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Troubleshooting a Blank or Empty Ninja Forms Submissions Page

13 threads Sep 11, 2025 Plugin → Ninja forms – the contact form builder that grows with you

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One of the most common and frustrating issues users encounter with Ninja Forms is a blank or completely white Submissions page in the WordPress admin area. This problem can prevent you from viewing, managing, or exporting your valuable form data. Based on community reports and troubleshooting threads, this guide will walk you through the most common causes and their solutions.

Why Does This Happen?

A blank Submissions page is almost always a symptom of a deeper conflict. The issue can be triggered by several factors, including conflicts with other plugins or your theme, a recent update to Ninja Forms or WordPress, or even a specific setting related to user roles and permissions. Error messages related to PHP, JavaScript, or database queries often occur in the background, causing the page to fail to load properly.

Common Solutions to Try

1. Enable the Legacy Submissions Page (Quick Fix)

This is often the fastest and most reliable solution, especially after a recent update. The Ninja Forms team has included a setting to revert to the older, more stable submissions interface.

  1. Navigate to Ninja Forms → Settings → Advanced Settings.
  2. Locate and check the option for "Show Legacy Submissions Page".
  3. Click "Save Settings".
  4. Reload your Submissions page. It should now load correctly.

2. Perform a Conflict Test

Plugin or theme conflicts are a leading cause of this problem. To identify if this is the issue, you need to temporarily disable other elements of your site.

  1. Switch to a Default Theme: Temporarily switch your theme to a WordPress default theme like Twenty Twenty-One or Twenty Twenty-Four.
  2. Deactivate All Other Plugins: Deactivate every plugin except Ninja Forms and its required add-ons.
  3. Check the Submissions Page: If the page loads correctly, the problem is a conflict. Reactivate your theme and plugins one by one, checking the Submissions page after each, to identify the culprit.

Important: To avoid disrupting your live site visitors, use a tool like the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin. It allows you to disable plugins and themes only for your user session.

3. Check for a Language-Based Bug

There is a known bug where the Submissions page fails to load if the site's language is set to anything other than English. This is due to a hardcoded text string in the plugin's code.

Workaround: While a permanent fix would require a code update from the Ninja Forms team, temporarily setting your site's language to English (via Settings → General) can help confirm if this is the cause of your specific issue.

4. Review User Role Capabilities

Some users have reported that the Submissions page loads for Administrators but hangs or is blank for users with an Editor role. This is often related to custom code snippets that were added to grant submission access to these roles. A recent Ninja Forms update may have changed how these capabilities are handled, causing the code to conflict.

If you have added custom code to your theme's functions.php file to manage capabilities, try temporarily removing it to see if it resolves the loading issue. You may need to consult the documentation for the updated method of handling user permissions.

Conclusion

A blank Submissions page is a disruptive but usually solvable problem. The most effective first step is to enable the Legacy Submissions page in the advanced settings. If that doesn't work, a systematic conflict test is your best bet for identifying the incompatible plugin or theme. Checking your site's language setting and reviewing any custom capability code can also lead to a resolution.

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