Magento 2.2.4 – Fix Disappearing Breadcrumbs on Product Page

With help of some posts on stackexchange, I found out this solution, This approach does not require you to override with di.xml

YOUR_THEME\Magento_Catalog\layout\catalog_product_view.xml

<referenceContainer name="content.top">
    <block class="Vendor\Module\Block\Breadcrumbs" name="breadcrumbs" as="breadcrumbs" />
</referenceContainer>

Create a module with the following block:

Vendor/Module/Block/Breadcrumbs.php

<?php

namespace Vendor\Module\Block;

use Magento\Catalog\Helper\Data;
use Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template\Context;
use Magento\Store\Model\Store;
use Magento\Framework\Registry;

class Breadcrumbs extends \Magento\Theme\Block\Html\Breadcrumbs
{
    /**
     * Catalog data
     *
     * @var Data
     */
    protected $_catalogData = null;

    /**
     * @param Context $context
     * @param Data $catalogData
     * @param array $data
     */
    public function __construct(Context $context, Data $catalogData, Registry $registry, array $data = [])
    {
        $this->_catalogData = $catalogData;
        $this->registry = $registry;
        parent::__construct($context, $data);
    }

    /**
     * Retrieve HTML title value separator (with space)
     *
     * @param null|string|bool|int|Store $store
     * @return string
     */
    public function getTitleSeparator($store = null)
    {
        $separator = (string)$this->_scopeConfig->getValue('catalog/seo/title_separator', \Magento\Store\Model\ScopeInterface::SCOPE_STORE, $store);
        return ' ' . $separator . ' ';
    }
    
    public function getCrumbs() {
        return $this->_crumbs;
    }

    /**
     * Preparing layout
     *
     * @return \Magento\Catalog\Block\Breadcrumbs
     */
    protected function _prepareLayout() {

        $title = [];
        if ($breadcrumbsBlock = $this->getLayout()->getBlock('breadcrumbs')) {
            $breadcrumbsBlock->addCrumb(
                    'home', [
                'label' => __('Home'),
                'title' => __('Go to Home Page'),
                'link' => $this->_storeManager->getStore()->getBaseUrl()
                    ]
            );
            $path = $this->_catalogData->getBreadcrumbPath();
            $product = $this->registry->registry('current_product');

            if ($product && count($path) == 1) {
                $categoryCollection = clone $product->getCategoryCollection();
                $categoryCollection->clear();
                $categoryCollection->addAttributeToSort('level', $categoryCollection::SORT_ORDER_DESC)->addAttributeToFilter('path', array('like' => "1/" . $this->_storeManager->getStore()->getRootCategoryId() . "/%"));
                $categoryCollection->setPageSize(1);
                $breadcrumbCategories = $categoryCollection->getFirstItem()->getParentCategories();

                foreach ($breadcrumbCategories as $category) {
                    $catbreadcrumb = array("label" => $category->getName(), "link" => $category->getUrl());
                    $breadcrumbsBlock->addCrumb("category" . $category->getId(), $catbreadcrumb);
                    $title[] = $category->getName();
                }
                //add current product to breadcrumb
                $prodbreadcrumb = array("label" => $product->getName(), "link" => "");
                $breadcrumbsBlock->addCrumb("product" . $product->getId(), $prodbreadcrumb);
                $title[] = $product->getName();
            } else {
                foreach ($path as $name => $breadcrumb) {
                    $breadcrumbsBlock->addCrumb($name, $breadcrumb);
                    $title[] = $breadcrumb['label'];
                }
            }
            $this->pageConfig->getTitle()->set(join($this->getTitleSeparator(), array_reverse($title)));
            return parent::_prepareLayout();
        }
        $path = $this->_catalogData->getBreadcrumbPath();
        foreach ($path as $name => $breadcrumb) {
            $title[] = $breadcrumb['label'];
        }
        $this->pageConfig->getTitle()->set(join($this->getTitleSeparator(), array_reverse($title)));
        return parent::_prepareLayout();
    }
}

YOUR_THEME\Magento_Catalog\templates\product\breadcrumbs.phtml

<?php if ($crumbs && is_array($crumbs)) : ?>
    <div class="breadcrumbs">
        <ul class="items">
        <?php foreach ($crumbs as $crumbName => $crumbInfo) : ?>

            <?php
                $label = $block->escapeHtml($crumbInfo['label']);
                $link = $block->escapeUrl($crumbInfo['link']);
            ?>

            <li class="item <?php /* @escapeNotVerified */ echo $block->escapeHtml($crumbName) ?>">
            <?php if ($link) : ?>
                    <a href="<?php /* @escapeNotVerified */ echo $link ?>"
                       title="<?= $block->escapeHtml($crumbInfo['title']) ?>">
                    <?= $label ?>
                    </a>
                    <?php elseif ($crumbInfo['last']) : ?>
                    <strong><?= $label ?></strong>
                <?php else: ?>
                    <?= $label ?>
                <?php endif; ?>
            </li>
        <?php endforeach; ?>
        </ul>
    </div>
<?php endif; ?>

I found the same problem and did it little bit easier and without ObjectManager. I found out the way how it's done with categories and used that. In catalog_product_view.xml, I rewrite template back to Magento_Theme's one:

<referenceBlock name="breadcrumbs" template="Magento_Theme::html/breadcrumbs.phtml" />

Then I wrote small plugin:

namespace Vendor\Module\Plugin\Catalog\Block\Product;

class View
{

    /**
     * Add Breadcrumbs Block
     *
     * @param \Magento\Catalog\Block\Product\View $subject
     * @param $result
     * @return mixed
     * @throws \Magento\Framework\Exception\LocalizedException
     */
    public function afterSetLayout(\Magento\Catalog\Block\Product\View $subject, $result) {
        $subject->getLayout()->createBlock(\Magento\Catalog\Block\Breadcrumbs::class);

        return $result;
    }
}

Finally, di.xml:

<type name="Magento\Catalog\Block\Product\View">
    <plugin name="add_catalog_breadcrumb_block" type="Vendor\Module\Plugin\Catalog\Block\Product\View" />
</type>

Two problems have been fixed: missing breadcrumbs and missing page title (in head section) in the product page.