Title: shortcode not working sometimes Last modified: August 30, 2016 --- # shortcode not working sometimes * Resolved [coreyalderin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreyalderin/) * (@coreyalderin) * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/) * I have some pages where my shortcode is not displaying the records and instead just displaying the exact shortcode text. I am not 100% sure, but I believe this started when I updated to the latest version of WP. * Here is an example of what is happening: [http://www.christianquotes.info/quotes-by-author/zig-ziglar-quotes/](http://www.christianquotes.info/quotes-by-author/zig-ziglar-quotes/) * But it is working just fine here: [http://www.christianquotes.info/quotes-by-author/charles-spurgeon-quotes/](http://www.christianquotes.info/quotes-by-author/charles-spurgeon-quotes/) The shortcode I am using here is [pdb_list template=”cq” search=”true” filter =’author=- Charles Spurgeon’ fields=’quote’] * I have looked at the html versions of both to see if some sort of code was added into the html editor but it looks fine. * Any ideas why this would be happening? * Thanks * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/participants-database/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/participants-database/) Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) * Plugin Author [Roland Barker](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xnau/) * (@xnau) * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/#post-6849394) * Take a look at the page content in text mode. Sometimes visual mode adds formatting to shortcodes and that can break them. You may need to save the page content in text mode to make sure it doesn’t get formatted.. * Thread Starter [coreyalderin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreyalderin/) * (@coreyalderin) * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/#post-6849398) * I had thought that might be the case as well because but I looked and in text editor it looks fine. It looks exactly like this in text editor: * [pdb_list template=”cq” search=”true” filter=’author=- Dwight L. Moody’ fields =’quote’] * Thanks * Plugin Author [Roland Barker](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xnau/) * (@xnau) * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/#post-6849476) * Looks good, but something is preventing WordPress from processing it as a shortcode. You don’t have another left bracket [ in front of the shortcode do you? That would cause WP to just show the shortcode as it’s doing. Another possibility is that the brackets are actually HTML entities, but we’re not seeing that…not sure how that’s possible. * Thread Starter [coreyalderin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreyalderin/) * (@coreyalderin) * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/#post-6849508) * No, there are no other left brackets or any other code. Its just text and the shortcode. * I also deactivated all my other plugins to see if any of the plugins might be the cause but it still did not work. * I’m completely lost on how this could be happening. * Thread Starter [coreyalderin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreyalderin/) * (@coreyalderin) * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/#post-6849509) * It looks like others may be having issues with other shortcodes as well. Here is a thread I found: [https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcodes-arent-working-after-upgrade-to-44?replies=6](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcodes-arent-working-after-upgrade-to-44?replies=6) * what I did was copy my shortcode and paste it into notepad, then copied it from notepad and pasted it into the text editor and it worked. Everything in my text editor looks exactly the same but it works. I have no idea how this fixes the issue but it did. * Plugin Author [Roland Barker](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xnau/) * (@xnau) * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/#post-6849524) * Sounds like there were hidden characters in there…it can happen and it’s confused me several times. * Thread Starter [coreyalderin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreyalderin/) * (@coreyalderin) * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/#post-6849526) * That has happened to me numerous times as well usually I can just spot the issue, but even after realizing that I could fix the problem, I still have no idea what the wrong characters were. I copied and pasted a working version right next to a non-working version (in the text editor) and I still could not see a difference. * Plus, These pages were working before and I have not made any changes. * It seems like something different in the new version of WP. * Anyways, just wanted to share in case someone else has the same problem. * Thanks for your help xnau Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total) The topic ‘shortcode not working sometimes’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/participants-database/assets/icon-256x256.jpg?rev=1389807) * [Participants Database](https://wordpress.org/plugins/participants-database/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/participants-database/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/participants-database/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/participants-database/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/participants-database/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/participants-database/reviews/) * 7 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [coreyalderin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/coreyalderin/) * Last activity: [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/shortcode-not-working-sometimes/#post-6849526) * Status: resolved