Navigation bar is not defined even though it was previously configured

Owned by Rei Pano (Deactivated)
Last updated: Feb 13, 2024 by Yelyzaveta Burda
3 min read

Problem

The SubSpace’s Navigation for Cloud bar will show a message telling the user that there is no navigation defined yet even though the navigation bar was previously configured. When the user tries to configure the navigation bar, the configurator will crash and an error will be shown. This behavior happens only for users with admin role. For normal users, the behavior is explained in this post: Navigation bar is empty for some users.

Explanation

This issue with the SubSpace’s navigation bar is caused due to a problem with the search functionality of Confluence. The affected user is not able to search for any content in the Confluence (spaces or pages).

SubSpace’s navigation bar tries to load the configuration, which is saved in a page. The result of the search will be empty. Because of that, the navigation bar thinks that it is not configured yet. When the user tries to configure the navigation bar again, the navigation bar will try to create a new page with title “Navigation Configuration“. The error is displayed because another page with the same title exists.

Diagnosing the issue

In order to check if search is working for the affected user, try to search for some content in Confluence. Try searching for any page or space as long as it is not in the recently visited list. If the page is in the recently visited list, it will be shown as a search result, even though the search is not actually doing anything.

Search not working, shows only the recently visited page

One other test that can be done is to compare the search result of the affected user with the search result of another user which is not affected. The not affected user will be able to see the SubSpace’s navigation bar. The result of the search should be very different between the two users. The two images below show an example of the difference between the same search done by two users with identical permissions.

Workaround

There is a simple workaround for this issue. In order for the navigation bar to be reconfigured, the existing “Navigation Configuration“ page needs to be removed. Before deleting this page, the old configuration must be copied. Please follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to Communardo Products > Navigation Configuration

  2. Click on the “Edit” button

  3. Copy all the text inside the “Page Properties”

  4. Close editor

  5. Delete the “Navigation Configuration“ page

  6. Click on the button to configure SubSpace’s navigation bar

  7. Click on the “Submit“ button. No need to configure the navigation bar again.

  8. Navigate again to Communardo Products > Navigation Configuration

  9. Edit the page

  10. In the “Page Properties” paste the text you copied before

  11. Publish the page

  12. Navigation bar should be visible and have the same structure as before

Solution

If the workaround did not work or you do not have permission to edit this page, then the only solution for this issue is to contact the Atlassian support team. To do so follow the steps below:

  1. Go to the support page: https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/

  2. In the Confluence Cloud support page click on the View suggestions and bugs button. This will redirect to the Confluence Cloud Jira project.

  3. In this page you need to create a new bug ticket where you explain the issue that you have. Attaching images and/or a video showcasing the issue can also help.

  4. The support team will contact you soon. When they do, ask them to manually fix this issue for the affected user(s).

It is highly recommended that you try to diagnose the issue, before you contact Atlassian support team.