So here’s an interesting bug that came up with a client the other day – the Screen Options tab went MIA from the top right corner of the WooCommerce Orders screen in the Admin view for on of our non-admin users. I search the interwebs high and low to find the answer but came up relatively short.
The Potential Fixes Available
- Switch the current theme to any other and see if it reappears
- Apparently the latest version of Gutenberg omitted the Screen Options tab so you can only access it in the individual Orders screen – not very helpful
- Force the missing column to appear in the table using a code snippet – tried various code snippets and it sort of worked but the missing column was appearing twice for some users who already had the column enabled.
- Update all plugins and theme files to see if it reappears
- Last resort because it’s the biggest pain: deactivate all plugins one by one until the Screen Options tab reappears
I went through each of the above steps to correct the issue and this was the result.
- Switch the current theme – no change
- Gutenberg omits the Screen Options tab – not the issue
- Force the missing column with a code snippet – tried various code snippets and it sort of worked but the missing column was appearing twice for users who already had the column enabled and I couldn’t get all of the items to show up properly.
- Update all plugins and theme files – no change
- Last report: disable plugins one by one – of course this worked. I was able to narrow it down to the culprit responsible for the missing Screen Options tab.
The Culprit
The Event Tickets plugin by The Events Calendar using their latest freemium version 5.16.1. Of course it is. I love The Events Calendar suite of products BUT their plugins can be buggy and unstable at times.
The Solution
I temporarily deactivated the Event Tickets plugin, logged in as the particular user with the issue, enabled the missing column and quickly reactivated the plugin. SOLVED. For now.
I hope this saves you some time. I certainly wish I could get some of those hours of my life back. And yes, The Events Calendar guys are now aware.