"The preview was unresponsive after loading..."

Support
#1

Hi Themeco,

This topic has been presented numerous times, and I’ve read through all the support offered. However, none of the suggestions worked, and I’m stuck for a solution. To date I’ve tried and implemented the following;

  • Disabled all plugins - including cache
  • Cleared both browser and website cache
  • Increased the PHP parameter ‘max_execution_time’ to 300.
  • Ensured WP_MEMORY_LIMIT 256M and WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT 512M
  • Latest updates installed : X 5.2.5; Cornerstone 2.1.7; WordPress 4.9.1
  • Using X-Child theme

The page I’m trying to edit was created in Cornerstone, and I’ve edited it many times. I can edit other pages, although the preview seems slower than one would expect. I’m not technically inclined to determine if there are any script errors, and if there are, what would have cause them? Instinct may suggest conflicting plugins, but after they were all disabled, the problem persisted. The memory parameters have also not been adjusted. In my mind, this leaves three areas to consider; the internet speed has dropped (as suggested in a previous Themeco support thread); there is a fault on the page I’m trying to edit (which is unlikely because I cannot edit it and haven’t in a long time), or, there may well be a fault in the latest Themeco product updates.

In previous responses from support staff on this topic, links were simply provided to similar problems, especially referring a customer back to their hosting company. I sincerely hope this is not the solution offered to me.

I’ve provided secured login details to my website should you need to investigate further.

Cheers!

Andrew

#2

Hi There,

Thank you for writing in, try switching to the parent theme to see if that makes a difference. The conflict could be in your customizations. But the main issue that I am seeing right now is your PHP version (5.5.38), The latest WordPress requires PHP 7.2 or greater, version 5.6 should be fine too. Sorry but you need to contact your hosting and ask how you can update the PHP version.

Please clear and deactivate all your caching plugins/feature while we troubleshoot this issue.

Cheers!

#3

Hi Friech,

Thanks for your response.

For the following steps I cleared and disabled the web and browser cache

  • Activated X parent theme - no difference.
  • Switched to PHP Ver 5.6 - no difference.
  • Switched to PHP Ver 7.1 - no difference (my host does not have 7.2 installed) If this is the issue, I imagine I could temporarily revert to the previous WordPress version. Let me know.
  • Increased ‘max execution time’ to 500 - no difference.
  • Disabled all plugins - no difference
  • Used 2 other browsers : Chrome and Brave (currently Firefox) - no difference

As there is only one page I cannot edit, it surely must narrow the possible causes and solutions. I imagine it’s not impossible for a page to become corrupt, but I have no way of determining that.

Hope you find the solution soon.

Cheers!

Andrew

#4

Hi there,

I took much time to your installation and could not find why that specific page is not loading the preview.

I duplicated the page using the templates of the Cornerstone and now you can see the same page as Test Page in the listing. Please kindly go to that test page using the Cornerstone and from the left side of screen delete the sections one by one, on each step save the changes, get out of the Cornerstone and then go back and see the result.

Follow the steps above till you find the section which is causing the issue. Also, I installed the WP Serverinfo plugin which you can see from Dashboard > WP-Serverinfo menu and it shows that your PHP memory limit is 512MB which is a good one and you do not need to change.

The other tests that I have done were to change the hierarchy of the page from home as the parent to no parent and changing of the permalinks which did not have any changes on the problem.

Thank you,

#5

Hi Christopher,

Thanks for getting back to me and setting up the Test page. I followed your suggestions, and after deleting a few Sections, Cornerstone was able to edit the remaining page.

However, it isn’t a specific Section that is causing the problem. If I delete any 2 Sections, the problem goes away - which leads me to believe it must have something to do with the amount of data on the page. I’m not certain if there is a threshold or data limitation for a page, but if there is, then that would be the problem. If not, then you may have some other insight.

In the interim, I’ll try finding a work-around, but there was a time this wasn’t necessary, and should be corrected. Please keep me informed of your progress.

