Missing Administration or Navigation blocks

Owned by Liam Tanner
Feb 03, 2024
3 min read

Administration or Navigation block is missing or deleted sitewide

The Administration or Navigation block may be missing from your site. This sometimes happens when the Display on page types option for the block is changed to Any site administration page. This removes the block and prevents it from being reinstated. Alternatively, the block may have been deleted accidentally.

Firstly, follow these steps and see if this resolves the issue:

  1. Go to any course and click Turn editing on.

  2. Navigate to the front page.

  3. Add the Administration or Navigation block back to the front page and set it to display throughout the entire site.

  4. Go to Quick-access menu > Plugins > Blocks > Manage blocks.

  5. Click the padlock icon for the to protect the block from future deletion. By default, the Administration and Navigation blocks should be protected.

If that did not resolve the issue, follow these steps:

  1. Go to yoursiteurl/admin/index.php. This should take you to the Notifications page of the site.

  2. The block should now be visible and it should now be possible to change to Blocks editing on.

  3. Reconfigure the Administration or Navigation block settings to set to show on Any page again.

Next, attempt this solution:

  1. Append admin/blocks.php to the URL and press enter.

  2. Select the cog icon on the block and select Configure Administration block.

  3. Under Where this block appears, select the Display on page types option and select Any page/All pages.

Sometimes, administrators can inadvertently make the administration block available on a certain page, which can prevent access across the site. Ask your technical team to perform the query below on the database and provide the results to the Totara Support team. The pagetypepattern column will typically reveal the location of the block and Totara Support should be able to provide advice on correcting the issue.

SELECT * FROM mdl_block_instances WHERE name = 'settings'

Administration block missing from a specific course or page

The Administration block may also be missing from a course or other system page.

This can happen when the Authenticated User role is not allowed to view the block. Because every user is automatically given the Authenticated User role alongside their assigned role (such as Learner or Course Creator), if the Authenticated User role is not granted the right permissions then regardless of a user's other role(s) they won't have access to the blocks. That is why this issue cascades to different areas of the system, e.g. the course, because the block must be visible to the Authenticated User role.

To fix this issue, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the front page (index.php?redirect=0) and turn editing on.

  2. Select the cog icon on the Administration block and select Permissions.

  3. Check that the Authenticated User role is visible for the View block permission (moodle/block:view).

  4. If not, add the role by clicking the plus icon and selecting Authenticated User.

  5. Check the appropriate page(s) where the Administration block was missing and confirm the block is now visible.

Administration block missing from a specific course or page for certain users

The Administration block could also be missing from a course or other system page for one or more specific users, but not all users.

This can happen if the block has been hidden by the affected user(s) and some (or all) block settings that show the border, header, allow dock blocking and hiding have subsequently been disabled. These settings are usually all enabled by default.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the front page (index.php?redirect=0) and turn editing on. It is also possible to turn editing on via the dashboard or course page.

  2. Click the cog icon on the Administration block and select Configure Administration block.

  3. As a minimum, ensure Allow block hiding and Show header are enabled, then click Save changes. This will ensure that the block heading is visible and the icon to show/hide the block is available.

  4. Log in as the affected user, navigate to the relevant course or system page and click the plus icon to show the block. This will need to be done on all courses and pages where the problem is apparent.

  5. If desired, disable Allow block hiding and Show header to revert the settings and choose Save changes.