If you've been designing websites for a while, you might have encountered the Divi builder timeout error, it's basically a pop-up with a warning message indicating that the Divi builder has failed to load and it recommends that you check your third party plugins for conflicts.
Sometimes, you open the Divi builder trying to edit or make some changes but it keeps spinning till forever. It's really annoying and frustrating especially if you have some urgent work to do and you're unable to make any modifications to your website.
You're not alone! there are a lot of users that keep asking for the solution to the timeout error on various forums and Facebook groups. Therefore, I have written this guide explaining the causes behind this issue as well as some easy tips to fix it.
Without no more delay … Let's Get Started (:
Contents
Reasons behind Divi Timeout Error
Let's have a look at some of the major reasons why the Divi builder is continuously loading or displaying the timeout error. based on those causes we'll be compiling a list of troubleshooting methods.
Here are some of the well-know causes of Divi builder timeout errors:
- Caching Problem
- Limit in PHP configuration
- Plugins causing conflicts
- Divi theme not updated
- Outdated PHP version
- Hosting server problems
Quick Ways To Fix Divi Builder Timeout Error
The ways I am going to share are the quickest and the crucial ones that are proven to work in most cases. You can try them one by one and I hope the reason for which you're getting the issue is among this list and you get it resolved.
1 – Clear Your Website's Cache
Caching basically is storing a copy of your website files, images for users so when they come again to visit your website it will load faster. it's very important when it comes to maintaining a good performance on your website which eventually means a great user experience.
However, caching is also considered one of the popular things that cause issues for site owners therefore, I do recommend that you start by clearing the cache from your caching plugin such as WP total cache and from the browser.
Since I am using the WP total cache I will need to hover over the “Performance” tab in the top menu then click “Purge All Caches” and the plugin will go and clear the cache automatically from the entire site. so depending on the plugin you're using just go to the settings and look for the clear cache option. If for some reason the setting doesn't exist then you can de-activate the plugin temporarily.
To clear the browser cache click CTRL + SHIFT + DEL from your keyboard or navigate to More tools > Clear browser data. A window will pop up, select the options under the “advanced” tab just like I did below. Don't check the last option if you want the passwords registered on the websites to be cleared.
Even if you didn't face the Divi builder timeout or any other issues, experts recommend that you clear the cache after doing any modifications or updates to the site as it helps in saving memory space. so, you should definitely give it a try here and now.
2 – Clear Local Storage
The local storage functionality is used in each browser to store information. it's also can cause the Divi builder timeout error in some cases so we're going to clear using the Chrome developer tools. if you're using another browser then the process is pretty much the same.
Go to the page where you're facing the issue, on the top right corner of your chrome browser click the three dots, from the menu hover over “More tools” then click “Developer tools”.
Make sure you're in the “Application” tab, click the “storage” then on the bottom go ahead and click “clear site data”. By doing this process you'll your site data is cleared from your browser and keep in mind that you'll have to log in again to your WordPress dashboard after doing this process.
Good Job! now if the data stored in the local storage is what was causing the issue of Divi builder timeout then it will be fixed after clearing it.
3 – Upgrade to the latest PHP version
Nowadays, most web hosting companies configure their servers to work using 7.0+ in PHP version by default. But if you use an old web hosting company then make sure to check the PHP version because in some cases the PHP version needs to be updated manually.
Using a deprecated and outdated PHP version like 5.0 can cause the Divi builder timeout issue along with endless other compatibility errors. but the great news is that depending on the host you use they offer a variety of PHP versions to choose from.
The only problem is that some websites still have the default PHP version set to very old versions like 5.0, 5.5, 5.6, and so on.
To change the PHP version you won't need to contact the host support you can do it yourself at any time by login to your Cpanel, under the software tab click “Select PHP version”
Now you'll see the current PHP version, if it's set to a very low version like 5.2 then make sure you select a higher one. In general 7.0+ is pretty good.
4 – Increase The Memory Limit
Another solution you can try in order to resolve the Divi builder timeout error is to increase the PHP limits for your server. by default the PHP configuration for almost all the hosts is the following:
memory_limit 256M
post_max_size 128M
max_execution_time 300
upload_max_filesize 64M
max_input_time 600
max_input_vars 6000To raise the limits of PHP on your server, simply login to your Cpanel and look for “Select PHP version” or alternatively “MultiPHP manager” it's oftentimes under the software tab. Scroll down and you'll see the PHP memory limit from the dropdown menu select a higher value, In my case, I set it to 1G.
Concerning the other values try to match them with the recommended values in Divi > System status or even higher to turn all the red bullets to green.
Talking about configuring the memory limit, you might want to also try extending the memory limit for your Apache server. You can do that by logging in to your Cpanel dashboard again, clicking on File manager then editing and adding the following code to the .htaccess file.
<IfModule mod_substitute.c>
SubstituteMaxLineLength 10M
</IfModule>Go ahead and save the changes.
5 – Check Plugins and Child Theme
When it comes to Divi builder timeout errors we should also keep in mind that the plugins we use or the child theme (if we use one) can cause conflicts.
To troubleshoot this issue we'll navigate to Plugins > installed plugins from the left-hand side navigation menu. what you're seeing now is all the activated plugins and addons on your website.
To ensure none of the installed plugins is causing the Divi builder timeout issue we'll simply go ahead and de-activate all the plugins.
Try and see if the problem is still happening. If it's not then the next step is to activate them one by one and of course check if the Divi builder is working after each one until you find the one that's causing the issue.
If the plugins are not causing any problem then check your child theme if you have one installed on your website. You can do that by navigating to Appearance > Themes. as you can see a child theme activated.
All I have to do now is to switch over to the Divi parent theme by Hovering the mouse over it and clicking the “activate” button.
Try your divi builder again and hope the issue is resolved now.
6 – Update Divi Theme
It's very important that you keep The Divi theme and the plugins you use up-to-date as the Divi developers keep including tons of new features and improvements to the Divi theme as well as fixing the major errors encountered by users and having an outdated version can put you in troubles.
You can update the Divi theme by downloading the latest version from your account at Elegant Themes website then uploading it to your server using an FTP client or simply navigate to Divi > Theme options from your WordPress dashboard. Under the “Update” tab enter in the username and the API key which you can get from your account at Elegant themes.
Now. click “Save Changes” and You're all set!
7 – Switch To a Good hosting
The last option I would like to mention is to switch your website completely to a new reliable hosting that's compatible with Divi because sometimes, bad hosting can always cause you headaches. But before you do so make sure to try every possible solution out there.
I left this solution as the last one simply because on the one hand, it's time-consuming and your website will be down while doing the switch. On the other hand, it might lead to a myriad of other errors which is something that will make things worse and drive you mad.
For all this reason. take your time to try all the tips we mentioned above and do some more research for any possible solution or contact your hosting support and request them to help you out to avoid going through a risky process for no reason.
Further Reading:
Roundup
To sum up, the Divi builder timeout issue is very common and can be caused by a myriad of reasons so the only way for us to know exactly where the problem is coming from is by testing different possibilities. In today's guide, we have discussed almost all the troubleshooting ways you can try to solve the problem.
If you have tried all the mentioned ways and still getting the same error then you can also get in touch with your hosting provider and ask them if they can fix the issue for you.
That's it for this step-by-step guide, do let me know if any of the explained solutions has worked with you? If you have any questions or want to share your thoughts drop them in a comment below and don't forget to share this article if it has given you any value.
See you in the next blog post, until then stay Awesome!
Cheers!
