A Blog post is SUPER SLOW to load when I try to edit

Support
#1

Hi, I use XTheme, the latest version and Visual composer on 90% of my posts and pages.
My website is www.keepcalmandtravel.com and the article I’m trying to edit that wouldn’t load /gets stuck and I have to wait at least 3-4 minutes for me to be able to scroll through the VC elements is still published with a password until I have completed it, here is the link: https://www.keepcalmandtravel.com/sardinia-top-things-to-do-best-hotels-resorts-tours-vacation/

I have already contacted my hosting provider and they investigated the issue and added some code, suggesting to ask for your help. Here are the specifics for you: :

I’ve applied the following code to you website’s htaccess file: SubstituteMaxLineLength 10M

And the following one to you website’s php.ini file: max_input_vars = 5000 upload_max_filesize = 128M post_max_size = 128M memory_limit = 768M max_input_time = 120 max_execution_time = 120 opcache.max_accelerated_files=130987 opcache.memory_consumption=400 opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16 opcache.fast_shutdown=1

We checked if the page would load and be edited more quickly but nope, all the others posts and pages are quicker but this one still gets stuck.

Can you check if there is some sort of conflict with the code I have added to the page? (some java script/html for affiliates, but nothing I haven’t used before on my other articles) I can’t think of anything else that can create this issue and it’s frustrating because I’m under a deadline and I can’t practically edit the post without taking me forever to just open the edit page, leave alone editing (even switching to classic mode for the text and other elements).

Thanks in advance for your feedback. Let me know if you need the credentials to access the website and check that specific article.

Kind Regards
Clelia

#2

Hi @klelietta,

Thanks for writing in.

I have checked your setup on front end and I could see that there is an Ads script that causing to load all the time and not stopping.

To confirm this, remove ads script one by one then check if this affects your site loading.

If still not helping, in this case please share us your admin credentials so we could check your setup closer.

Don’t forget to set it in a secure note.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks.

#3

Hi, super weird that I didn’t get the email saying that I got a reply as I’m truly struggling in here. It’s getting worse and worse and ONLY for that specific article.

Since I’m not tech savvy, can you please tell me what kind of ads script? I think they are automatically generated by my ads network and the script should be the same for all the pages and blog posts, but if you give me more details I can ask them about it as they have a live chat and reply almost immediately.

UPDATE: I removed some affiliate links scripts, the “follow me on pinterest button” and blocked the ads from showing on that page. Still quite slow…but on the backhand (visual and text editing) it was better. Also with the Visual composer was slighlty faster. Now I put back the ads and a few affiliate codes and especially the VC front end is slow again. Why is that? I contacted my ads provider and they will have a look at their scripts and see if there is something that is slowing down the page but I have them everywhere and it’s just this one page.

#4

Hi Clelia,

I’ve just checked that post and the load time is about 10seconds.

Could you please purge all the SiteGround caches and check again?

Let us know how it goes!

#5

You mean you entered in the dashboard and checked how long did it take to load?
If so, for me it’s a nightmare (and no, it’s not the internet connection because I did other things on my other website and it works fast).
(And yes I have purged all the caches, Siteground, cloudflare, browsers… you name it)

Basically, I enter the dashboard, leave it on Visual composer mode, and just that takes at least one minute for me to be able to scroll up and down to the sections. Then I try to edit a text, plain and simple… I click on the pencil, the editing windows opens quite quickly and then I try to change a sentence or something similar. I swear, sometimes it takes more than 3 minutes to only be able to highlight the text, change it, save the window and be able to scroll up and down the VC again! This is insane.

If I switch to visual mode is slightly quicker so it must be something related to VC? For other posts where I use VC and are quite long too I don’t have this issue. Only on this specific one. And only after a while I was working on it. In the beginning (last week) it was normally fast. So I don’t get what the issue now is. I contacted my ads network customer service and they scan the whole article, sending me screenshots showing that their script loads incredibly fast (not even 1 second) so it should not be the issue.

I also tried to replace the html for my affiliates and use normal url version of them (now back to html as I need to insert some widgets).

I think it’s an issue with VC, but after trying EVERYTHING I could think of, I had to write this ticket because my work is completely stuck, I have deadlines and my clients want to know why I’m not publishing anything. I can’t publish anything as I can’t even edit 1 line of text in less than 2 minutes!

