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Visual Editor Troubleshooting

ProVisual Editor is available on Pro and Enterprise plans.

When the Visual Editor doesn't behave as expected, this page lists the most common causes and fixes. Each item is independently linkable — share the anchor in support threads.

If your issue isn't here, the Debug Panel in the Visual Editor (see Preview and QA) is the single best diagnostic tool. Open it before filing a support ticket.

Variation isn't showing on my site​

By far the most common issue. The fix is almost always one of:

  1. Refresh the page Sometimes the visual editor's changes don't apply until a hard reload (Cmd-Shift-R) to bust the cache, especially if you had the page open while making changes in GrowthBook.
  2. Include Visual Experiments toggle is off on the SDK Connection. Visual experiments are stripped from the SDK payload unless this is enabled. Go to SDK Configuration → SDK Connections, edit the connection your site uses, and turn it on.
  3. The SDK isn't loaded yet when the variation tries to render. Custom JS variations need to wait for the target element — use the waitFor helper from Manual mode → Custom JavaScript.
  4. URL targeting doesn't match. The current URL doesn't satisfy the experiment's URL targeting rule. Check the rule and verify with the Debug Panel.
  5. The experiment is still a draft and the SDK Connection doesn't have Include Drafts enabled. Draft experiments aren't delivered by default.

You're hitting ?experiment-id=1 but seeing variation 0. In order of likelihood:

  1. The experiment is a draft and Include Drafts is off on the SDK Connection. Toggle it on, then hard-reload (Cmd-Shift-R) to bust the SDK cache.
  2. Wrong client key. Your site is loading a different SDK Connection than the one the experiment is associated with. Check the SDK Connection in GrowthBook against the client key in your site's source.
  3. CDN or browser cache is serving the pre-querystring version of the page. Hard-reload, or test in a private window.
  4. URL targeting excludes this URL. Even with the querystring, the SDK won't run the experiment on URLs that don't match the targeting pattern.

Element selector picks the wrong thing​

When you hover an element, the blue highlight selects an ancestor or sibling instead of what you wanted:

  • Use the parent/child controls in the sticky bar at the top of the side panel to drill up or down the DOM tree.
  • For elements stacked on top of each other (z-index), the picker grabs the topmost. Hold a modifier key (Alt on macOS, Shift on Windows) while clicking to cycle through elements at the same point.
  • Some interactive elements (open dropdowns, hover menus) close as soon as you move the mouse to the side panel. Use the Interactive Mode toggle to keep them open while you select.

Changes flicker on page load (FOOC)​

A "flash of original content" happens when the SDK applies the variation a moment after the page renders the control. Mitigations:

  • Load the SDK as early as possible. Place the <script> tag in <head>, not at the bottom of <body>.
  • Use the Script Tag SDK — it's optimized to apply variations before paint when possible.
  • Avoid heavy before-render custom JS. The SDK has to wait for it.
  • For server-rendered sites, consider an Edge SDK to apply visual changes at the CDN before HTML reaches the browser. This eliminates FOOC entirely.

Heavy client-side-rendered apps (complex React/Vue/Svelte that rehydrate the page) are especially prone to flicker. For those, Feature Flags are usually a better fit than visual experiments.

Image upload didn't replace the picture​

Modern responsive images use srcset and <picture> markup. If a plain src replacement doesn't show up:

  • The Visual Editor should be removing srcset automatically — check the Changes panel for an attribute-removal change next to the image change.
  • If it didn't, the target element might be nested in markup the picker didn't recognize as a <picture>. Try selecting the parent <picture> element directly.
  • See Images → <picture> and srcset handling.

AI mode is greyed out / not available​

AI mode requires:

  • An AI provider key configured by an org admin in Settings → AI. See AI Integrations.
  • A plan that includes the ai-suggestions commercial feature. Free plans don't include AI.
  • An active connection in the side panel — sign in if you've been signed out.

If all three are in place and AI mode is still unavailable, hard-reload the side panel (right-click → Reload).

Extension can't connect to my self-hosted GrowthBook​

  • Confirm the API host URL. Use your API host, not your front-end host. They're usually different (e.g., api.example.com vs. app.example.com).
  • Confirm HTTPS. Chrome blocks extension requests to HTTP hosts and to HTTPS hosts with invalid certs. Use a real TLS cert.
  • Test the API from curl first with Authorization: Bearer <PAT>. If curl fails, the host or token is the problem. If curl works but the extension doesn't, your browser's network environment (proxy, VPN, split-DNS) is blocking extension requests.
  • CORS — your API host's CORS configuration must allow the extension's origin. The extension uses chrome-extension://<extension-id> as its origin.

"Wrong domain" banner won't go away​

The Visual Editor scopes itself to the URL you set when creating the experiment. If you've moved to a different domain in the active tab, changes are paused intentionally.

  • Switch the active tab back to the experiment's target URL.
  • Or update the experiment's target URL in GrowthBook to match where you actually want to edit.

Changes apply to the wrong variation​

  • Check the variation switcher above the property groups. It's easy to make changes to v2 thinking you're on v1.
  • The control is read-only — if you can't make changes, you're probably on the control tab. Switch to one of the variants.

Save fails with "permission denied"​

Your Personal Access Token's user account doesn't have permission to edit this experiment. Check:

  • Project permissions. Your user role might be limited to a subset of projects, and this experiment lives in a different one.
  • Experiment ownership. Some orgs restrict editing to experiment owners or members of the assigned team.
  • PAT scope. Re-create the PAT if it was generated under an older account state.

Still stuck?​

Next steps​