Troubleshooting Common SiteOrigin Accordion Widget Issues

The SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle is a popular plugin that adds powerful functionality to WordPress sites. One of its most used widgets is the Accordion, which allows you to create collapsible content sections. However, like any complex tool, users can sometimes encounter problems. This guide compiles the most frequent issues reported by the community and provides steps to diagnose and resolve them.

Common Problems and Their Solutions

1. Accordion Styles or Scripts Not Loading (Display is Broken)

This is one of the most common problems. The accordion may appear without any styling, with broken icons, or not function at all. This typically happens when the necessary CSS or JavaScript files fail to load on the page.

Why it happens:

• A plugin or theme conflict is preventing the files from loading.
• There is a mixed content error (HTTP/HTTPS) if your site recently moved to SSL.
• A caching plugin or server-level cache is serving an old version of the files.

How to fix it:

1. Check the Browser Console: The first step is always to check your browser's developer console for errors. Look for 404 ("Not Found") errors pointing to CSS or JS files from the SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle, or "Mixed Content" warnings. This will immediately tell you if files are missing or blocked.
2. Perform a Conflict Test: Temporarily deactivate all plugins except SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle. Switch to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-One. If the accordion works, reactivate your plugins and theme one by one to identify the culprit. Threads 4 and 5 highlight plugins like "Cool Timeline" and "Events Manager" as potential sources of conflict.
3. Clear All Caches: Clear your WordPress caching plugin's cache, your browser cache, and any server-level cache (e.g., Varnish, CDN).
4. Force Save Widgets: Sometimes, simply editing the accordion widget, changing a color setting, and saving it again can trigger the files to regenerate properly.

2. The First Accordion Item Won't Stay Closed

By default, the first item in a SiteOrigin Accordion is set to "Open." Users often want all items to start collapsed.

How to fix it:

1. Edit the page containing your accordion widget.
2. Click to edit the accordion widget.
3. For each individual item you want closed by default, locate the "Initial State" setting within that item's options.
4. Change the state from "Open" to "Closed."
5. Update the widget and page.

Note: As seen in Thread 2, ensure you are using the official "SiteOrigin Accordion" widget and not a similarly named widget from your theme or another plugin.

3. Cannot Edit the Accordion Widget in the Editor

If the widget interface seems broken, shows generic "item" labels instead of your titles, or doesn't allow you to click into fields, a JavaScript conflict is likely.

How to fix it:

1. Follow the Conflict Test steps outlined in point 1 above. This is the most effective way to identify a plugin causing JavaScript errors in the WordPress admin.
2. Ensure your WordPress, theme, and all plugins are updated to their latest versions.

4. Custom Styling Like Bullet Points Not Appearing

If you add HTML like a bulleted list (<ul>) inside an accordion panel but the styling (the bullets) doesn't show, your theme's CSS is probably overriding it.

How to fix it:

1. Use your browser's inspector tool to examine the list and see what CSS rules are being applied to it.
2. You will likely need to add custom CSS to your theme (under Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS) to restore the list styling. The exact code depends on your theme, but it often involves ensuring list-style-type is set to disc and padding-left is applied.

5. Issues with Special Characters in Titles

As identified in Thread 11, using titles with special characters (like German umlauts ä, ö, ü) can generate invalid HTML IDs, which may break functionality.

Workaround: Avoid using special characters in your accordion item titles until this is addressed in a future plugin update. Stick to standard letters, numbers, and hyphens.

General Best Practices

• Always Conflict Test: This is the number one troubleshooting step for nearly every issue.
• Check the Console: Your browser's developer tools are your best friend for diagnosing missing files and JavaScript errors.
• Keep Everything Updated: Ensure WordPress, your theme, and all plugins are updated to maintain compatibility.

By methodically working through these steps, you can resolve the vast majority of issues encountered with the SiteOrigin Accordion widget.