A popup or modal only works if its trigger, its JavaScript, and whatever’s supposed to display inside it all load and run in the right order — and a second popup plugin, a caching setup that strips the trigger script, or a theme feature doing something similar can break any one of those three without any error message pointing at which one failed. The failure often looks identical regardless of which layer actually broke, which is exactly why a structured check across triggers, scripts, and caching matters more than guessing.
Before you buy, one quick look
Read-only. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and check whether more than one plugin provides popup, modal, or lightbox functionality, including features bundled inside a page builder or theme rather than a dedicated popup plugin.
More than one active source of popups is one of the most common causes of exactly this kind of conflict, and naming what you find helps considerably.
Worth checking whether the popup ever worked at all versus stopped working recently, since a popup that’s never once triggered points at a setup problem, while one that used to work points at something that changed.
Popup & modal conflict resolution
A popup or modal isn't triggering or displaying correctly, and you may have more than one tool trying to provide the same feature. We find the conflict and resolve it.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
This or something else?
| More than one plugin or feature providing popup or modal functionality found active | This fix covers it |
| A single popup tool installed, but it doesn’t trigger or display correctly | This fix covers it, narrower scope |
| The popup displays but content inside it is broken or missing | A different, more specific content-display fix |
| General plugin conflict unrelated to popups specifically | Plugin conflict diagnosis & resolution |
| The popup worked before and stopped after a caching change | This fix covers it, likely caching-related |
What you are seeing
- A popup or modal that doesn’t appear when it should trigger
- Two different popups appearing at once, or one interfering with the other’s display
- The popup trigger — a button or scroll event — not responding at all
- The problem appearing after installing a new plugin or enabling a builder’s popup feature
- Inconsistent behaviour across different pages or devices
Common causes
- Two plugins or theme features both providing popup functionality and competing for the same trigger
- A caching plugin stripping or delaying the JavaScript a popup depends on to trigger
- A JavaScript error elsewhere on the page preventing the popup’s own script from running
- Conflicting z-index or CSS positioning hiding a popup behind other page elements
- A cookie-consent or privacy plugin blocking scripts the popup relies on before consent is given
What we do
- Identify every source of popup or modal functionality currently active on the site
- Reproduce the failure and check for JavaScript errors at the point the popup should trigger
- Determine whether a genuine conflict between two sources, or a single broken configuration, is responsible
- Resolve the conflict, consolidating to one system where more than one is genuinely redundant
- Check caching and consent-related interference specifically
- Confirm the popup triggers and displays correctly across the pages and devices it should
What is included
- The specific conflicting sources of popup functionality identified and resolved
- Caching and consent-related interference checked and corrected
- Testing across affected pages and devices
- The pre-fix backup, kept for 30 days
Not included
- Designing new popup content or triggers beyond restoring working functionality
- Choosing which popup tool to standardise on, if you have no preference — we’ll ask
- Fixing a specific popup vendor’s own bugs, which is that vendor’s responsibility
- Ongoing conflicts introduced by future plugin or theme updates
Questions about this fix
Do I need to remove one of the popup plugins?
Often the cleanest fix, yes, once we've confirmed which one you actually need — we'll check with you before removing anything rather than assume.
Could my cookie consent banner really block a popup?
Yes, particularly if the popup's script is categorised as requiring consent and the visitor hasn't yet interacted with the consent banner, which can silently prevent the popup script from ever running.
Will this affect exit-intent or scroll-triggered popups differently from click-triggered ones?
The trigger mechanism differs, so we check the specific type you're using rather than assuming all popup triggers behave identically — the underlying conflict causes are usually the same, though.
Why does this only happen on certain pages?
Usually because those specific pages load an additional script or builder feature the others don't, which is what's actually creating the conflict rather than the popup tool itself being universally broken.
Can two different popups coexist safely if I want both?
Sometimes, with careful configuration to avoid overlapping triggers or z-index conflicts — we can set that up if you specifically want both rather than consolidating to one.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.