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
Step 1: Cloned the Site to Staging
So we could safely test settings without affecting the live version.
Step 2: Disabled the Container Feature
This restored editor access, but temporarily removed the draft’s content.
Step 3: Pinpointed the Problem Widget
We tested individual widgets and found that the Icon List was causing the crash.
Step 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
- Check Internal Links: Use Broken Link Checker to repair broken internal links.
- Optimize Meta Tags: Make sure all titles, descriptions, and headers are intact.
- Schema Check: Double-check that your structured data (schema) is still in place.
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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