Note: This troubleshooting guide may require that you make server-side changes to your website. If you are not comfortable making those changes, you will need to contact your hosting provider for assistance.
Sometimes we see an error like the screenshot below when trying to load the visual builder of Divi.
The Visual Builder not loading may be caused by a number of things, and often there is no error attached to indicate the problem. We can troubleshoot the issue by enabling Safe Mode first from WordPress Dashboard > Divi > Support Center.
When you enable Safe Mode, all of your third party plugins, your child theme and all custom scripts are temporarily disabled. But, they are only disabled for you! This means you or our support staff can enable Safe Mode for their current session with a single click, and without causing any change to your visitor’s experience.
While in Safe Mode, you can explore your website and the Divi Builder to see if you still experience problems. If the problems are gone, then you know that they were caused by a third party compatibility issue. Once this is confirmed, we can move on to the next step and try to fix it.
If the Safe Mode fixed the issue, then it could be third party plugins, child theme or custom codes that are causing the issue.
If you are using the Divi Theme, the first step would be to disable the custom code from Divi by going to Divi > Theme Options > Integration and disabling all four code options:
If the issue is fixed, then it means that the problem is caused by one of the custom codes that you are using.
The next step is to disable your Divi child theme, you can go to Appearance > Themes and activate your parent Divi theme. (if you are using Divi, if you are using a different theme then you can skip this part and go to the last step).
If the issue is still not fixed after disabling the custom code and child theme, then it's most likely caused by a 3rd party plugin.
Plugin(s) Conflict
Sometimes plugins can conflict with a theme or with each other.
Disable all your plugins and see if the problem persists. If everything is working once the plugins were disabled it means there's a conflict with a plugin or maybe even a set of plugins.
Enable the plugins one by one to identify the one that is creating the conflict.
Other possible reasons: Listed below you will find a few things that can cause issues with the Visual Builder initialization.
PHP Limits
Each environment is set up differently and hosting providers can limit PHP directives value for various reasons.
Here is a list of configuration directives that are optimal for running a WordPress website:
memory_limit 256M
post_max_size 128M
max_execution_time 300
upload_max_filesize 64M
max_input_time 600
max_input_vars 6000
PHP Version
We recommend running the PHP 7.4+ version. Most hosting providers have an option to change the PHP version from their cPanel, however, if that is not the case you can always reach out to them and they should be able to take care of it for you.
Cache
Caching is a very complex set of systems that can easily cause conflicts between scripts. Make sure to always clear all your caches once a plugin, theme and the WordPress core has been updated.
Cache may include:
Browser Cache (Tutorials on clearing your browser cache)
Plugin Cache
CDN Cache
Server-side Cache
The latest version
Make sure that you are running the latest version of Divi, Extra or the Divi Builder plugin.
Looking for better hosting? We recommend Divi Hosting which is optimized and configured specifically for the Divi Theme and comes with Divi preinstalled. 😄