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Troubleshooting Jetpack Forms: Missing Responses, Admin Access, and Submission Issues

24 threads Sep 10, 2025 Plugin → Jetpack

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Many WordPress site owners rely on Jetpack for its robust form functionality. However, recent updates and plugin conflicts can sometimes cause the form responses to disappear from the admin area, prevent you from deleting submissions, or stop emails from sending. This guide will help you diagnose and resolve the most common Jetpack Forms issues, based on community reports and solutions.

Common Jetpack Forms Issues

Users frequently encounter a few specific problems with Jetpack Forms:

  • Empty Responses Table: The Jetpack Forms or Feedback menu is accessible, but the list of responses is completely empty.
  • Cannot Delete Responses: Clicking the delete button does nothing or results in a "rest_forbidden" or "Sorry, you are not allowed to do that." error.
  • Admin Menu Missing: The Feedback or Jetpack Forms menu item vanishes entirely from the WordPress admin sidebar.
  • Forms Not Submitting: Users can fill out the form, but clicking submit does not send an email or show a success message.

Why This Happens

These problems are rarely due to a single cause. The most common culprits are:

  • Plugin or Theme Conflicts: Another plugin or your theme can interfere with how Jetpack Forms functions. This is the most frequent cause of missing UI elements, submission errors, and display issues.
  • Permission Issues: User role capabilities or caching mechanisms can sometimes block the AJAX requests needed to load or delete form responses, resulting in "rest_forbidden" errors.
  • Database Discrepancies: Occasionally, the database that stores form entries can become out of sync, leading to entries that exist but are not displayed.
  • Recent Jetpack Updates: Major updates can change where forms are managed. For example, the 'Feedback' menu was consolidated into a new 'Jetpack Forms' area, which changed the user interface for managing submissions.

How to Troubleshoot and Fix These Issues

1. Conduct a Conflict Test

This is the most critical step for diagnosing missing menus, empty tables, or forms that won't submit.

  1. Temporarily switch your theme to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Four.
  2. Deactivate all plugins except Jetpack.
  3. Check if the problem is resolved. If your forms responses reappear or can be deleted, the conflict is now isolated.
  4. Reactivate your plugins one-by-one, checking the Forms page after each activation, to identify the conflicting software.
  5. Finally, reactivate your original theme to test it.

If the problem returns after activating a specific plugin or your theme, you have found the source of the conflict. You can then seek an alternative plugin or contact the theme/plugin developer for support.

2. Clear Caches

A simple cache clear can often resolve permission errors and display issues.

  • Clear your browser's cache and cookies.
  • Clear any server-side or plugin-based caching (e.g., WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, Cloudflare).

3. Check User Roles and Capabilities

If you are seeing "rest_forbidden" errors when trying to delete responses, ensure your WordPress user account has administrative privileges. If you recently changed your role, you may have lost the necessary capabilities to moderate form submissions.

4. Understand the New Forms Interface

If you are looking for the old 'Feedback' menu, note that it has been replaced by 'Jetpack Forms' in the admin sidebar. The new interface presents responses in a single-item view rather than a list, which is a deliberate design change. The Jetpack team has stated there is currently no option to revert to the old list-based layout, but user feedback on the change has been documented.

5. Investigate Form Submission Failures

If forms are not submitting or sending emails, the conflict test (Step 1) is essential. As seen in user reports, a plugin like WP FullCalendar can break the form submission script. If deactivating other plugins fixes the submission issue, you will need to keep the conflicting plugin deactivated or contact its developer for a compatibility update.

By methodically working through these steps, you can identify and resolve most issues related to Jetpack Forms not displaying or functioning correctly.

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