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Monday, February 24, 2020

Sidebars Lost & Recovered (Whew)

Several days ago, I had a serious blog issue. All the right sidebars were suddenly and mysteriously gone. I checked the blog with both the Safari and Firefox browsers that I use. They weren't showing on either.


😲 YIKES !

You can imagine I had so many questions (and wasn't in a good mood at all) 
HOW did that happen? WHERE did they go? WHAT could be done to get them back? 

At first, I thought it might be something screwy in Blogger (it's happened before) and that maybe all would be well in time. I powered my devices off and on again as doing so has been known to resolve an issue.

It didn't😟and online searches for similar issues proved useless, so I posted a support question to the Blogger Help Community.

YES, I received a reply from Platinum Product Expert, Irsah, who asked several questions: was I was using any of the Blogger default themes, my blog platform (Windows or Mac) and he asked me to include a blog URL so that others could possibly assist.

After complying, I remembered that after seeing the sidebar gone, I'd noticed that the bottom screen had stalled at loading LinkWithina widget that was on my blog

(A widget is an element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that shows information or provides a specific way for a user to interact with an operating system or application. Widgets can include icons, pull-down menus, buttons, selection boxes, scroll bars, toggle buttons, checkmarks and other devices.)

By using the free LinkWithin widget in Blogger, a user can add related posts with images. The widget shows under each post and links to related posts from a blog archive so that readers can find other stories published within the blog. I'd been using this widget for a couple of years, and added it it after a fellow blogger's suggestion. 

Could this widget have caused the issue?
Since I remembered that LinkWithin had stalled when the blog was loading, I looked further into the blog layout and not only found it, but was given the option to remove it — which I did.

YEAH 🤗 the right sidebars were back and LinkWithin was not — good riddance.

Returning to the blogger help community, I posted to advise Irsah that I had resolved my issue and he replied: Thanks and glad you found a fix. In your case, the web browser stalled 'painting' your sidebar because it was waiting for the Linkwithin gadget to resolve the connections, but that never happened.

Shortly afterward, another blogger, Georgiana, responded to my help community post: Thank you so much. Exactly the same thing happened to me. I've deleted the linkwithin "thingy" which only worked for a couple of months anyway. Now, back to normal.

SO if you have a similar blog issue, the easy fix could be to remove LinkWithin (it's located under Design and then Layout). Curiously, the LinkWithin website also wasn't working when I searched for it online and it would not load — and also seemed stalled (????).

Hope this helps someone else avoid a possible blogger meltdown. 

Thanks for all your comments. I'm far from being a "techie" person, but when something isn't working or frustrates the ##$$!! out of me, (like blogger issues), I'll try to resolve the issue and this time got very lucky. I'm thankful to have remembered seeing that stalled linkwithin message was the culprit (this time).

13 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

Phew! You got that sorted. Things like this can drive people mad.

MadSnapper said...

so glad it was an easy fix. blogger forum almost always has the answer nd this time you had the answer... computers do strange things and we have to figureout the what and why andhow

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

I'm glad you got that sorted out. I got rid of that particular widget a few years ago when it started behaving oddly.

Jon said...

I'm glad that you finally discovered the source of what was causing your sidebar problem. Over the years, I've also had to deal with numerous mystery glitches that have caused major problems on my blog.
Presently, I'm having trouble with my fonts.

Edna B said...

Thanks for the info. I'm so glad your problem was solved. You have a wonderful day, hugs, Edna B.

Valerie said...

I admire your determination. Well done! If it was me I would close down since I wouldn't know where to start. Once upon a time I would have investigated and solved, but these days I am a lazy person without a workable brain.

mamasmercantile said...

Well done you. I am not sure I would have known where to start.

Goldendaze-Ginnie said...

This is a perfect example of why I keep my blog very simple. A "techy" I am not !!

Connie said...

It is so frustrating when things don't work the way you think they should in Blogger. I'm glad you were able to figure out the problem and find a way to fix it.

Bill said...

I always try to keep things simple because these types of problems drive me crazy. Nice job sorting it out and then sharing your solution with the blogger forum. I've been on that site before for issues I've had. :)

TARYTERRE said...

i hate computer issues. usually something i can't handle. glad you have a handle on it.good luck.

baili said...

oh that was relief that you got your side bar back after online counseling and getting rid of LinkedIn
long ago i think our friend Martha told that her header was disappeared suddenly

William Kendall said...

Thanks for the tip!