Unable to access "Activate a Plan" link when WordPress.com interface style is enabled General Settings

[alinclamba]

Quick summary

Users are unable to access the "Activate a Plan" link in Jetpack → Social when the WordPress.com interface is enabled for their site dashboard. The error displayed is:

Sorry, you’re not allowed to access this page.

This issue is resolved when the user switches to the classic WP-admin interface.

Steps to reproduce

1. Enable the WordPress.com interface for the site dashboard (via https://wordpress.com/settings/general/[site-domain] and selecting "WordPress.com" under "Admin interface style").

2. Make sure you have the Jetpack plugin installed and active.
3. Navigate to Jetpack → Social.
4. Attempt to click the "Activate a Plan" link.

4. Observe the error message: "Sorry, you’re not allowed to access this page."

What you expected to happen

The link to activate the plan should work as expected.

What actually happened

The link opens a page showing ""Sorry, you’re not allowed to access this page.""

Impact

Some (< 50%)

Available workarounds?

No and the platform is unusable

If the above answer is "Yes...", outline the workaround.

No response

Platform (Simple and/or Atomic)

No response

Logs or notes

No response

[github-actions]

OpenAI suggested the following labels for this issue:

• [Feature Group] Plans & Upgrades: The issue affects the ability to activate a plan, which is directly related to plans and upgrades within the system.
• [Feature] Jetpack Connection Errors: This issue involves the Jetpack plugin, and while it isn't directly about connection errors, it relates to the functionality of Jetpack within the WordPress.com interface.
• [Feature] Classic Interface: The problem is resolved when switching to the classic WordPress admin interface, indicating the issue is linked to the interface functionality.

[p-jackson]

Thanks @alinclamba, I'm not seeing Jetpack Social in the sidebar when I try to reproduce this issue.

What sort of site is this? Jurassic Ninja? 3rd-party host connected to Dotcom? A regular WordPress.com hosted site?

The screenshot you shared shows a Business plan and G Site Kit in the sidebar, so I thought it must be a WoA site with a Business plan. However I'm not seeing this.

I do have auto-sharing enabled in Jetpack settings

But it still doesn't appear in the sidebar

[Robertght]

I'm unable to replicate this either, testing on an AT and self-hosted site with a Jetpack Social subscription so I'm not getting that section in the sidebar.

As @p-jackson mentioned, @alinclamba could you also share a working example of this?

[alinclamba]

Hi @p-jackson, @Robertght! Thanks for looking into this.

I can replicate the issue on my AT site: alinclambablog.wpcomstaging.com. It’s on the Commerce plan, and I’ve got a quick video showing what’s happening:

Screen.Capture.on.2025-01-13.at.21-02-38.mov

Let me know if that helps or if I can do something else. I can also share site access if that helps.

[p-jackson]

I found a way to reproduce. The site needs to have the stand-along Jetpack Social plugin installed: https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack-social/

Not just using the social features built in to WordPress.com

I don't know how alinclambablog.wpcomstaging.com was created and how it came to have the standalone version of Jetpack Social installed, but it has many more plugins installed then I'd expect with a new Commerce plan site. I see it's an A4A site, so maybe that's got something to do with it?

But I can reproduce now 🙂

CleanShot.2025-01-14.at.15.53.29.mp4

[Robertght]

Thank you! I've moved this to Triaged.

[p-jackson]

The issue is the "My Jetpack" UI has been explicitly disabled (so it's not related to Jetpack Social per se). The following code only enables the the My Jetpack license manager when the interface style is classic.

https://github.com/Automattic/jetpack/blob/84f924bec90204549043a5f0ce6cef5f61d51a90/projects/plugins/wpcomsh/class-jetpack-plugin-compatibility.php#L206

This is actually a loosening of restrictions from what we had before. Previously My Jetpack was hidden for all WoA sites. Now it's allowed when the calypso interface style is "classic".

PR which enabled My Jetpack for classic interface: https://github.com/Automattic/wpcomsh/pull/1693
Discussion about simply enabling the menu (I assume they meant everywhere in all cases): https://github.com/Automattic/dotcom-forge/issues/5663#issuecomment-1953388803 (CC @lsl @arthur791004)

Seems like we should be enabling the My Jetpack interface for WoA sites. The alternative is we do a better job of obscuring Jetpack Social on WoA so they use the built-in social features. But that seems like adding more tangles to the Calypso experience, and we want to be un-tangling. @Copons has the untangling project made any sort of decision about the My Jetpack view?

For reference this is the My Jetpack view I'm talking about:

Notice that the My Jetpack item is available in the sidebar. When the interface style is set to "default" the Jetpack menu looks like, with no My Jetpack item:

[p-jackson]

I see Jetpack Boost had the same issue Automattic/jetpack#30576

And Jetpack Boost is another one of these JP feature that has it's own standalone plugin, just like Social.

So I think I can solve the Social issue the same way we solved it for JP Boost.

edit: Automattic/jetpack#41076

[lsl]

Similar issue happens when you click My Jetpack after changing the site option to classic / default but the option hasn't been synced up yet and the menu item is still present.

Is there any reason to not make this return true? https://github.com/Automattic/jetpack/blob/84f924bec90204549043a5f0ce6cef5f61d51a90/projects/plugins/wpcomsh/class-jetpack-plugin-compatibility.php#L206

I assume we did this purely to avoid showing changes to existing sites.

[p-jackson]

I dropped this discussion in Slack p1736913839435019-slack-C06DN6QQVAQ 🤞

[p-jackson]

Broken "Activate a Plan" link is fixed by Automattic/jetpack#41076, which will be shipped in the next Jetpack Social release.