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Troubleshooting Missing Toolbars and Buttons in Advanced Editor Tools

61 threads Sep 10, 2025 Plugin → Advanced editor tools

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If you've installed the Advanced Editor Tools plugin (formerly TinyMCE Advanced) and your toolbar is missing, buttons won't stay where you put them, or the menu bar is invisible, you're not alone. These are some of the most common support issues reported by users. This guide will walk you through the most frequent causes and their solutions.

Why Do Toolbars and Buttons Disappear?

Based on extensive community reports, the disappearance of toolbars and buttons is rarely a permanent flaw in the plugin itself. The issues almost always fall into one of these categories:

  • Plugin or Theme Conflicts: Another plugin, or sometimes your theme, is filtering the TinyMCE settings and preventing Advanced Editor Tools from loading correctly.
  • The 'Toolbar Toggle' Button: This is a incredibly common point of confusion. Additional toolbars (like the second row) are often hidden by default and must be revealed by clicking this button.
  • Browser or Server Caching: Old cached versions of the plugin's scripts or styles are being served, making the toolbar appear broken or invisible.
  • User Role Limitations: In some complex cases, settings may not propagate correctly for non-Administrator user roles due to caching or other conflicts.

Step-by-Step Troubleshooting Guide

1. The First Step: Always Clear Your Cache

Before you do anything else, this is the easiest fix to try. The Advanced Editor Tools team has even added code to try to auto-refresh caches after an update because this is such a frequent culprit.

  • Browser Cache: Hard-refresh your browser (Ctrl+F5 or Cmd+Shift+R). Alternatively, clear your browser's cached images and files completely.
  • Server Cache: If you use a caching plugin (like W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket) or a server-side cache (like Varnish), clear those caches as well.

2. Check for the 'Toolbar Toggle' Button

If your first toolbar is visible but the second, third, or fourth rows are missing, this is almost certainly the issue. The plugin is designed to hide additional rows by default to save space.

  • Go to Settings → Advanced Editor Tools.
  • Look at the first toolbar row. Is the 'Toolbar Toggle' button present? It looks like two horizontal lines.
  • If it is not on the first row, you must drag it there. Important: This button will be automatically removed if you try to place it on any other row. It only functions on the first row.
  • Once it's on your first toolbar, save the settings and go to a post. Click the 'Toolbar Toggle' button to show or hide the additional toolbar rows.

3. Perform a Conflict Test

If clearing the cache doesn't work, a plugin or theme conflict is the next most likely cause.

  1. Deactivate all other plugins except Advanced Editor Tools.
  2. Switch to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-One.
  3. Check if the toolbar now appears correctly.
  4. If it does, reactivate your plugins one-by-one, checking the editor after each one, to identify the conflicting software. Common conflict suspects include page builders, multi-language plugins (like qTranslate), and other editor-enhancing plugins.

4. Investigate JavaScript Errors

A JavaScript error caused by another script can halt the loading of the toolbar entirely.

  1. Open the browser console:
    • Chrome/Firefox/Edge: Right-click on the page, select 'Inspect', and click on the 'Console' tab.
    • Safari: Enable the Developer menu in Preferences, then go to Develop → Show JavaScript Console.
  2. With the console open, reload the post editor page.
  3. Look for any error messages printed in red. These errors can provide a direct clue about which plugin or theme is causing the problem.

5. Check User Role Settings and Caching

If the toolbar is missing for non-Administrator users (e.g., Editors, Authors) but works for you, it's often a caching issue specific to how settings are stored and loaded for different users. The conflict test (Step 3) also applies here. Ensure the user has the proper unfiltered_html capability, as this can sometimes affect editor tools.

Less Common but Documented Issues

  • Transparent Menu Bar: A rare styling issue where the menu bar background becomes transparent, making the text unreadable. The solution is almost always to clear the browser cache forcefully, as updated CSS files are not being loaded.
  • Missing Classic Block Toolbar: In the Block Editor (Gutenberg), the Classic block has its own toolbar. If buttons are missing there, it's often due to JavaScript errors. A hard page refresh (Shift+Reload) can sometimes force the scripts to reload correctly.
  • Buttons Removed in an Update: Note that some older buttons like Abbreviation, Acronym, and Citation were removed from the core TinyMCE library by its developers (not the Advanced Editor Tools team) and are no longer available to add back.

By methodically working through these steps—clearing cache, verifying the Toolbar Toggle button, and testing for conflicts—you can almost always resolve missing toolbar issues and get back to writing and editing your content.

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