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MediaWiki MWException - Global default '' is invalid for field stubthreshold

When I click on the Preferences link in our local MediaWiki (1.26.3), hosted on CentOS, I receive the following error:

Internal error
[fbd0dcc9] /index.php/Special:Preferences MWException from line 149 of /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/Preferences.php: Global default '' is invalid for field stubthreshold
Backtrace:

#0 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/Preferences.php(101): Preferences::loadPreferenceValues(User, RequestContext, array)
#1 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/Preferences.php(1264): Preferences::getPreferences(User, RequestContext)
#2 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/specials/SpecialPreferences.php(67): Preferences::getFormObject(User, RequestContext)
#3 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/specialpage/SpecialPage.php(384): SpecialPreferences->execute(NULL)
#4 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/specialpage/SpecialPageFactory.php(553): SpecialPage->run(NULL)
#5 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/MediaWiki.php(281): SpecialPageFactory::executePath(Title, RequestContext)
#6 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/MediaWiki.php(714): MediaWiki->performRequest()
#7 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/includes/MediaWiki.php(508): MediaWiki->main()
#8 /var/www/mediawiki-1.26.3/index.php(41): MediaWiki->run()
#9 {main}

Any assistance to resolve the issue is appreciated.

Solution

  • This error can appear for a number of reasons, but the most common is probably an invalid or missing value in $wgDefaultUserOptions in LocalSettings.php.

    Default user settings can be changed like this:

    $wgDefaultUserOptions['editsection'] = 0;

    However, if you add something like this:

    $wgDefaultUserOptions = array( 'editsection' => 0, 'watchdefault' => 1, 'watchmoves' => 1, ... );

    while everything might seem to work just fine, as you have now overwritten the whole default array, you risk running into an error the next time a new user setting is added in the software, on a MediaWiki upgrade.

    The error can also occur because of an extension that uses the UserGetDefaultOptions hook to modify default settings, or because one of the values given in $wgDefaultUserOptions is simply invalid.