Cheers!

Andrew.

#6

Hi Christopher,

Not sure if it will help you nail the problem, but as I’ve mentioned, I tried an interim work-around. I’ve split the offending page into smaller segments and that seems to be holding up.

However, what normally would have been a scroll to a new paragraph, is now a new page load which is not ideal.

Cheers!

Andrew

#7

Hello There,

We have check your site and inspected the page closely. I found out that on the page, there are invalid html codes:

<h1><img src="http://www.andrewjensen.info/wp-content/uploads/Slider-Residues2.jpg" alt="Residues title"</h1>

The correct one should be this:

<h1><img src="http://www.andrewjensen.info/wp-content/uploads/Slider-Residues2.jpg" alt="Residues title"></h1>


Please be sure to close any html tags to avoid any issues.

With Classic custom headline element, you are not suppose to nest h1 tag. The custom headline is already wrapped with h1 and adding a content with an h1 is already invalid.

Please review your page contents and make sure that all the html codes you have inserted is valid and correct. Unclosed html tags will messed up the page and will prevent Cornerstone from loading properly.

Please let us know how it goes.

#8

Hi RueNel,

Thanks for your in-depth investigation of the page, as well as picking up on the HTML errors which I’ve corrected. (I’m curious that Cornerstone allowed them in the first place.)

However, something is still amiss. I’ve been editing this page for a long time, and those errors have existed from the beginning - a few years now. Only after splitting the page have I been able to edit it in sections, and only due to that action have I been able to correct the HTML errors you’ve kindly pointed out. So essentially, the error preventing Cornerstone editing the page still exists. In other words, I cannot make the HTML corrections to the original page as I cannot edit it with Cornerstone.

I’m still under the impression it has something to do with the length or size of the page. For the time being, the work-around is adequate, but I’d still rather have the page the way it was for efficiency’s sake.

Please let me know how it goes.

Cheers!

Andrew

#9

Hi Andrew,

Can you create a test page and add the original content(full content) into it so we can do further testing without breaking your live page.

Thanks

#10

Hi Paul,

  • The original page was = /Residues A
  • Backup of original page = /Residues A Backup
  • New Pages = /Residues A & /Residues A2 (A split of original /Residues A)
  • Testing Page (Copy of Original /Residues A) = Apex Test Page

You’re welcome to alter anything in the /Apex Test Page. Unfortunately, because I cannot edit the page in Cornerstone, the HTML errors are still present.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Andrew

#11

Hi there,

Could you try re-creating the page instead of cloning it? These are what I found,

  1. When deleting the upper sections (chapter 1 to 5), the builder works
  2. Hence, I created a test page again (cloned) to confirm the #1, deleting upper sections doesn’t solve it, instead, when I delete chapter 1 to 8, it works.

These conclude that the issue is a bit random due to performance. And also, on the random occasion when it loads, the menu doesn’t have the styling (it appears as standard bullets).

Are you on shared hosting? Is there a way you can clone your site into staging where we can test it with no other plugins? I just like to confirm if this is host’s related issue.

Thanks!

#12

Hi Rad,

Thanks for the feedback.

I found something similar. However, deleting any 2 sections did the trick. With the offending page currently split into 2 pages I have no problem to edit either page consistently.

Regarding the menu, some time back - long before the establishment of Apex, your staff shared code and CSS to insert the Share Social icons in the navbar output from the _navbar.php file in X-Child theme. As you’ve seen, that no longer functions, but I’ll get to that once we’ve sorted the page editing out.

There are approximately 241 A5-sized pages in Chapters 1 to 10; not sure how that translates into a single web page - if at all relevant. Recreating them will be a mammoth task. The original document was written in Microsoft Word, and that will need to be reformatted to HTML, and further tweaked before it will ready to be inserted into a blank X-Theme page. Please reconsider what you’re asking for and if it is absolutely necessary. If so, it will take more than a few days, and unfortunately this is not my ‘day job’, so it will need to happen when I can spare the time. However, there might be some middle ground. I can perhaps just dump a long rough HTML document into the page in a single section that approximates what currently exists. This may not be ideal as it’s an unknown variable and may not generate the problem that currently exists. Nevertheless, let me know.

