Click Save Changes and Activate. The snippet will run one time and then deactivate itself. You should now see the Roles menu reappear under the Members menu. You can then safely delete the snippet.

Solution 2: Perform a Conflict Test

If the first solution doesn't work, a plugin or theme conflict is likely.

  1. Temporarily deactivate all other plugins except for the Members plugin.
  2. Switch your theme to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-One.
  3. Check if the Roles menu is now visible. If it is, reactivate your plugins and theme one by one, checking after each activation, to identify the culprit.

Solution 3: Check the Role Manager Setting

It's also worth double-checking a simple setting within the plugin itself. Ensure the role manager hasn't been accidentally disabled.

  1. Go to Members > Settings.
  2. Under the 'General' tab, make sure the checkbox for 'Enable the Role Manager' is ticked.
  3. Save your settings.

Conclusion

The disappearance of the Role Editor menu is a well-documented issue with clear solutions. In the vast majority of cases, restoring the create_roles capability to the Administrator role via the Code Snippets method will immediately resolve the problem. If you continue to experience issues, a thorough conflict test is your best next step to identify any incompatible software on your site.

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