Can you please have a deeper look into this issue? It’s really urgent.

Thank you!

#6

Hello @klelietta,

Thanks for updating the thread.

I can see that the post link you have shared, VC is loading quite slow infact on my end while website is running slow. However, I see that under X > Validation Visual Composer plugin is installed. On the other hand, under Plugins > Installed Plugins I don’t see entry for Visual Composer.

There might be some problem and I suggest you to please login FTP and under / wp-content/plugins/ and remove entry for Visual Composer. After that from X > Validation please install Visual Composer and then see how it goes.

Thanks.

#7

Thanks for the reply. I checked the website in incognito mode and on my end is not super slow (a few seconds to open the home page and the articles…

As for the visual composer, can you please help me with your suggestion? I am not tech savvy and I am scared i will do a mess and that’s the last thing I need right now! The weird thing is that if it is a VC issue then why it’s only stuck on this specific post? I checked other posts where i use it (almost all of them) and it’s not super slow. Just a bit slower than a non VC post. In this case as already said it gets completely stuck for minutes.

Can I leave you the FTP credentials so that you can do it for me please? My ads network customer service also added a plug in where the ads won’t show on the backend eliminating compatibility issues and they told me that if this won’t fix the issue, you should be able to help me, given that the VC is not the version everyone purchases but its custom made for X theme.
Thanks a lot.

#8

Hi Clelia,

I have reinstalled Visual Composer Plugin in your site but it is still not showing in your plugins page.
So there is something conflicting with that plugin.

Can you create a staging site then try testing for a plugin conflict. You can do this by deactivating all third party plugins, and seeing if the problem remains. If it’s fixed, you’ll know a plugin caused the problem, and you can narrow down which one by reactivating them one at a time.

Let us know how it goes!

#9

Hi Paul, the thing is… I can try and do that (if my hosting provider helps me. But I still don’t get why the issue is just for that one article. It baffles me. I use VC everywhere, why the conflict (if that’s the reason) is just in there? Tomorrow I will speak with my hosting provider to see what we can do with the stage site.
I’ll keep you posted.

#10

Hi Clelia,

Actually, the fact that the Visual Composer is installed but not showing in the plugins is extremely strange and shows there is a fundamental problem on your installation.

It is needed a need to check this via your hosting service provider. Now regarding the article in question, there indeed might be something happening with the usage of the elements or code that you added to the page which I can not find the reason.

The best way before moving the website to a staging version is to add a new post and try to recreate the same page from scratch, try to do the same stuff you do but this time step by step, and in each step check the speed. That is the only way you will find the reason why this is only happening in that specific article other than the possibility of the server restrictions due to the fact that your article is too long and heavy.

Thank you.

#11

Thanks, I have spoken to my hosting provider and they are investigating as we speak, still i’m not sure a staging website is the solution. By the way, do you know whether using cornerstone for building blog posts and pages is better than VC (for the site speed both for the users and for the edits?)

I want to keep the nice layout I can create with VC as it leads to more conversions but if this has to be an issue for the page speed I don’t know if it’s worth it so I’m looking for other options.

As usual I keep you posted on what my hosting provider will tell me

#12

Hello @klelietta,

Thanks for updating the thread. :slight_smile:

In my experience I haven’t noticed much of difference between Cornerstone and VC in terms of page load time. However, we suggest our customers to consider Cornerstone as it’s fully integrated and works pretty much fine with X Theme. More often then not page load time is impacted because of the hosts, use of sub standard plugins, heavy media files etc.

Sure, please let us know the message you receive from hosting company.

Thanks.

1 Like
#13

Hi Again,

So my hosting provider investigated and couldn’t find any issue on their side, they suggested to get back to you as they are not familiar with the VC plugin that is integrated with the Theme and this is obviously your area of expertise. The issue is confirmed to be only related to that specific post. They said that only who developed the plug in (in this case it’s your integration so it falls under your developers’s responsibility) can help with the issue.

Thanks for a prompt reply. I am completely stuck here, the theme tells me to ask my hosting provider and my hosting provider tells me they have checked everything and send me back to my theme customer service. It’s getting frustrating and I’m losing good money because I can’t publish this article.

