Troubleshooting Elementor Editor Not Loading (Without Losing Content)

This guide walks you through how we fixed the problem without rebuilding the page from scratch.

⚠️ The Issue: Draft Page Won’t Load

A client reached out after noticing that their draft homepage wouldn’t open in the Elementor editor, while the live homepage still loaded—just very slowly. They had already made major edits on the draft and wanted to avoid starting over.

Initial signs pointed to a setting or feature conflict inside Elementor.

What We Found

• Elementor Experiments Were Active
  We reviewed the settings under Elementor → Features. Changing these between default, active, and inactive didn’t solve the issue.

• Conflict With Container Layout
  Disabling Elementor’s Container feature fixed the loading problem—but wiped the page content.

• The Real Culprit: Icon List Widget
  We isolated the issue to Elementor’s built-in Icon List widget. Disabling it from the Element Manager let the editor load again without deleting content.

How We Fixed It

1. Cloned the Site to Staging
   So we could safely test settings without affecting the live version.

2. Disabled the Container Feature
   This restored editor access, but temporarily removed the draft’s content.

3. Pinpointed the Problem Widget
   We tested individual widgets and found that the Icon List was causing the crash.

4. Disabled the Icon List
   After turning off just this widget, both the live and test pages loaded perfectly in the editor.

What Changed After the Fix

• Elementor editor loads on both test and live homepages

• No content was lost or deleted

• Editor is slightly faster (but may still lag on heavy pages)

Lessons Learned

• Don’t overlook Elementor’s built-in widgets — even standard elements can cause crashes when combined with certain features

• Use staging to test — always safer to run experiments outside of your live site

• Container layouts aren’t always stable — disabling them temporarily can help isolate the issue

• Performance matters — large pages with complex layouts can still affect editor speed

Need Elementor Help?

If Elementor is freezing, glitching, or making your pages disappear — let’s fix it before it affects your workflow.

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