Sitecore: Insert Link tree does not expand

In my development Sitecore, I had this strange situation that when I tried to insert a link, the tree would not fold out for certain items:

The content tree does not expand in the “insert link” dialog

I can see that I get the following error back from the /-/item/v1/sitecore/shell?sc_itemid= call:

{“statusCode”:500,”error”:{“message”:”Template is null.”}}

With a little bit of searching, it turns out, that this branch of the content tree contains an item with no template:

This item’s template have been deleted

This reminiscence from a test long lost in time is visible in the content editor, but makes the “Insert Link” window fail.

To delete the item you need to use the good old DbBrowser, a tool found in Sitecore since the dawn of times. You find the tool here:

/sitecore/admin/dbbrowser.aspx

This tool is a near-database tool that allows you to do things that the shell does not. Here you can select the item in question and delete it:

DbBrowser gives you direct access to the database content

After I deleted the item, the Insert Link works again.

MORE TO READ:

• Troubleshooting Delivery Instances with Db Browser from Vasiliy Formichev
• Sitecore Admin Pages from Sitecore Spark
• Sitecore tree not loading for general link field from Sitecore Community