Troubleshooting Astra Theme WooCommerce Product Gallery Issues

Many users of the Astra theme for WordPress encounter issues with the WooCommerce product gallery, such as images not displaying correctly, glitchy swiping on mobile, or hover effects not working. This guide compiles the most common problems and their solutions based on community reports and troubleshooting steps.

Common Astra WooCommerce Gallery Issues

1. Gallery Images Not Displaying or Thumbnails Missing

Problem: The product gallery only shows one image, thumbnails are missing, or the gallery layout doesn't work at all, especially when using page builders like Elementor.

Why it happens: This is often a conflict between the theme's gallery styles and a custom template or page builder. The Astra team has indicated that their customizer gallery layouts are designed for default WooCommerce pages only.

Solution:

• Conflict Test: Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme like Storefront to see if the issue persists. If it works with Storefront, the issue is likely theme-related.
• Plugin Conflict: Deactivate all plugins except WooCommerce. If the gallery works, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify the culprit.
• Clear Caches: Clear any site, server, or browser caches and test in an incognito/private browser window.

2. Glitchy, Laggy, or Unresponsive Swiping on Mobile

Problem: Swiping through product images on a mobile device feels frozen, laggy, or requires an unusually long swipe. The main image may also change when trying to scroll just the thumbnails.

Why it happens: A CSS transition applied to the gallery wrapper can interfere with the touch-swipe functionality on mobile devices.

Solution:

• CSS Fix: Add the following CSS code to your site, preferably in a child theme's style.css file or via the Customizer's Additional CSS panel:

  .woocommerce div.product div.images .woocommerce-product-gallery__wrapper {
      transition: none !important;
  }

  This removes the problematic transition that can break swiping behavior.

3. Product Image Hover Effects Not Working

Problem: The "Zoom Fade" or other image hover effects work on the shop page but not on related product sections or category pages.

Why it happens: Many advanced hover effects are part of the Astra Pro addon. The free version of Astra has limited support for these features, and they may not work on all page types. A recent plugin or theme update might have also inadvertently removed functionality that was previously working.

Solution:

• Check Feature Scope: Confirm if the desired hover effect is a Pro feature by testing with a default theme. The Astra team has stated that features like the product image hover are part of the Pro addon.
• Rollback Updates: If the feature worked recently and stopped after an update, consider temporarily rolling back your Astra theme or WooCommerce plugin to a previous version to confirm the change.

4. AVIF Image Format Not Displaying in Lightbox

Problem: Clicking on a product image to view it larger does not work if the image is in the modern AVIF format.

Why it happens: WooCommerce or the theme's lightbox script may not yet fully support the AVIF image format.

Solution:

• Default Theme Test: As suggested in the forums, switch to the Storefront theme. If the problem remains, the issue is likely with WooCommerce core compatibility with AVIF, not the Astra theme.
• Convert Images: As a workaround, convert your product images to a more widely supported format like JPEG or PNG.

General Troubleshooting Steps for All Issues

1. Basic Conflict Test: Always start by switching to a default theme (Storefront/Twenty Twenty-Two) and deactivating all plugins except WooCommerce. This identifies if the issue is with Astra, another plugin, or WooCommerce itself.
2. Clear Caches: Clear all caching layers—WordPress caching plugins, server-side cache (often provided by hosts like IONOS), and your browser cache.
3. Check for Updates: Ensure WordPress, the Astra theme, WooCommerce, and all other plugins are updated to their latest versions.
4. Use a Child Theme: If adding custom CSS, always use a child theme to prevent your changes from being overwritten during theme updates.

By methodically working through these steps, you can resolve most common Astra and WooCommerce product gallery conflicts. If an issue persists after thorough testing with a default theme and no other plugins, it may be worth checking the official WooCommerce support forums for more core-related bugs.