I’ll check with my host regarding a staging area, and I believe I’m on shared hosting. The latter has never been a concern as the website does not generate a lot of traffic, and there is no interaction with users or transactions. Will let you know in due course.

Cheers!

Andrew

#13

Hi there,

I understand that, but copying from Word documents could also cause issues while editing your site in the builder. As it makes contain hidden elements that could break it. It’s known issue since the standard editor versus word doc contents. And yes, it will create more work if it produced more issues, sometimes it’s more recommended to create the contents manually than copying (reformatting and fixing are like redoing it over and over again). You may hire sometime that could encode the contents for you :slight_smile:

As for shared hosting, your site may not get traffic, but other sites hosted on the same machine where your site is could get traffics. Multiple sites share same machine, same memory resources, and same traffic. That’s the problem in shared hosting, and since it’s shared, there are too many restrictions, you can’t even increase the memory limit or disable some features since it’s been in use with other sites.

Thanks!

#14

Hi Rad,

I’m trying to understand your rationale.

(A) Recreating the page will have no effect on the hosting environment, yet you believe it must be done? I’m concerned that once this is undertaken and the problem persists, the focus will be directed at the hosting company - leaving me no solution outside of trying to get the hosting company to solve the problem. To summarize this; because my page cannot be edited in Cornerstone, it’s the hosting company’s resource restriction related to shared hosting. What’s baffling is that this page could be edited before the Cornerstone and X-Theme upgrade. - whilst on shared hosting. Please help me understand this.

(B) The fact that only one page suffers from the editing problem is more confusing. My instinct would be that it’s due to a page length / size restriction - either enforced by the hosting company or Cornerstone / X-Theme. As pointed out by Christopher earlier in this thread; “Also, I installed the WP Serverinfo plugin which you can see from Dashboard > WP-Serverinfo menu and it shows that your PHP memory limit is 512MB which is a good one and you do not need to change.” Again, why has the editing problem only occurred after the upgrade? My hosting package parameters have not changed - I checked.

In the interim, it seems I have no option but to follow your directive and painstakingly recreate the page. I certainly hope this effort will not be in vain. I’ll let you know the moment it’s ready.

Hoping you get to the bottom of this soon,

Cheers!

Andrew

#15

Hi there,

Before we go further, I just like to clarify that what we provide and recommend is just part of troubleshooting to narrow down possible causes.

And sorry for the confusion, I was discussing two different possible issues and cause. Page creation and copy-pasting is another issue from the shared hosting performance.

  1. I’m referring to re-creating the page instead of copy and pasting from Word Document as it could cause many issues due to hidden elements from the doc. It’s not hosting related.

  2. Another issue is shared hosting which is affecting the performance of your site, especially for that long page. In which even if your site doesn’t get any traffic, the machine where it’s hosted will surely get the traffic due to other sites sharing the same machine. And please note that even if you increase the memory limit through configuration, it will have no effect on shared hosting (it will still be around 40mb to 60mb). You should contact your hosting provider to see if you’re allowed to increase it.

Thanks!

#16

Hi Rad,

Thanks for your response.

I’ve included your response for clarity.

And sorry for the confusion, I was discussing two different possible issues and cause. Page creation and copy-pasting is another issue from the shared hosting performance.

Fair enough. I understand long distance trouble shooting can be tough, and elimination of possible causes a required first step.

I’m referring to re-creating the page instead of copy and pasting from Word Document as it could cause many issues due to hidden elements from the doc. It’s not hosting related.

