Wordpress Sidebar Widget Troubleshooting
Budget: $10 – $100 USD
I need some troubleshooting help on a Wrodpress site.
When I edited the right sidebar widget and saved it, the right sidebar widget completely went away/disappeared, replaced with “Archives”. That shouldn’t be there, and there is actually NO widget on the site for the Archives.
Previously, the html code (copied below) was there on the right sidebar instead of what appears there.
I have attempted several times to re-add the right sidebar widget with html code (below) and sometimes it says “Widget saved” and other times I get this error when trying to save it: "wordpress error "there was an error. The response is not a valid jSON reponse”.
I suspect that this may be a server error/issue? Even when it DOES say it’s saved, the widget then disappears and there’s no right sidebar saved. Here’s the code: (I removed the domain name for privacy reasons, but you'll get an idea of what it was.)
<ul class="sidebarlogo"><li><a href="https://siteurl.com/"><img src="https://siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/image-file.jpg" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/imagefile.png" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/xyz/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/filename2.png" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/2/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2.png" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/3/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/3.png" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/4/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/5.jpg" alt="alt-5"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/6/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/7.jpg" alt="alt-8"></a></li>
</ul>
The right sidebar widget won't update at all.
A Godaddy guy said this, not sure if it'll help you. "I do see lines of code of wordfence code in the .htaccess code. JSON error you receiving is more a firewall/waf blocking. I tried to add the widgets path to Sucuri so would recommend likely making a ticket with them before the WP team has it’s not the server likely blocking the request. I do check that your RestAPI is accessible but could be a Sucuri believing it is a site injection attack for the widget saving the HTML. Another path would investigate changing to classic widgets instead which can bypass firewall rules. I believe it’s firewall first but could also look into elementor and your generator theme as well. "
When I edited the right sidebar widget and saved it, the right sidebar widget completely went away/disappeared, replaced with “Archives”. That shouldn’t be there, and there is actually NO widget on the site for the Archives.
Previously, the html code (copied below) was there on the right sidebar instead of what appears there.
I have attempted several times to re-add the right sidebar widget with html code (below) and sometimes it says “Widget saved” and other times I get this error when trying to save it: "wordpress error "there was an error. The response is not a valid jSON reponse”.
I suspect that this may be a server error/issue? Even when it DOES say it’s saved, the widget then disappears and there’s no right sidebar saved. Here’s the code: (I removed the domain name for privacy reasons, but you'll get an idea of what it was.)
<ul class="sidebarlogo"><li><a href="https://siteurl.com/"><img src="https://siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/image-file.jpg" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/imagefile.png" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/xyz/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/filename2.png" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/2/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2.png" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/3/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/3.png" alt="alt-tag"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/4/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/5.jpg" alt="alt-5"></a></li>
<li><a href="https:// siteurl.com/6/"><img src="https:// siteurl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/7.jpg" alt="alt-8"></a></li>
</ul>
The right sidebar widget won't update at all.
A Godaddy guy said this, not sure if it'll help you. "I do see lines of code of wordfence code in the .htaccess code. JSON error you receiving is more a firewall/waf blocking. I tried to add the widgets path to Sucuri so would recommend likely making a ticket with them before the WP team has it’s not the server likely blocking the request. I do check that your RestAPI is accessible but could be a Sucuri believing it is a site injection attack for the widget saving the HTML. Another path would investigate changing to classic widgets instead which can bypass firewall rules. I believe it’s firewall first but could also look into elementor and your generator theme as well. "