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Navigation bar is empty or does not work anymore for some users

Navigation bar is empty or does not work anymore for some users

Before proceeding, ensure the user has the appropriate permissions. For further information, please consult our Knowledgebase Article on how the user cannot see the navigation.

Problem

Some users see an empty SubSpace Navigation for Cloud bar despite the navigation being configured, while others in the same instance see it. These users might see a message stating no navigation is defined, even though it was configured before. This issue affects only normal users. For admin users, see this post explaining the behavior: Navigation bar is not defined even though it was previously configured.

Navigation bar is empty

Explanation

This issue with SubSpace’s navigation bar is caused by a problem with Confluence's search functionality. The affected user cannot search for any content in Confluence (spaces or pages). When the SubSpace’s navigation bar attempts to load the configuration saved on a page, the search results will be empty. As a result, the navigation bar has no data to use to create the view.

Cannot search for the page even though it exists

 

Diagnosing the issue

To check whether the search is working for the affected user, try searching 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 appear as a search result, even though the search is not actually returning results.

Search is not working, shows only the recently visited page

Another test is to compare the affected user's search results with those of another user who 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.

Search result of the affected user
Search result of the not-affected user

Solution

The only solution for this issue is to contact the Atlassian support team. To do so, follow the steps below:

  1. Go to the Atlassian support page

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

  3. On this page, create a new bug ticket to explain the issue you're experiencing. 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 the Atlassian support team.

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