WordPress Editor Not Showing Content? 8 Causes and How to Fix Them

This guide is about the editor in your admin area. If you've saved a change but the live site still shows the old version, that's a different problem: see why your WordPress website isn't showing recent changes.

1. The page was built with a page builder

Page builders store the page's design in their own format and edit it in their own screen. Elementor, for example, saves its layout separately from the normal page content, so the standard editor can look empty, or show a single button, even though the live page is full of content.

How to check: look near the top of the edit screen for a button such as Edit with Elementor. Divi and WPBakery have their own buttons to open their builders too. On the Pages list, hovering over a page shows an extra link such as "Edit with Elementor".

The fix: edit the page with the builder, not the standard editor.

2. You're in a different editor from the one you expect

WordPress's standard editor is the block editor. Some sites have the official Classic Editor plugin installed, which brings back the older single-box editor and hides the block editor. Pages written in one can look odd, or empty, when opened in the other.

How to check: if the Classic Editor plugin is installed, go to Settings, Writing. It has a "Default editor for all users" setting, and an option to let users switch editors.

The fix: open the page in the editor it was written in. If you're not sure, check the page's revisions (cause 7) to see what the content looked like when it was last saved.

3. A plugin or theme conflict is breaking the editor

The block editor runs in your browser as JavaScript. If a plugin or the theme adds broken or outdated JavaScript, the editor can fail to load, show a white screen, or load without your content. It often starts straight after an update.

How to check: open the editor, then open your browser's developer tools (press F12 in most browsers on Windows) and go to the Console tab. Red error messages mentioning a plugin or theme folder point straight at the culprit.

The fix: switch plugins off one at a time and reload the editor after each, starting with anything updated recently and anything that adds features to the editor. Do this on a staging copy if you have one, because switching plugins off on a live site affects visitors too. If no plugin is to blame, try switching to a default WordPress theme on the copy. Once you know which one it is, update it, replace it or roll it back. See why WordPress websites break after plugin updates.

4. A caching or security plugin is blocking the editor

The block editor loads and saves your content through the WordPress REST API, a part of WordPress that works behind the scenes. Security plugins, firewalls and some caching setups can block it. The editor then can't load content or save, and you may see an error such as "The response is not a valid JSON response."

How to check: go to Tools, Site Health. If the REST API is blocked, it reports "The REST API encountered an error" or an unexpected result.

The fix: check your security plugin's and firewall's logs for blocked requests to /wp-json/, and allow them for logged-in users. If you use a caching plugin, make sure it isn't caching admin pages or REST API responses. Then clear the cache and reload the editor.

5. "Block contains unexpected or invalid content"

This message appears when the content saved for a block doesn't match what the block expects, often after a plugin that provides the block has been updated, or after the HTML was edited by hand. Older versions of WordPress word it as "This block contains unexpected or invalid content".

The fix: click Attempt recovery (Attempt Block Recovery in older versions). That fixes most cases. If it doesn't, the block's menu offers Resolve, which shows the current version and the version after conversion side by side, and Convert to HTML, which keeps your content as plain HTML so nothing is lost. Check the page in preview before you update it.

6. You're editing the wrong page, or the content isn't on the page

It sounds obvious, but it's common:

• Two pages with similar names, such as "Home" and "Home (old)". Check the address of the page you're editing matches the live page.
• A draft, not the published page. The Pages list shows "Draft" next to unpublished pages.
• The homepage is set somewhere else. Settings, Reading, "Your homepage displays" shows which page is your homepage.
• The content is in the theme, not the page. On a block theme, headers, footers and sometimes whole page layouts are edited under Appearance, Editor. On page builder sites, headers, footers and some page layouts are often templates in the builder.

7. The content has gone: restore it from revisions

If the content really has disappeared from the editor, WordPress usually has an earlier copy. Each time a page is saved, WordPress keeps a revision.

The fix: in the block editor's settings sidebar, open Revisions (it shows how many there are). Drag the slider to a version from before the content went missing, check it on the right, and click Restore This Revision. If WordPress offers an autosave, the button is Restore This Autosave. Restoring a revision doesn't delete the newer ones, so you can go forward again if you pick the wrong one.

The Revisions option only appears once a page has at least two saved revisions. If it isn't there, the page may only have been saved once, or revisions may be switched off for the site. In that case, your backup is the way back.

8. PHP is running out of memory

Large pages, especially page builder pages with lots of sections, can need more memory than the server allows. The editor may then fail to load, or show a white screen, and your error log shows a message beginning "Allowed memory size of ... bytes exhausted".

How to check: look at your host's PHP error log, or ask your host to check it while you open the editor.

The fix: WordPress raises its own memory limit in the admin area to 256MB by default, using the WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT setting in wp-config.php. If that's still not enough, or your host won't let WordPress change it, ask your host to raise the PHP memory limit. A page that needs huge amounts of memory to edit is often a sign of a heavy theme or too many plugins.

Quick checklist

• Look for an "Edit with…" button: the page may be built with a page builder
• Check which editor you're in, and the Classic Editor setting under Settings, Writing
• Open the browser console (F12) and look for red errors
• Run Tools, Site Health and check the REST API test
• Use "Attempt recovery" on invalid blocks
• Check you're editing the published page, and where the homepage is set
• Restore lost content from Revisions
• Check the error log for memory errors

If the editor still won't behave, or you'd rather not switch plugins off on a live site, it's a job I fix as part of WordPress fixes, with the price agreed before I start.