hey Darkvil
Well done! That sounds very promising that the devs will (eventually) provide a bug fix for the Guild Applicants and Applicant History drop-down options being disabled.
The reason for the blizz guild applicants option being greyed-out is in the internals of the WoW client:
Line #448 of ClubFinderApplicantList.lua
C_ClubFinder.RequestApplicantList(clubType);
should cause a CLUB_FINDER_APPLICATIONS_UPDATED event to be fired.
However, CLUB_FINDER_APPLICATIONS_UPDATED events are never fired and hence never received by the CommunitiesFrame.lua at line #265,
so the drop-down list options for Applicants and Applicant History are always greyed-out, for some guilds.
Internally, when the C_ClubFinder.RequestApplicantList(clubType) Lua API is called, the wow client fails to determine that recruitment is enabled and so does not fire a CLUB_FINDER_APPLICATIONS_UPDATED event to the CommunitiesFrame.
Blizzard Customer Support often quote this as a known bug, for a lot of guilds when realms are merged:
No Access to Guild Applicants
But the bug we have been experiencing for the past 6 weeks seems to be a new variant, with the guild applicant drop-down options being disabled, probably due to some new internal data error/bug in the wow client.
Luckily the guild recruitment applicants data exists ok and my temporary workaround will force it to be fetched and displayed.
However it would be great for Blizzard to fix it for the many US and EU guilds that have this bug, for the past 6 weeks and counting!
Yes i have explained this and more, but its a sticking plaster, the root cause is elsewhere but hopefully it provide a better information to actually find the real problem.
hey Darvil
Yes thanks for passing on all this info, to get the devs to identify the root cause and fix it!
As another temporary workaround fix for other guilds with this applicants-disabled bug, put
/script CommunitiesFrame:OnEvent("CLUB_FINDER_APPLICATIONS_UPDATED");
in a macro, then bind the macro to a key-combo or drag the macro to an action bar slot,
so you can key-press or action-button-click whenever you want to refresh the Guild Applicants display (without having to copy-and-paste that script into the chat window as a command).
Otherwise install my GuildApplicantsFix addon as described above in this thread, to automate the guild applicants refresh.
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Lots of developments need to send you a pm outside of game systems is there a way i can contact you ?
hey Darkvil…my discord userid is Xulu#1278…yes please send me a pm if you have more info…thanks!
More than 6 weeks here and I have done everything they have said… still not working. Refuge of the Lost on The Sha Tar/Moonglade/Steamwheedle server.
Thank you for the macro, it works, gave it to all my officers so we can at least invite members again.
Went through the whole ticket process for the issue, but they (ofc) couldn’t help, and told me just to wait for the issue to be fixed, someday, ever …
Six weeks now and my guild EU Haven-Silvermoon still has the Blizzard Guild Applicants and Guild Applicants History disabled.
I am EU Katorah-Silvermoon, the GM of my guild. This bug occurs for all my officers too.
This bug has been affecting a lot of guilds for a long time now.
It should be able to be fixed easily because it is only the C_ClubFinder.RequestApplicantList(clubType) Lua API which is at fault.
So just to update everyone
I have been working alongside the devs for testing purposes.
Its not so easy.
The symptom is the event trigger but the cause is not clear especially why it only happens to some guilds and not all, connected realms is not a factor.
So the problem is much deeper than the trigger.
I can tell you for sure they are working on it, its a difficult problem to find and will take some time.
The sticking plaster macros above work for some but not all and it may not be one problem but multiple. The macro is a great temp fix for some tho.
The blizz guild roster addon creates a ticker to request an event every 20 secs, to be sent if there is some applicant data (but this fails).
It is weird to do this anyway, because it already knows that there is data available (the orange diamond icon is displayed if there is new applicant data that you have not seen yet).
Simple solution is for the blizz guild roster addon to use the 20 secs ticker to directly refresh the applicants display with the applicant data (the blizz addon can access the applicant data just fine).
Update: A blizz GM just had a nice chat with me and thanked me for passing on the one-line macro and bug fix addon, and postings with info about the bug on the forums.
He is talking to the devs about the guild applicants disabled bug, passing on my info and the devs are working on a bug fix…hopefully soon! 
@Darkvil The blizz GM mentioned that he had been working with you on this bug and that you referred him to me also, thanks! Good to know that it is being passed onto the devs!
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An even better simple solution is to handle each GUILD_ROSTER_UPDATE event and fire a CLUB_FINDER_APPLICATIONS_UPDATED event when that occurs.
This will cause the guild applicants display to be refreshed almost instantly when a guild applicant is invited by a guild officer because a GUILD_ROSTER_UPDATE event is fired then.
This is better than waiting up to 20 secs for the ticker to fire a CLUB_FINDER_APPLICATIONS_UPDATED event to refresh the guild applicants display, up to 20 secs after the officer action.
This is what my GuildApplicantsFix addon does (see above in this thread approx 2 weeks ago).
This approach is simple, it is instantly responsive for refresh and it provides a belt-and-braces solution which preserves the existing logic that works for most guilds ok and also avoids the bug that some guilds have.
Update:
The Guild Applicants Disabled bug is still not fixed after 8 weeks+.
I created an addon called Guild Applicants Fix which is now available for download from Curseforge and WowInterface.
GuildApplicantsFix version 1.0.2.2 is the latest version.
The README on the GitHub GuildApplicantsFix source repository has more details.
UPDATE:
Yes…blizz finally fixed the Guild Applicants drop-down menu options disabled bug!!
For my guild Haven-Silvermoon EU it is fixed. I can see the Guild Applicants menu options, access the guild applicants and approve them now
This occurred with the recent wow retail release 9.2.0.42488 on 26th February 2022.
There was no change to the Blizzard Communities user interface lua coding to fix this that I could see. So it must have been a server-side hot fix or a new version of the wow client on the day of that release.
You no longer need my GuildApplicantsFix addon or the 1-line macro as a workaround any more!
Thanks blizz for fixing this - guild recruitment is important!