Issue
Each time you open the FSE / post editor, the ‘Welcome to the Block Editor’ onboarding pops up. The issue is no matter how you save the preferences, next time when you return to the editor, that popup always reappears and all your previous changes are reset.
The Cause
This issue occurs because the wp_persisted_preferences row is somehow missing from the usermeta table. That row stores the changes you make in Preferences. Without it, WordPress assumes you’re new to the editor and displays the onboarding popup again.
How To Fix
The idea is to manually create the wp_persisted_preferences row in usermeta table. To do this, you can use a plugin or WP-CLI to update the database, as follows.
Method 1: Use a plugin / tool to update the database
Use a plugin like phpMyAdmin or alternatives to gain access to WordPress database, go into usermeta table and create a new row, named wp_persisted_preferences. For the value of that row, use this string:
a:3:{s:4:"core";a:6:{s:26:"isComplementaryAreaVisible";b:1;s:15:"distractionFree";b:0;s:12:"fixedToolbar";b:1;s:14:"showIconLabels";b:0;s:14:"mostUsedBlocks";b:1;s:10:"openPanels";a:3:{i:0;s:11:"post-status";i:1;s:23:"taxonomy-panel-category";i:2;s:23:"taxonomy-panel-post_tag";}}s:14:"core/edit-post";a:2:{s:12:"welcomeGuide";b:0;s:11:"themeStyles";b:0;}s:9:"_modified";s:24:"2025-03-24T04:19:49.555Z";}Code language: plaintext (plaintext)This string is a collection of editor’s preferences. After doing this, you can visit the editor again and change those preferences later.
Method 2: Use WP-CLI
- Install WP-CLI.
- Use a terminal to SSH to your server and navigate to the WordPress installation directory. For example:
/var/www/public/wordpress.
Then from the terminal, use this command:
wp user meta update 1 wp_persisted_preferences 'a:3:{s:4:"core";a:6:{s:26:"isComplementaryAreaVisible";b:1;s:15:"distractionFree";b:0;s:12:"fixedToolbar";b:1;s:14:"showIconLabels";b:0;s:14:"mostUsedBlocks";b:1;s:10:"openPanels";a:3:{i:0;s:11:"post-status";i:1;s:23:"taxonomy-panel-category";i:2;s:23:"taxonomy-panel-post_tag";}}s:14:"core/edit-post";a:2:{s:12:"welcomeGuide";b:0;s:11:"themeStyles";b:0;}s:9:"_modified";s:24:"2025-03-24T04:19:49.555Z";}'Code language: plaintext (plaintext)What it does: It updates the wp_persisted_preferences row in usermeta table, for the User ID of 1 (Admin). To fix for other user, simply change this number to that user’s ID.
Now you can visit the editor again to see that issue resolved.