A common problem with beginners to WordPress after they create a new site is that they are unable to add anything to their custom menu. In some cases, there are just no options to choose from to add to the menu, in others there is just a vague heading saying, “no items” as well as numerous other problems. here are the steps you should take to resolve any of those issues.
Screen Options
1. While in the custom menu screen (Appearance -> Menus), click “Screen Options” in the top right.
2. Check everything in the top row, including “categories,” “links,” “pages,” etc.
Without these checked, there are no lists of pages to be added to your menu and the page will appear blank. I’m not sure why they would ever be unchecked, but for some reason, in some WordPress installations, they default to that.
Create a Menu
You must create a menu before some options are actually available. So if you haven’t created one already, create a new one and save, and all the other options should become available to you. If you are finding that boxes are greyed out and unavailable to you, odds are that this is your problem.
Newest version of WordPress
It helps to have the most recent version of WordPress in these instances as well. Some of these features started out not very user-friendly, and over the years have become a lot easier to use. I would recommend maintaining the newest version of WordPress whenever a new one becomes available. remember to backup your files and database before updating!
Hopefully these will solve your problem! Let me know in the comments.
38 Comments on “Can’t Add Pages to Custom Menu – WordPress Solution”
Hi Brian. Ive set up a new website with wordpress and created a number of pages. I wanted to add these pages to a menu (ive done this with previous sites I created) but the pages dont show up when I want to add them to the menu. Im using theme Twenty 16 (standard with other sites I created), and ticked all options in ‘screen options’ as youve suggested, but still no joy. I have published the pages I want to add to menu but just dont see them when I want to add them to menu.
Are you sure they are pages and not blog posts, or a custom post type? Make sure you check all the different sections on the left to see if they are in there.
I have 3 pages and 1 post on a new blog. I have published them all (as private to site administrators) but when I got to Appearances/Menus there are no pages or posts listed. I have ticked all boxes above in Screen Options
Hello Brian,
For over a week now, I can’t remove or add pages to my menu in my site. I have over 520 pages, and Bluehouse support says I get an endless amount, so that its not the problem. I have contacted them three times, and each time, they can’t get it to work either, even though they have expanded my sites abilities. The problem seemed to coincide with adding AVIRA antivirus protection. Not sure why this would affect only this one aspect of my site. What should I do?
Are you using the “menus” from within appearance -> menus or are you just letting pages get added automatically?
Unable to save menu items in menu. Everytime I click on save after adding custom link, below message displays:-
Forbidden
You do not have permission to access this document.
What should i do???
I Brian, I’ve looked at other issues people have had and I’m not seeing anything that can help my issue. I’m an admin for our website and I’ve been adding pages, and items to the menu structure previously. I did however just agree to upgrade to the latest version of WP – but as I started using it, it seemed very complicated and I wasn’t able to navigate thru to add what i needed. So I reverted back to the previous version. I tried adding an item to the main menu structure, it allows me to add my item and I’ve drag/dropped it to where I want it to appear, but when I go to “publish” i get this message: “Looks like something’s gone wrong. Wait a couple seconds, and then try again.”
Another issue i’m having is that I can no longer add images to my library. That function always worked for me. I am now getting errors, this shows up in my “dashboard” “Catchable fatal error: Argument 2 passed to WPSEO_Link_Watcher::save_post() must be an instance of WP_Post, null given in /homepages/46/d536511062/htdocs/New_Website/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/admin/links/class-link-watcher.php on line 43”
Now when i try to upload an image/file – something gets loaded but it shows up as blank file with “no-title” and I don’t have any options other than “view” which doesn’t work. Previous images have “edit” “permanently delete” “view”.
I’m so very frustrated, don’t know what else to do, please help?
Hi Brian, I am an experienced wordpress user but I have a problem that I cannot solve. I have a site that is several years old http://www.footballbets.com and when I try to add a page to the menu I am unable to find it in the add to menu field. The feature shows there are two groups of pages 1-2 and it only shows me the first group. When i click on 2 to display the remaining pages nothing happens. I have selected all so I know it sees all the pages but the second group will not display.
Thanks in advance,
Brian
If I’m understanding you correctly, you might want to try clicking “Screen Options” in the top right, and making sure everything is checked. This will ensure every piece of content from your site is available to be selected.
Hi Brian!
Thanks for posting this info. My problem is that there are no postst shown in the right side section, “posts” sections says only “no items”. I´ve checked all the boxes in screen options and it doesn´t help. What could it be?
Are you sure your posts are considered “Posts” and not another post type? Are they private? Do you have any plugins that filter things by author or anything?
Hi Brian,
Thanks for this info.
