I have created a server to play with on my friends. It was originally 1.11 but I migrated it to 1.12. I used the server files on the Minecraft website and I am not using any mods. My friends and I are currently playing survival and for a while, it worked fine but now for some reason my friends cannot open chests- they don't play the animation and the GUI for the items in the chest doesn't show up on their screens. The same thing happens for crafting tables. It just doesn't work for them. For some reason I can open chests and use crafting tables, but my friends cannot. It only appears to happen in a certain area, if they walk far away enough from our house where the chests and crafting tables are, and place either one several blocks away, chests and crafting tables will work normally.
EDIT: I figured out it was actually just the spawn protection. This issue can be closed/deleted now.
Make sure the crafting tables and chests are not in spawn claim.