If the Smart Form Builder editor opens but its canvas looks empty, first determine whether the form is genuinely new or whether a previously saved layout is missing. An empty canvas is different from an editor screen that never finishes loading.
1. Check whether the form has fields
- Open Smart Forms → Forms and edit the affected form.
- If the editor opens normally and shows its field or template controls, check whether the canvas is simply empty. A newly created form may not have saved fields yet; add a field or start with a template if that is what you intended.
- If the form previously contained fields, do not overwrite it with an empty layout. Before making changes, preserve a backup or export if your available workflow supports it.
2. Check saved form data and the editor response
The editor receives its initial form data from WordPress and builds its canvas from the saved field and layout configuration. If the canvas is unexpectedly empty, a missing or incomplete saved configuration, or a failed request while saving or loading data, may be involved.
- Refresh the editor only after confirming that you do not have unsaved changes.
- Open the browser developer tools and select Console. Look for red error messages that appear when the editor opens.
- Select Network, reload the editor, and inspect failed requests to
admin-ajax.php. A non-technical user can note the request status (for example, 403, 500, or a failed request) without sharing cookies, request tokens, or private form data. - If you see an error response instead of JSON, or a response that reports failure, copy only the safe error text and status for your site administrator.
3. Check plugin and server errors
- Check Smart Forms → Error Log for recorded submission or validation errors. This log is mainly for form-processing errors and may not contain every editor-loading failure.
- Ask your site administrator to review the PHP/server error log around the time the editor was opened if the browser reports a server error.
- On a staging site, temporarily test with cache/minification disabled and check for a conflict with another plugin or the active theme. Change one thing at a time and restore the original settings after testing.
When to use the editor-loading guide
If the editor shell, toolbar, or controls never appear, follow Why is the form editor not loading? instead. If the editor loads but the saved canvas is empty, give your administrator the form ID, the time of the test, and the safe console or request error. Do not send passwords, nonces, cookies, API secrets, or actual visitor submissions.
Screenshot to add: [Smart Form Builder editor with an empty canvas]