Restore the block editor if Classic Editor took over

To get the WordPress block editor back, deactivate the Classic Editor plugin. If pages open in a single text box with a toolbar, with no + button to add blocks, that plugin is almost always the cause. Pages built with blocks (including every Dirigible site) need the block editor, also called Gutenberg.

WordPress itself has no switch for this: the block editor is the default. The classic screen only comes back when a plugin turns the block editor off, or when a content type was built without it.

Deactivate Classic Editor

1. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
2. Find Classic Editor.
3. Click Deactivate.
4. Open any page from Pages. You should see the + block inserter and List View again.

You don't need to delete the plugin. Deactivating it is enough. Not sure what's active? See See which plugins are installed.

Keep Classic Editor but use blocks by default

If someone on your team still wants the classic editor for some posts, leave the plugin on and change its settings instead:

1. Go to Settings → Writing.
2. Set Default editor for all users to Block editor.
3. Set Allow users to switch editors to Yes if people should be able to choose per page, or No to keep everyone on the block editor.
4. Click Save Changes.

When switching is allowed:

• Pages and Posts show Edit (block editor) and Edit (classic editor) links when you hover over a title.
• In the classic editor, an Editor box in the sidebar has a Switch to block editor link.
• In the block editor, the ⋮ (Options) menu at the top right has Switch to classic editor.
• Each user can pick their own Default Editor on their profile (Users → Profile), and it overrides the site default.
• Each page reopens in whichever editor was last used on it, and a page with no blocks yet opens in the classic editor.

So if one page keeps opening in the classic editor while others don't, use Edit (block editor) on that page once.

If pages still open in the classic editor

1. Check that Classic Editor no longer shows as active.
2. Look for another plugin that turns the block editor off. Disable Gutenberg is a common one: its settings are under Settings, and its Complete Disable option is on by default. Some plugins hide their own menu item, so check the plugins list rather than the menus.
3. Check the content type. Some content types never use the block editor, and that's by design (see below).
4. If you can't find the cause, ask your site administrator or web team which plugin changes the editor.

Content that always opens in the classic screen

Not every screen in WordPress uses blocks. If only one kind of content opens the old-style screen, nothing is broken:

• WooCommerce products use WooCommerce's own product screen. Its block-based product editor was an experiment, removed in WooCommerce 11.0.
• Custom content types from plugins open the classic screen when the plugin built them that way, often because the content is mostly form fields.

Deactivating Classic Editor won't change these.

Classic block vs Classic Editor

They're different things:

• The Classic Editor is a plugin that replaces the whole block editor.
• The Classic block is a single block inside the block editor, with a row of formatting buttons. Pages written before your site used blocks often open as one big Classic block.

To turn a Classic block into normal blocks, select it and click Convert to blocks in its toolbar. Check the result before saving: headings, lists and images usually convert cleanly, and odd formatting may need tidying.

Common mistakes

• Deleting the plugin to "reset" it. Deactivating is enough, and the plugin's settings don't affect anything once it's off.
• Confusing a full-screen editor with the classic editor. If the dashboard menu or sidebar is missing but you can still add blocks, that's a view setting. See Bring back a missing editor sidebar.
• Treating a block error as an editor problem. If the editor looks fine but a block shows an error, see Fix "This block contains unexpected or invalid content".

If your site runs on Dirigible

Pages, posts and Dirigible's blocks all need the block editor, so keep Classic Editor and similar plugins off.

A few Dirigible content types open in the classic-style screen on purpose, because they're mostly fields: Cards (Dirigible Cards, which you can rename), Artworks and Artists (Dirigible Artworks), and Documentation (Dirigible Documentation). That's expected. To lay out a page, use Pages and place the matching block there; see Create and edit a page in WordPress.