Solutions When Add Media Button Is Not Working In WordPress

There are primarily four reasons why the Add Media button in WordPress’s admin section might stop working.

  • A jQuery or javascript conflict with a recently installed or recently updated plugin or theme
  • If you manually added an updated jQuery version to your functions.php
  • A cached version is conflicting with the updated version of a javascript
  • Browser is caching the page

The Chrome browser’s cache is often the culprit. The first thing to try is to force a hard refresh of the page using CTRL + F5.  If that doesn’t work, try a different browser.   If the Add Media button works there, you’ll need to clear Chrome’s cache in order to use it again.

Quick fix for javascript conflicts

A quick fix if your browser is not the problem is to add the following code to your wp-config.php file.

define('CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS', false );

If this does work for you, you should only use it until you identify and correct the actual problem.

If you’ve registered a script in your functions.php

If you have manually updated your functions.php with to include a javascript file or newer version of jQuery, be sure to apply the noConflict setting.  In the following code, we included a newer version of jQuery

// Add jQuery
wp_register_script( 'jquery3.2.1', 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.3/jquery.min.js' );
wp_add_inline_script( 'jquery3.2.1', 'var jQuery3_2_1 = $.noConflict(true);' );
wp_enqueue_script( 'plugin-javascript', plugins_url( 'js.js', __FILE__ ), array( 'jquery3.2.1' ) );

Last but not least

If you’ve recently updated a theme or plugin, you’ll have to do a little more work to identify the problem.

  1. First, make sure your version of WordPress is up to date.
  2. Switch to a default theme such as Twenty Nineteen.  If that resolves the issue, reach out to your theme’s developer for assistance.
  3. If you have a custom theme, ensure that any javascript dependencies are fully loaded.  Use the F12 button to access the Developer’s Console of your browser.
  4. Disable all your plugins. Enable them each individually, checking your Add Media button each time you enable a plugin.  If you identify a plugin that is causing the issue, reach out to the plugin’s developer for assistance.
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