[kingstringy]

Running WordPress 4.9.5, bbPress 2.5.14, Buddypress 2.9.4

Forums are randomly becoming inaccessible to logged-in users, displaying only the “no topics found” message despite showing the appropriate number of topics in the forum listings. Most forums are rendered inaccessible when the error occurs, but not all. Forums that remain accessible show no obvious difference in configuration or status from the forums that display the “no topics found” message.

Problem persists regardless of theme or plugin configuration.

• I’ve tried both wpfix plugins, neither fixed the problem.
• I tried deactivating and reactivating all plugins on the actual site to no effect, then created a clone of the site and deactivated and deleted all plugins except bbPress, Buddypress, and the wpfix plugins. The problem persists.
• I’ve switched to the latest version of Twentyseventeen and the problem persists.
• I’ve tried using both Forum Tools and Buddypress tools to repair issues, to no effect.
• Also tried resetting permalinks, no effect

The only thing that repairs the issue is switching each forum to public, saving the forum, then returning the forum to private status and saving again. Bulk edit doesn’t work — only updating each forum individually.

After being fixed, the forums sometimes slip back into inaccessibility, even if no change has been made to the forum itself.

Any help in fixing this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[kingstringy]

Updates:

• Tried deactivating Buddypress (because there was nothing else left to deactivate). No change. Buddypress has been reactivated.
• Looked at the database itself. All the values look correct for the forums: all forums are currently set to private, all have a status value of “private” in the database. Not all the forums are accessible to a logged-in user however, only ones that I’ve given the “update to Public, then update to Private” treatment

[kingstringy]

More updates:

• Tried updating the database values directly. Changing the status of a forum affects how the title is displayed (“Private:” is added or removed depending on whether the status is set to private or publish), but the visibility of the topics within the forum doesn’t change. Again, only updating the forum status to Public and then to Private causes the topics to display.
• The topic and reply counts are displayed and accurate for the forum, but the topic titles and links don’t appear until the post is updated to public then private
• Other changes to the forum via its edit page don’t trigger a fix of the glitch

[Ashaani]

I’ve been having a similar issue (WordPress 4.9.8, bbpress 2.5.14, no Buddypress). Forum users with the Participant role were able to view the existence of private forums but not any of the actual topics inside them. I tried creating a new role with read_private_topics enabled as well and assigning it to them, but to no avail. The only thing that seemed to fix it is what @kingstringy mentioned above:

The only thing that repairs the issue is switching each forum to public, saving the forum, then returning the forum to private status and saving again. Bulk edit doesn’t work — only updating each forum individually.

After having done that, users with the standard Participant role are able to see private forums again, with no other customization or plugins needed.

I wonder if there is a bug with the Bulk Actions dropdown in the Forums admin page? That’s what I used to set them to Private originally. Maybe it failed to update something that it needed to, whereas setting the visibility to Private on each forum individually succeeded.

[Robin W]

@ashaani

It could be a theme or plugin issue issue, so you’ll need to test to find out which

Plugins

Deactivate all but bbpress and see if this fixes. if it does, re-enable one at a time to see which is causing the error.

Themes

If plugins don’t pinpoint the problem, as a test switch to a default theme such as twentyfifteen, and see if this fixes.

Then come back