Command blocks unusable

I used the command /give in survival mode to get a command block but it wouldn't allow me to place it anywhere, so I went into creative mode and it placed ok, but I couldn't interact with it to program it. The next thing I tried was /setblock and that placed okay but had the same interaction issues. I have cheats and command blocks enabled. I've played Minecraft before on windows and never had this happen.
Update
Ok I have it working now, so the issue seems to be when using the menu to go into creative mode. The way around it is to use the command /gamemode 1 instead of going through the settings menu. The bug seems to only be with the creative mode option not being updated or applied in game.