Troubleshooting

Common issues and how to resolve them. If you’re experiencing a problem not listed here that appears to be a platform issue (export failures, container problems, deploy errors), email support@stelae.eu — that’s on us to fix.

Export Issues

Export fails or times out

If the export process fails, the most common causes are:

• Plugin conflict during crawl. Some plugins inject JavaScript that redirects or blocks crawlers. Try disabling recently installed plugins and re-exporting.
• Very large site. Sites with thousands of pages or very large media libraries take longer to export. If the export times out, try reducing the number of pages or optimizing images first.
• Broken WordPress installation. If WordPress itself has errors (white screen of death, PHP fatal errors), the export can’t crawl the site. Fix the WordPress issue first by accessing the editor and checking for plugin or theme errors.

If the export consistently fails and you’ve ruled out plugin issues, this is likely a platform issue — let us know.

Missing pages in export

The export discovers pages by querying the WordPress database for all published URLs, then crawling from those URLs. Pages can be missing if:

• The page is in draft or private status (only published pages are exported).
• The page has no internal links pointing to it and isn’t a standard post type (orphaned pages). The URL discovery phase catches most cases, but custom post types with unusual URL structures can occasionally be missed.
• The page is password-protected (these are excluded from export).

Missing images or broken styles

If images or CSS are missing from the export:

• Images loaded via JavaScript. Images that are inserted into the page by JavaScript after page load (lazy loading plugins, some sliders) may not be captured. The export crawls the server-rendered HTML. Check if the <img> tags are present in the page source.
• External resources. CSS or fonts loaded from external CDNs (Google Fonts, Font Awesome CDN) are included in the export if they’re referenced in the HTML or CSS. If they’re loaded via JavaScript dynamically, they may be missed.
• CSS background-image references. The post-processing phase fetches assets referenced in CSS files. In rare cases with deeply nested or unusual CSS, an asset might be missed. Re-exporting usually resolves this.

Content shows up as “Unauthorized” or empty

This happens when the export crawler can’t access a URL it’s trying to fetch. The export container accesses WordPress directly on the container network, but if your content references URLs on the public domain, those files are fetched separately in the post-processing phase. If you see this issue consistently, it’s likely a platform bug — let us know.

Container Issues

Container won’t wake up

When you click “Open Editor”, you should see a splash page for about 5 seconds, then WordPress loads. If it takes much longer or shows an error:

• Wait 30 seconds and try again. Occasionally the container takes longer to start.
• Check your internet connection. The editor requires a stable connection.
• If the problem persists, this is a platform issue — let us know.

WordPress shows a white screen or PHP error

This is a WordPress issue, not a Stelae issue. Common causes:

• A recently installed plugin or theme has a PHP error. Access WordPress via the editor URL and deactivate recent plugins from wp-admin/plugins.php.
• Memory limit reached. The container has a fixed memory allocation. Very heavy plugins or themes can exhaust it. Deactivate plugins you don’t need.

Changes aren’t showing in the editor

WordPress and your browser may both cache aggressively. Try a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R or Cmd+Shift+R) or clear your browser cache. If using a WordPress caching plugin in the editor, clear its cache too (though caching plugins are unnecessary in Stelae).

Deployment Issues

Cloudflare Workers deploy fails

If auto-deploy to Cloudflare Workers fails:

• Verify your API token is correct and has not expired.
• Check that your Cloudflare account ID is correct.
• Ensure your API token has the “Edit Workers” permission.
• If your site exceeds Cloudflare Workers size limits, you may need to optimize (reduce image sizes, remove unused media).

Git push deploy fails

If auto-deploy via git push fails:

• Use “Test connection” in the dashboard to check if the deploy key has access.
• Make sure the deploy key was added with write access (read-only keys cannot push).
• If you changed the repository URL, regenerate the deploy key — the old key won’t work on the new repo.
• Check that the repository URL is in SSH format (git@host:user/repo.git), not HTTPS.
• If the git host is unreachable, there may be a temporary outage. Try again in a few minutes.

Site looks different on the live URL vs. WordPress preview

Common causes:

• AJAX-dependent content. Content loaded via admin-ajax.php or the WP REST API isn’t available on the static site. See the compatibility guide.
• Absolute URLs. The export rewrites URLs to be relative, but hardcoded absolute URLs in custom HTML or inline styles may not be caught. Use relative URLs in custom code where possible.
• Mixed content. If your static host uses HTTPS but your WordPress referenced HTTP resources, browsers may block them. Most export pipelines handle this, but hardcoded HTTP URLs in custom code can slip through.

Billing Issues

Payment completed but site not provisioned

After completing payment, your site should be provisioned within a few seconds. If it’s stuck in a “pending” state for more than a few minutes:

• Refresh your dashboard. The auto-recovery mechanism checks for stuck payments and resolves them.
• If the site remains stuck after refreshing, this is a platform issue — let us know.

Subscription cancelled but site still works

When you cancel, your site remains active until the end of the paid period. After that, the container is suspended and the editor becomes inaccessible. Your last exported static site continues to work wherever you deployed it — it’s just static files, they don’t depend on Stelae.