'jetpack-help-center plugin has encountered an error' preventing page/post edit

[inigagah]

Quick summary

We're receiving reports that some users are affected by a bug where an error message 'jetpack-help-center' plugin has encountered an error and cannot be rendered' shows on top of their post/page editor. I cannot replicate this on a simple site, as the error appears to be account-specific. I was able to reproduce it on my atomic test site, when unproxied.

9245219-zd-a8c
9239446-zd-a8c

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to post editor or create a new page
2. An error will show up in red, on top of the editor, 'The "jetpack-help-center" plugin has encountered an error and cannot be rendered.'

What you expected to happen

The error should not be there, and it should allow the user to edit

What actually happened

The error shows and it's preventing me to edit

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

Failed to load resource: net::ERR_PROXY_CONNECTION_FAILEDUnderstand this errorAI
pixel.wp.com/boom.gif?v=0.9&u=https://public-api.wordpress.com/pinghub&json={%22beacons%22:[%22pinghub.conn_close_code.1006.chrome:3092|ms%22]}:1

   Failed to load resource: net::ERR_PROXY_CONNECTION_FAILEDUnderstand this errorAI

8registry.js:220 Store "jetpack-modules" is already registered.
i @ registry.js:220Understand this errorAI
react-dom.min.js?ver=18:1 Error: useLocation must be used within a RouterProvider
at useLocation (router.tsx:88:9)
at o (help-center-gutenberg.min.js?ver=dd3a763558783f476aa4:49:10670)
at y (help-center-gutenberg.min.js?ver=dd3a763558783f476aa4:70:223234)
at gt (react-dom.min.js?ver=18:1:45667)
at js (react-dom.min.js?ver=18:1:120123)
at Sl (react-dom.min.js?ver=18:1:88331)
at kl (react-dom.min.js?ver=18:1:88259)
at bl (react-dom.min.js?ver=18:1:88122)
at sl (react-dom.min.js?ver=18:1:84974)
at dl (react-dom.min.js?ver=18:1:85354)

[rw-ye]

Another customer report here: 9259071-zd-a8c

[github-actions]

Support References

This comment is automatically generated. Please do not edit it.

• 9245219-zen
• 9239446-zen
• 9259071-zen
• 9297048-zen
• 9362128-zen
• 9375713-zen

[arthur791004]

Closing it as it's resolved. See p1736419910869009/1734445748.634449-slack-C06E7TFSFK2.

[emilijamu]

Another user report here: 9297048-zd-a8c

[ccwalburn]

Another user report here: 9362128-zd-a8c
They said they uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version of the desktop app today.

[kspilarski]

Thanks for reporting!

I checked the last two reports, and those customers are experiencing this issue on the WordPress Desktop App on Windows 11.
When creating a new page, this error message appears on top of the page editor: 'The "jetpack-help-center" plugin has encountered an error and cannot be rendered.'

📌 REPRODUCTION RESULTS
I tested Simple and Atomic sites on Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers, but can't replicate the issue.

📌 ACTIONS
Since I don't have a Windows testing environment, I'll keep the Needs Triage tag for further testing. @Automattic/dotcom-product-ambassadors

[inaikem]

Raised in Slack: p1738726964251459-slack-C029GN3KD

@emilijamu, welcome! Just a quick note to say if you're commenting on a closed issue with a new user report, please be sure to select "Reopen with comment" so it gets flagged. Even better, you can create a new bug report and add a link to the closed one to create a trail of context! 🙏

[Robertght]

I just tested this on a Windows 11 machine and WordPress desktop app 8.0.4 and I couldn't replicate the issue.

I'm afraid we're going to need more details on how to replicate this. I wonder if it's a mix of settings or perhaps having CoBlocks installed?

[Robertght]

cc @arthur791004 if you know more about this than us.

[galakhyati]

Another user reported it here: 9375713-zd-a8c
I have asked for more details on when they came across this issue and will share once I have more details.

[dsas]

At least some of the users experiencing this can only reproduce this in the WordPress.com app and they checked and couldn't reproduce it via the web.

[dsas]

I can repro too, if I login to the desktop app on a non-a12 account. In the dev tools I get some errors:

Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 401 () <hidden zendesk id>

See the zendesk url here: 36e64-pb/

and the second

Error: Must initialize the Web Messenger first using `init()`.
  at Vs (cdn.smooch.io/frame.5.6.0.min.js:2:846523)
  at Object.ac (cdn.smooch.io/frame.5.6.0.min.js:2:853243)
  at l (help-center-gutenberg.min.js?ver=7970095186912be768b4:56:34852)

[jartes]

I was able to reproduce this as well, but I needed to click on the "Help" icon from the top-right to initialize the help center:

CleanShot.2025-02-06.at.16.08.35.mp4

I'm marking this issue as triaged and adding to Vertex board.

[jartes]

This should be fixed now, but we are keeping this issue open for improvements. See p1738940763017159/1738726964.251459-slack-C029GN3KD

[heavyweight]

Was fixed with: #99422