Thanks

#14

Hi Clelia,

Since that is the only specific post that is getting the issue. I recommend that you re-create that post adding the elements bits by bits and checking the load times each time. That way we can narrow down which elements is causing the issue.
Please don’t delete that post, just create a new one to re-create.

Thanks

#15

It MIGHT be a good solution, if it werent for the tiny detail that it’s a super complex post with more than 13k words and so many elements and images… it took me 2 weeks to create the layout… not exactly the quickest solution. Is there any other way to check this? I can’t spend 2 weeks recreating the post… I remember that in the beginning it was working ok, then one day, randomly it started getting stuck. After i finished to add my last element (it’s a top 20 list and each chapter has the same elements, the only thing that changes is the text and images, I doubt that is the issue… I don’t know what to do anymore and I am not even thiking about deleting it after all the hours of work i put into it. I need to get it fixed as it’s for a client waiting and it’s important.

Please can you suggest another solution? don’t you have any way/tool to check on your side? ask the developer to have a look at it? I’m running out of ideas in here and i wouldn’t be so persistent if it werent SO IMPORTANT.

#16

Hi Clelia,

First of all, I want to mention that we totally understand that it takes so much time to create the page and now that does have the problem it is frustrating to start from scratch.

Unfortunately, we do not have any tool or mean to find out why this is happening. The fact that it is happening only on one page just shows it is not related to the plugin itself as if it was the other pages should have the same problem.

But as it is a very long page the server factor comes in that might have the issue. So, in general, there are 2 possible cases:

  1. The server cannot handle that big of a page when in the Visual Composer. Which we already asked you to move your website to your local machine or another server to test.

  2. There is an element which is causing the issue, which it is not possible for us to check and you need to double check the case.

One thing that you can do is to install the duplicate post plugin and copy the page, then in the newly copied page try to remove the elements one by one to see if there is an element which is causing the problem. In this test, if you see that after removing certain amount of the element no matter which element that is, the page works faster it is 100% server problem not being able to handle the elements from a certain point.

Please consider that even if there is a bug of some kind in the builder (which I doubt as there are many many people using this plugin) we will not be able to fix it, we will be able to only report this to the developers of the Visual Composer to be considered for the upcoming releases.

Anyway, if you are trying to start things from scratch I suggest that you check the Cornerstone as it is the go-to builder for X.

Thank you for your understanding.

#17

Thank you

I am about to take a plane and will test with the duplicate content option once i reach my destination. From now on i will try to find different solutons when writing massive posts as clearly the VC slows down things adding more code to the already big files.

I keep you posted

#18

Sure! Let us know how it goes.

#19

Hi

So, I’ve followed your advice and duplicate the post and then i proceeded by deleting a lot of containers reducing the post from 13k words to 5200 words and that seemed to have almost solved the issue. Now yes using VC when i update the post is slightly slow in the beginning (around 10 seconds to load the editing page with VC) but I can add text and immediately save it without waiting ages to be able to click on the save button.

So, does this mean that is the server that can’t handle such a big amount of words using vc? (as the server is able to handle it NOT using VC).

What are your suggestions in this specific case? I need to contact my hosting provider and then what? what should I ask them exactly? I really don’t know how to approach this issue with them because usually the other posts are not that problematic and I think that maybe nesting too much with VC and adding elements/columns/buttons /colors surely impacts the heaviness of the page.

I don’t want to completely leave the page builders in order to increase the speed of the page as these are landing pages for affiliates and they convert much better with a nice layout, always obtained with VC.

Any suggestion is highly appreciated!

Thank you

#20

Hey Clelia,

That might be the case. It might be related to database memory limits and/or database server performance. What your host should do is to monitor the resources while you edit the post.

Are you editing the long VC article in your live host? When you’re using a page builder, it uses server resources and your host might limit your resource usage once you used up what’s allocated for your plan. This is another factor but since they already troubleshooted before, I believe this is not the case.

Have you tried copying your site to a local server other other staging servers? This is a quick way to know if the issue with the server or VC has a performance issue. Try editing the post in a local server maybe it’ll run smoothly. Once done, you can copy the VC content to your live site.

Also try increasing your max_execution_time to 600.

Just note that, as @christopher.amirian said, we as support have no means to trace the cause of the issue on our own. What we can do is report this to our development team so they could forward this to Visual Composer’s developers.

For now, the only solution would be to use Cornerstone.

Thanks.