If you visit the Customizer (Appearance > Customize) and only see a gray background with no sections loaded, this is caused by one of two issues:
- Javascript error
- PHP memory shortage
Most of the time, it is a Javascript error. The Javascript error is either coming from your theme, a plugin, or a browser extension.
Test your browser extensions
It’s easiest to check if your browser extensions are the root cause, so start with that. You can either deactivate all of the extensions, or login to your site in a private browser window without any of the extensions installed. If the Customizer works, you can deactivate your extensions one-by-one to find out which one is causing the issue.
Test your theme
Next, check if the theme is the issue by switching to another theme installed on your site. If this fixes the issue then the error is coming from the theme. Please contact us if this is the case with one of our themes.
Test your plugins
If the theme is not the issue, then deactivate all of the plugins on your site and check if the Customizer loads. If it loads then you know that one of the plugins is causing a Javascript error. Reactivate them one-by-one until the error returns to find out which plugin is causing the error. Then you can reach out to the plugin developer for assistance, or switch to an alternative plugin.
This is the most common cause of a broken Customizer screen.
Increase your PHP memory limit
If none of this works or if you get mixed results (deactivating plugins works and so does deactivating a theme), then most likely your site is running out of PHP memory.
Some of our themes and PRO plugins add a lot of options into the Customizer which takes up PHP memory. Combined with other plugins that also add sections into the Customizer, it can potentially run over the memory limit provided by the host.
If this is the case, email your web host and ask them to “increase my site’s PHP memory limit.” It is very easy for them to do. Most hosts give sites a low memory limit as their default but can easily increase it when someone requests.