Doug Reese

There is a problem that seems to still be plaguing many WordPress plugins since upgrading to WordPress 2.8.2 over the summer: Navigating to the plugin admin page results in the WordPress error, “You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.” The only affected plugin on sites I maintain is the Contact Form ][ plugin. Zalds.com has a good write up on how to fix the problem for the Adsense Deluxe plugin, and the solution is the same for the Contact Form ][ plugin.

Here are the steps to fix the problem. It seems like a lot, but only because I am breaking it down into very fine steps.

1. Log in to the admin area of the site.
2. Go the the list of installed plugins by clicking the “Installed” link in the Plugins menu.
3. Deactivate the Contact Form ][ plugin. It is not recommended to make changes to an active plugin.
4. Edit the Contact Form ][ plugin by clicking the “Edit” link next to the Activate/Deactivate link. This will allow access to the actual PHP code of the plugin.
5. Find the text “admin_head” using the browser find functionality, just like you would search for text in a web page (usually “Control-F” on Windows, “Command-F” on Mac).
6. Change “admin_head” to “admin_menu”.
7. Hit the “Update File” button.
8. Go back to the list of installed plugins and reactivate the Contact Form ][ plugin.

To better illustrate the line that needs changed, this line:

    add_action('admin_head', 'wpcf_add_options_page');

needs to be changed to look like this:

    add_action('admin_menu', 'wpcf_add_options_page');

The zalds.com solution has some screen captures to illustrate the process as well, although that fix is for the Adsense Deluxe plugin. Again, the process is identical, so substitute “Contact Form ][” for “Adsense Deluxe” in that solution, and you should regain access to the admin pages for the Contact Form ][ plugin.

Tech stuff: The admin_head hook should not be used to add plugin specific content to admin pages, as it adds the plugin specific content to every admin page, which has the potential to break other plugins. More on this topic here.

Incidentally, the author of the Contact Form ][ plugin seems to have stopped maintaining it and has taken his site down, apparently due to lack of donations.