Title: Widgets Missing / Theme Customisation Not Loading
Last modified: September 1, 2016

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# Widgets Missing / Theme Customisation Not Loading

 *  Resolved [mmlabbd](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mmlabbd/)
 * (@mmlabbd)
 * [9 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgets-missing-theme-customisation-not-loading/)
 * I don’t know what’s happened but very recently my side and bottom widgets have
   just vanished and when I go into Appearance / Customize it gets stuck at loading
   and never loads the preview, even when previewing the Twenty16 theme.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [abletec](https://wordpress.org/support/users/abletec/)
 * (@abletec)
 * [9 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgets-missing-theme-customisation-not-loading/#post-7589618)
 * Hello, mmlabbd, & welcome to the WordPress support forum.
 * Firstly, a site url in these types of situations is *most* helpful.
 * Please log into your dashboard & activate the twentysixteen theme, or whichever
   default theme you wish. Next, please reset your plugins folder by renaming it,
   either through your hosting provider’s control panel or via FTP (& hopefully 
   secure FTP). Appending a .old or a 1 to the plugins folder name is fine. Next,
   please clear your browser cache, log into your dashboard, & see if your widgets
   and/or theme customizer loads.
 * If it does, then what you’ll need to do is to rename your plugins folder back
   to the original name, but go into the folder itself & rename all the folders 
   in there except for 1. I recommend plugins like Akismet or Jetpack as good candidates
   not to rename this first round, since they’re written by WordPress developers
   and thus should theoretically have a high degree of compatibility. Again, clear
   your browser cache, log into the site, & see if your customizer loads. Keep repeating
   the process of renaming a folder at a time, clearing the browser cache, & logging
   into your site & loading the customizer till you find the plugin that is causing
   the conflict, i.e., the last plugin you renamed before the customizer won’t load
   is the culprit.
 * If renaming your plugins folder, as in my initial step, does not solve the problem,
   then some additional troubleshooting steps are necessary. Rather than going through
   those now, though, how about you try this & give a report back if that worked,&
   also a site url if it didn’t.
 *  Thread Starter [mmlabbd](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mmlabbd/)
 * (@mmlabbd)
 * [9 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgets-missing-theme-customisation-not-loading/#post-7589811)
 * Thanks Jackie, I did that and it was the Yoast SEO plugin! Right at the bottom
   of my plugins list, that was causing the problem. Disabled it and the site is
   working as expected.
 *  [abletec](https://wordpress.org/support/users/abletec/)
 * (@abletec)
 * [9 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgets-missing-theme-customisation-not-loading/#post-7589816)
 * Glad we could help, mmlabbd, & thanks so much for marking the topic as resolved!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Widgets Missing / Theme Customisation Not Loading’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [abletec](https://wordpress.org/support/users/abletec/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widgets-missing-theme-customisation-not-loading/#post-7589816)
 * Status: resolved

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