SharePoint Deletes the Left Nav on Web Part Pages

Question

I have two Webs Alpha and Beta.

On both, "Current Navigation" is set to "Structural Navigation: Display only the navigation items below the current site".

On both, Article Pages show the Left Nav.

However, Web Part Pages are different. Alpha generates and displays the Left Nav. Beta makes space for the Left Nav but it doesn't generate any links; so the general CSS fix doesn't work because there is nothing to display. Below are some screen shots of the markup in the F12 Developer Tools.

Can anyone tell me how to turn off this "feature" on Beta?

Alpha

Beta

Answer 1

SharePoint doesn't really delete the left nav on WebPart Pages, instead it hides it. The easiest way to bring it back on edit the HTML on that web page. Edit your page in SharePoint Designer and click advanced mode. Find the following code and comment it.

<style type="text/css">
body #s4-leftpanel {
display:none;
}
.s4-ca {
margin-
}
</style>  

After which find the following code and comment that out as well.

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server"></asp:Content>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server"></asp:Content>

Save and reload your page, and the Left Panel should be available.

Edit: Can you post screenshots of how the left nav looks on both Site A and Site B? You mentioned that my suggestion only worked for Site A, but Site B just generated an empty box where the left nav should be?