Bridge fix
Bridge Demo Import Failed or Stuck? How to Finish It Cleanly
The preview showed a finished site. The import gave you fourteen pages, gray boxes where the photos should be and a progress bar that stopped moving. A Bridge demo is a large package pulled across the internet in one sitting, and it fails for a short list of reasons, none of which means the theme is broken.
What you are seeing
- The import progress bar stops at a percentage and never moves again
- Pages arrive but images are missing or show as gray placeholders
- The home page is a list of blog posts, not the demo's front page
- Menus, widgets or sliders from the demo are absent
- Square-bracket shortcodes appear where sections should be
Why it happens on Bridge
Most common first.
- 1
The demo's plugins were not active yet
Each Bridge demo expects a set of plugins: Bridge Core, the page builder it was made in, usually a slider plugin, sometimes WooCommerce, Contact Form 7 or a Qode add-on such as Qode Listing or Qode Restaurant. Content belonging to a plugin that is inactive at import time is skipped or lands as raw shortcodes.
- 2
The server stopped the import partway
The importer downloads hundreds of demo images and writes thousands of database rows across a long series of requests. Shared hosting tends to cut off anything that outlasts its time or memory limit, and the progress bar simply stops reporting. This is the one cause that has nothing to do with Bridge. Our memory exhausted fix covers the limits themselves.
- 3
A demo built for the other page builder
Bridge offers demos made with WPBakery and demos made with Elementor. Import a WPBakery demo onto a site running only Elementor, or the reverse, and the pages exist but their layouts do not render.
- 4
The site could not fetch the demo files
Demo files, the images above all, are pulled from Qode's servers while the import runs. A security plugin, a host firewall that blocks outbound requests or, on recent versions, a theme not yet registered with its purchase code can stop the downloads while the rest carries on without them.
- 5
A second import on top of the first
Running the importer again does not resume the earlier attempt. It adds another copy of whatever did get through, which is how a site ends up with two Home pages and every menu item doubled.
How to fix it, in order
Least invasive first. Stop at the step that fixes it.
- 1
Work on a staging copy or a fresh install
A demo import adds pages, replaces widgets and overwrites what is saved in Qode Options. Do not run it on a live site that already has content. Use your host's staging tool or a clean WordPress install, and take a backup first if anything on it matters.
- 2
Check the server limits Bridge asks for
Open Tools, Site Health, Info, Server and read the PHP time limit, memory limit and max input variables. Bridge's documentation lists the values its importer needs. If yours fall short, raise them in the hosting panel or ask the host to, before another attempt.
- 3
Activate every plugin the demo needs
Go to Appearance, Install Plugins and install and activate Bridge Core plus the builder and sliders the demo uses. Add WooCommerce or Contact Form 7 from Plugins, Add New if the demo has a shop or forms. On recent versions, also register the theme with your purchase code on the registration screen in the theme's dashboard.
- 4
Clear out the half import
On an install with nothing else on it, delete the imported pages, posts, media and menus and empty the trash, or reset the database with a tool such as WP Reset. Starting clean is what prevents duplicates.
- 5
Import again, in parts if needed
Open the theme's Import screen, choose the demo and confirm it matches your builder. If the full import stalled before, most versions of the importer let you bring in content, widgets and options separately and leave attachments out. Run content first, then widgets, then options. Keep the tab open until each one reports that it has finished.
- 6
Finish what the importer leaves undone
Set the front page under Settings, Reading. Assign the menu to its location under Appearance, Menus. Save Settings, Permalinks once. A slider that did not come across can be imported separately from inside Slider Revolution or LayerSlider once you have the demo's slider export. On an Elementor demo, clear Elementor's generated CSS from its Tools screen.
Keep it from coming back
- Import the demo once, on a clean install, before any real content exists
- Pick the demo made for your builder and keep to that builder afterwards
- Delete the demo pages, sliders and images you will not use in the first week
- Take a backup right after a good import, so a restart is a restore
The permanent fix
A faster Next.js build, with a CMS made for your business
A failed import is a setup problem, not a reason to leave Bridge. It is worth noticing what you are importing, though: someone else's site, with someone else's plugins, to be edited into yours. If you find yourself deleting most of the demo, a Next.js build with a custom CMS starts from your own pages instead, with no demo to unpick and an editor that holds only the fields your business uses.
| On Bridge today | On Next.js with a custom CMS | |
|---|---|---|
| What you keep updated | WordPress, the theme, its builder and every bundled plugin, all in step | Nothing on a schedule. There is no theme or plugin stack to fall out of step |
| How a page is served | Built from the database on each visit, through the theme and its builder | Built ahead of time and served as finished files from servers near the visitor |
| How you edit it | A general-purpose builder with every option the theme ships | A CMS built around what your business actually changes: services, prices, photos, posts |
| What can break it | An update to any one of those parts, or a license that lapses | A change someone makes on purpose, tested before it goes live |
Your content, your addresses and your rankings come with you: every page is moved, every old address is redirected, and you get a login to an editor that only shows what you need. A repair is still the right call for many sites, and we will say so when it is.
Want this fixed on your Bridge site?
Tell us what you are seeing. We look at the site, tell you plainly what is wrong and what it takes, and quote a fixed price before any work starts.
Which of these sounds like you? (pick any)
Frequently asked
Yes, but clear out the first attempt before you do. The importer adds content and does not check what is already there. A second run on top of a partial one doubles pages, menu items and media.
Images are downloaded from Qode's demo servers one at a time, and that is the slowest part of the job. When the server times out or blocks the outbound requests, pages arrive with empty image slots. Rerun with attachments once the limits are raised, or add your own images, which you were going to do anyway.
It does not delete pages, but it adds its own beside them, replaces widgets and overwrites the settings saved in Qode Options. On a site with real content that is enough to change the header, the fonts and the home page. Import on staging and move across only what you want.
No. Bridge works without any demo. You can import one demo's content and discard most of it, or build pages yourself with the Bridge elements in WPBakery or Elementor. The second route takes longer and leaves far less to clean up.
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