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Troubleshooting Premium Addons for Elementor Blog Filter Issues

24 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Premium addons for elementor

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Many users of the Premium Addons for Elementor Blog widget encounter issues where the category, tag, or custom taxonomy filters fail to work correctly. This can be a frustrating experience, especially when it impacts site functionality for visitors. Based on community reports and common solutions, this guide will help you diagnose and resolve the most frequent causes of Blog filter malfunctions.

Common Symptoms of Filter Problems

You might be experiencing one of the following issues:

  • Clicking a filter tab does nothing; posts do not change.
  • The page scrolls unexpectedly when a filter is clicked.
  • A loading animation appears but never completes, leaving the grid blank or stuck.
  • Filters show posts from the wrong language or all tags/categories, even those with no posts.
  • A browser console error appears, such as a 403 status or "Undefined index: widget_id."
  • Filters work for logged-in users but not for logged-out visitors.

Why This Happens

The Blog widget's filtering functionality relies on AJAX requests to dynamically load content without refreshing the page. Several factors can interrupt this process:

  1. Plugin or Theme Conflicts: Other code can interfere with the AJAX calls or JavaScript required for filtering.
  2. Caching: Aggressive page, browser, or server caching can serve old, cached versions of AJAX responses, preventing new filtered results from loading.
  3. Security/Firewall Plugins: Security solutions can sometimes mistakenly block the necessary AJAX requests.
  4. Special Characters: Using apostrophes (') or slashes (/) in category or tag names can break the filter functionality.
  5. Configuration Errors: Incorrect widget settings, such as an offset that hides posts or a misconfigured query, can cause unexpected behavior.
  6. Translation/Multilingual Plugins: WPML or Polylang can sometimes cause filters to pull content from the wrong language.

How to Troubleshoot and Fix Filter Issues

1. Perform a Conflict Test

This is the most critical step. Temporarily deactivate all plugins except for Elementor and Premium Addons for Elementor. Then, switch your theme to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Four. Clear your cache and check if the filters work.

  • If the filters work, reactivate your plugins one by one, testing after each, to identify the conflicting software.
  • If the issue persists even with only Elementor and Premium Addons active, proceed to the next step.

2. Investigate Caching Issues

Caching is a very common culprit. If your filters work immediately after you clear all cache but break again later, caching is likely the cause.

  • Clear all levels of cache: your caching plugin, server-side cache (if any), and your browser cache.
  • Consult your caching plugin's settings or support to see if you can exclude the blog page URL or specific AJAX requests from being cached.
  • If no exclusion is possible, you may need to completely disable caching on the specific page containing the Blog widget.

3. Check Security Plugins

Plugins like Wordfence or other security/firewall tools can block AJAX requests. Temporarily disable them to see if it resolves the issue. If it does, check their logs for blocked requests and whitelist the necessary actions.

4. Review Widget Settings

Double-check your configuration within the Premium Blog widget:

  • Scroll After Filter: If the page scrolls when you click a filter, navigate to the widget's Content Tab > Display Options and disable the "Scroll After Pagination/Filter" option.
  • Offset: An offset value skips a number of posts. Ensure this is set to 0 if you want to display all posts from a filter.
  • Query Settings: Verify that your "Source," "Filter by Category Rule," and "Get Tabs From" settings are configured correctly for your use case.

5. Avoid Special Characters

As confirmed by the Premium Addons for Elementor team, using apostrophes (') in category or tag names can break the filter. Avoid using them or replace them with a standard character like an ampersand (&).

6. Check for a Known Bug

In some cases, a bug in a specific plugin version may cause filter problems. The team has acknowledged and fixed issues in the past, such as categories not appearing in a filter list. Ensure your Premium Addons for Elementor plugin is updated to the latest version. You can also check the plugin's changelog to see if your issue has been addressed in a recent update.

7. Server Configuration

In rare cases, a server's .htaccess file or mod_security rules can cause 403 Forbidden errors on AJAX requests, as seen in one user's case. If you are comfortable, review your server error logs or .htaccess file for anything that might be blocking POST requests.

When to Seek Further Help

If you have tried all the steps above and the issue continues, the problem may be more complex and require deeper code-level investigation. The Premium Addons for Elementor team often recommends users contact them directly for these specific scenarios so their development team can trace the code. When seeking help, be prepared to provide:

  • A direct link to the page with the problem.
  • Your website's system info (found in WP Dashboard > Premium Addons for Elementor > System Info).
  • A clear description of the steps to reproduce the issue.

By methodically working through these common causes, you can usually identify and resolve the problem preventing your Blog filters from working correctly.

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