JQuery with functions.php doesn't always work

[CWSites]

I've used multiple sliders and JQuery plugins that don't work unless JQuery is loaded in the < head >. Is this something I should be doing differently or is it not meant to work this way?

[georgestephanis]

Are you running jQuery in noconflict mode?

[CWSites]

I'm not sure. I have it setup however it is when you download the files. See below.

// Load jQuery
if ( !function_exists(core_mods) ) {
    function core_mods() {
        if ( !is_admin() ) {
            wp_deregister_script('jquery');
            wp_register_script('jquery', ("//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js"), false);
            wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
        }
    }
    core_mods();
}

[scottlyttle]

Try replacing:

wp_register_script('jquery', ("//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.2/jquery.min.js"), false);

with

wp_register_script('jquery', ("http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7/jquery.min.js"), false);

[georgestephanis]

Yeah, it's an annoying situation that I've submitted a patch to resolve in 3.4 that you can't use //domain.com/ references in wp_register_script or wp_register_style.

http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/16560

[georgestephanis]

In the mean time, I'd suggest using something like ...

wp_register_script('jquery', (is_ssl()?'https':'http').'://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7/jquery.min.js', false);