Troubleshooting

Work through these in order. Most production issues are anchor Itemid, plugin disabled, or level mismatch — not template mystery.

Sidebar missing on child doc pages but visible on Documents landing

Confirm Visibility scope is Anchor branch. Confirm System — RCA Menu Scope branch visibility is enabled. Confirm the anchor menu item matches the Documents root you actually browse under. Clear cache.

If visibility scope is Menu assignment only, Joomla requires every child Itemid ticked on the module — switch to anchor branch mode instead.

Sidebar missing everywhere

Confirm the module is published and assigned to the current template position. Confirm Hide outside anchor and that you are testing inside the anchor branch. Confirm menutype matches where menu items live. Temporarily set hide outside anchor to No to see if gating is the cause.

Helix left column disappears

Helix Ultimate omits the left column when no modules render in left. If the module hides outside anchor or fails injection on child pages, the column collapses. Fix branch visibility first; then confirm one module instance is published to left.

Empty sidebar or wrong labels

Open Menus and compare item levels to Section level and Hub level. If hubs are level 4 in the menu but hub level is still 3, the list will look wrong. Adjust levels, save, clear cache.

Confirm items are published and “Show in menu” is Yes on menu item parameters.

Section labels on one line (smooshed hubs)

Usually Bootstrap .nav flex-row on the menu list or outdated module CSS. Upgrade to module 2.0.10+, clear cache, hard refresh. View page source: root ul should be mod-rca-menu-scope mod-list without nav. Check computed style: flex-direction should be column in the left column.

Wrong section or hub expanded

The active Itemid trail drives expansion. If SEF or aliases point at unexpected Itemids, Joomla may highlight the wrong branch. Open the page with ?Itemid= explicitly once to compare. Prefer one menutype and consistent aliases after restructuring menus.

Duplicate Documents trees

Main menu alias plus separate documents menutype can split Itemids for the same URL pattern. Menu Scope anchor must match the tree you browse. Simplify to one tree when possible; update anchor after disabling duplicate menutypes.

Legacy plugin conflict

Disable plg_system_rca_menu_scope (old mod_menu injection). Two scope systems at once creates unpredictable menus.

Still stuck

Collect module instance id, anchor Itemid, one failing URL, visibility scope setting, plugin enabled yes/no, and Joomla version. Open a support ticket with that bundle (see Support).