Are you looking for a workaround for how you can fix the missing Appearance Menu in WordPress admin? If so, then you’re certainly in the right place. Read on!
The need of fixing the missing appearance menu comes into play when you install and activate WordPress themes that are capable of full-site editing.
Because of having a full site editing feature, changes come under the Appearance Menu in the WordPress admin area.
In the entire article, we’ll walk you through how you can get rid of this situation by fixing the missing appearance menu in the WordPress admin area.
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As time goes by, WordPress makes releases with full-site editing features. And to edit any aspects of a WordPress site, this feature uses blocks.
Simply put, you can use blocks when you have full site editing features in WordPress. Theme editing and customization are easy with blocks.
Having that said, adding and editing any part of a theme, including menus and widgets, is super easy using blocks.
And for this reason, certain items under the Appearance menu in your WordPress admin area become unnecessary. As a result, they remain hidden by default.
Please note, that you’ll face this only if you use any theme that offers a full-site editing experience. These themes are called block-based themes as well.
So, if you’re a user of any of these kinds of themes or the default theme user (Twenty Twenty-Two), you’ll see a different Appearance menu in your admin area.
Well, you’ll be glad to know that there are two easy ways available to fix the missing appearance menus in WordPress. Having said that, you can create and customize your menus as you like.
We’ll let you know both ways with proper screenshots. After that, the decision is yours which way you’ll go with.
Even with WordPress 6.0, the full-site editing feature in not fully ready to use. Simply put, it’s still in its early phases, lately but surely it’ll come with a full-fledged experience.
As of now, it’s not fully prepared, so it may behave unexpectedly with different WordPress themes. Besides, it’ll also make many users uncomfortable while using or feel a bit clunky too.
As a result, for keeping classic navigation menus, you need to switch the WordPress to the older one that doesn’t have a full site editing experience in it.
Right now, there is plenty of popular WordPress theme that still doesn’t support a full-site editing feature. But, once the feature will be ready to use then there will be no option without including it in WordPress themes.
Alternatively, a custom WordPress theme you can create without a single code to help you.
It is not possible to access the classic navigation menus screen if you use a theme that uses block-based rules.
This error message appears even if you manually enter the URL for the navigation menu page (e.g. https://example.com/wp-admin/nav-menus.php).
The Navigation block within the site editor allows you to add, create, and edit navigation menus when using a full website editing theme.
By visiting Appearance > Editor, you can launch the full site editor.
The site editor will appear when you click Edit. Click the (+) button to add a new Navigation block.
If your theme already has a navigation block, then you can choose it by clicking.
Once that’s done, you can choose from the menu options or create a new one.
Under the Classic Menus section, you can even select menus from your website that you have previously created.
When you create a new navigation menu, you can add items to the menu. The block editor allows you to add links to your posts and pages the same way that you would in a normal editor.
Make sure to click the Update button once you have finished editing the menu to save it and apply it across your WordPress blog.
The Appearance menu is not the only place where navigation menus are disappearing. Here are the steps to fix other things under the Appearance Menu that are missing.
It’s possible to not see the Widgets menu under Appearance if there are no sidebars or widget areas defined on your WordPress theme.
You will see an error message that your theme is not widget-aware when you manually navigate to the widgets page (e.g. http://example.com/wp-admin/widgets.php).
In contrast, if your theme offers widget areas, then you will see a menu of widgets, but the editor will utilize block-based widgets.
However, using the Classic Widgets plugin, switching to the legacy widgets screen is easy to do.
WordPress contains a basic file editor that allows you to edit theme files right from the WordPress admin interface.
This editor isn’t recommended, but it has been useful for many beginners when they needed to quickly insert code into their function.php file.
Thankfully, it is still accessible but has been moved under the Tools menu if you use a full-featured site editing theme.
Under Appearance, click Customize to access Theme Customizer. Visit the customize.php URL directly to access a limited version:
https://example.com/wp-admin/customize.php
In your browser, type that URL and replace “example.com” with the name of your site.
An alert will appear letting you know that your theme supports full site editing. Following that, you will find some basic customizing options.
The purpose of this article was to help you fix the missing Appearance Menu in the WordPress admin area. We think you’ve already got what you need to fix that.
Well, you may also want to take a look at how to make categories and subcategories in WordPress, or our expert picks WordPress block patterns – a complete overview of how to use them.
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