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09. Troubleshooting

Common issues and their fixes, roughly in the order you'd meet them. If your issue isn't here, submit a support ticket.

I can't find the Add item and Insert shortcode buttons​

They live on the Settings tab of the course, lesson, topic, or quiz edit screen (the tab next to Lesson page at the top, not the WordPress Settings menu), under Display and Content Options, and only appear while that item's Materials toggle is on. Switch the toggle on and the buttons appear directly beneath LearnDash's materials editor.

If the toggle is on and the buttons are still missing, confirm LearnDash is active. Without it there is no Materials field for the plugin to attach to.

The Materials tab doesn't appear on the front end​

LearnDash only shows the Materials tab when the item's Materials toggle is on and the editor has content. Check both, and confirm you clicked Insert shortcode so the editor contains [learndash_materials_extended]. Then save the item.

The Materials tab is there but the list is empty​

  • The shortcode renders only the items of the page it is on. Make sure the items were added on that lesson (or course, topic, quiz), not on a related one.
  • Confirm you saved after adding items. Items added but not saved are lost when you leave the page.
  • If you placed the shortcode on an ordinary page or post, it renders nothing; it only works on LearnDash content.

A material shows the generic document icon instead of a PDF or Word icon​

The icon is chosen from the file extension at the end of the link. Links to a WordPress attachment page, or to a web page, have no extension, so they get the generic icon. For a Media Library file, set Link action to Download to link the file itself.

Addresses entered without a scheme are prefixed with http://. Edit the item and enter the full https:// address.

Clicking a material opens it in the browser instead of downloading​

Whether a file downloads or opens depends on the file type and the visitor's browser settings; PDFs commonly open in the browser's built-in viewer. The Download link action links to the file directly and asks the browser to download it, but the browser has the final say. Learners can always right-click and save.

For External URL items, the download request has no effect: the other site decides how the file is served.

Older versions of the plugin produced a list where each item split into an icon-only link and a title-only link inside LearnDash's Materials tab (in button style, two buttons per item). Update LearnDash Materials Extended to the latest version from Dashboard > Updates; the current release renders one link per item.

Buttons show a border on three sides only​

Same cause and fix as above: update to the latest version. Older versions drew the button border on the link, which LearnDash's own styles reset along the bottom edge.

The colour picker swatches on the settings page look cut off, or the buttons have no labels​

Same fix: update to the latest version, which ships a colour picker compatible with current WordPress.

I changed the style settings but the front end looks the same​

  • Click Save Changes on the settings page; Load only fills the fields.
  • Clear any page or full-site cache; the plugin prints its styles into the page head.
  • Check your theme isn't overriding link styles inside LearnDash content with more specific rules. The classes to target are in 8.3 Shortcode and CSS Reference.

The list is very narrow​

By default the list wrapper is limited to 400px wide. Widen it with your own CSS, for example:

.ldash-materials { max-width: none; }