As I mentioned earlier, the document was only created in Word. I know it cannot simply be pasted into the Cornerstone editor, and therefore said that a fair amount of formatting clean-up is required before I can even start recreating the page. Even exporting to HTML from Word is a mess, hence the time required to clean up whilst still maintaining the formatting. Eventually, the text that will be placed into Cornerstone will only have HTML code with CSS styling - no Word Style formatting. This is how the current page was created.

Another issue is shared hosting which is affecting the performance of your site, especially for that long page. In which even if your site doesn’t get any traffic, the machine where it’s hosted will surely get the traffic due to other sites sharing the same machine. And please note that even if you increase the memory limit through configuration, it will have no effect on shared hosting (it will still be around 40mb to 60mb). You should contact your hosting provider to see if you’re allowed to increase it.

Two things on this; I’ve been able to edit the said page since its creation; I guess about two years now. It’s only after the Cornerstone / X-Theme update that this is not possible. I believe only two conditions can be the cause; (a) The host downgraded my allocated resources without notifying me, or, (b) the Cornerstone / X-Theme update is responsible. Regarding the former, I’ll contact them to confirm that my contract and their obligations have not been altered.

I want to resolve this issue as much as you, and will share my host’s feedback with you as soon as I can. As I’ve said before, the recreation of the page is not a minor undertaking, and I’ve started on that. As soon as it’s done I’ll let you know.

Cheers!

Andrew

#17

Hi there,

Thank you for the message and your cooperation and patience on this matter. We have a situation here which we need to resolve as quickly as possible. The choices are:

  1. You changing the hosting service provider to final test the case to know if it is something related to your hosting service or not
  2. Recreate the page.
  3. Find a middle ground.

I am sure you will understand that this is an edge case and it is not possible for us to detect the cause and even if it is indeed something related to our code in Cornerstone it will take time for our development team to find out or maybe it might need a refactor of the code, I am not sure but the outcome will be available in the future releases and it will not be feasible for you to wait that long.

I suggest the option 3 which is not a perfect solution but at least you can do edit your page.

I duplicated the page with a new name called Residues A Skeleton Mode. As you can see I did not delete any section and I changed the Sample Chapter title and added 3 exclamation points.

Here is what I did, I accessed the page using the Cornerstone and the error is there and the preview is not working. Then I clicked the Skeleton mode icon:

It shows a rough view of the items available on the page, I clicked on the element of the headline to change the text:

Then I edited the code as I have access to HTML:

I saved the page and the result was correct:

So the problem is actually the fancy preview page if you consider avoiding the usage of the preview and each time check the saved result in the actual front end of the website in a separate browser tab you can use the builder at least to do your edits.

I know that is not a perfect solution but it is the most convenient way for the time being.

Ad as this is happening only on one page I think we can live with a no preview version :wink:

Thank you for your understanding.

#18

Hi Christopher,

Thanks for the detailed feedback, as well as going the extra mile to resolve the problem.

I agree with the three options you offer, as well as finding middle ground in the interim. As opposed to using your ‘skeleton’ method, I’m going to stay with what I currently have; split the page into two. This allows full Cornerstone editing with a minor trade-off.

Regarding the host’s possible contribution to the problem, it may well be in your interest to create a temporary test / staging account on Themeco’s Hosting. I’m not sure how practical this is, but I’ll be willing to send you a backup of my site. The server will be under your control and configuration, allowing you to observe it’s impact. If you do, I’d appreciate you sharing the details with me.

For now, thank you for your and the team’s unwavering effort to resolve my problem. It’s near impossible writing perfect code, but one can provide superior support - as has been the case.

Cheers!

Andrew

#19

Thank you for your contribution and actually, it will be a good idea to have a backup of your website, we can test the case both in our local installations and the Themeco hosting service. At the moment I do not have access to the hosting but I can test the case on my local installation.

You can upload the backup to whatever sharing service you prefer and give us the link here using Secure note.

Thank you.

#20

Hi Christopher,

I’ve posted the link to my website backup in the Secure note.

Cheers!

Andrew