I don’t see the appearance -> menu option, do you know what I need to do? (I can only see menu when I enter customize)
Thanks in advance.
Naomi
Are you an admin? It should definitely be there!
This is great, Brian! Still, as you mention in your original article, my menu area is grayed-out and I cannot Create a New Menu. In your article you say, “odds are this is your problem” but I can’t figure out how to fix it. I have Divi theme installed and have been in chats with them and our host, BlueHost. No one can help and they blame each other and me. Any help would be great!
Hi Alex,
Have you tried updating all of your plugins and ensuring you’re on the newest version of Divi? That would be what I would check first!
Hi Brian,
I tried to create a menu with few pages i created.
There is no items in the ‘pages table’. it’s blank.
How can i see all my pages in the menu options? (pages marked in ”v” in the ‘screen options’)
Make sure you’ve done “search” or “all”. If you’re just looking at “recent”, you won’t see them all.
Hi Brian!
Ugh… I cannot figure out what I’m doing wrong! I’ve created Menus in the WP Dashboard and Published them. However, when I “Visit Site” and Customize to Create New Menu (labled: Main – set as “Main”) and add Menu Items (Home, About, etc.) it fails to Publish! I always get an error stating: “Looks like something’s gone wrong. Wait a couple seconds, and then try again.”
Indeed, I’ve selected all of the boxes in the Dashboard>Appearance>Menus
Any insight and help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Mike
Have you tried the same thing but with a default theme in WordPress (such as twentysixteen or something)?
Thanks for the suggestion. I just tried that (default Theme) and still failed to publish New Menus… I just know WP can’t be this broken (though this is my first time..I’m following this YouTube video my brother suggested for me – step by step: https://youtu.be/2cbvZf1jIJM). #failtolaunch
Hi Brian, my website I’m building it shows the word Uncategorized right on top of my About Us title and on Home page as well. How can I get rid of this word?
Hi Suzy,
You need to edit your menu from “Appearance” -> Menus and removed the category from your menu.
Thank you Brian, I thought If I publish it would go to Google maybe not until I set it up, maybe?…
Hi Brian, I tried to create a menu with my posts “About me” and “Privacy policy”, on draft, but it just didn’t appear, it’s not happening. Can you help? Suzy
Hi Suzy,
Your pages will need to be published for you to add them to your menu. Otherwise there would be nothing to link to!
Hi Brian, I have a question about wordpress. Currently, one of my menu page is using default page(no content) , then I created a post and want to replace a post to that menu. I don’t know how to make it. I really need your help. Thank You
Click the “Screen Options” tab at the top of the menu page, and make sure “Posts” is selected. Then you can select individual posts and add them to the menu. Am I understanding you correctly?
Hi Brian,
I have another question. Maybe it slightly off topic question.
I have several blog posts on my site at the moment, two of the posts have a comment section on the bottom of the post but the rest of the posts don’t have a comment section. I enabled screen options for Discussion, Comments but it still not working. I tried everything to fix it but it still shows the same.
What would be the best solution to fix it?
Please if anyone can help me. Thank you!
Hi Brian,
Thank you for sharing such a valuable info.
I’m having a small issue at the moment with adding a new submenu page.
So basically I got an Astra Theme (not a pro version) with Beaver Builder.
I add the page as usual then add to the menu under sub-item, all looks good.
But when I click on the sub menu page it doesn’t take me there. It basically takes me to a home page.
What could be an issue? Could you help me please?
Thank you
That sounds like potentially an issue with the theme, or possibly a plugin conflict. I would also double-check you’ve entered in the right address in the menu section!
Hi,
I cannot add all pages to menu. it’s still loading for a long time.
I think you might have a different issue going on! It’s fairly stock within WordPress so it should be pretty straightforward.
I am having this issue, also!! 🙁
It’s very possible your theme could be limiting your menu as well. Especially if you’re trying to do sub-menus! I would try reverting to a default theme and see if there’s still an issue.
hi brian
how can i redirect pages with menu
i am using lifterlms paypal integration and woo commerce, it seem both menu icons and pages are conflicting with each other
any solutions?
for woo commerce menu
did this way
added wwo at front of the menu
woo cart
also have three menu
primary (can not make a link)
secondary ( woo commerce)
footer menu (webiste) somehow working just fine
please advice
best
jim
Hi Jim,
It’s hard to understand what your problem is from what you’ve told me. It sounds like a problem specific to your theme or setup though!
Wow thanks! I was looking on forums for 20 minutes before I found you and fixed it with “Screen options”
Sometimes it’s the easiest solutions that are the best. Glad I could help!