Plugin Support
Milos
(@miloss84)
Hello there,
Thank you for being so patient and for contacting us.
I totally understand the confusion here, it really looks like Elementor is deleting those CSS files from /uploads/elementor/css/, but it actually isn’t. Elementor does have its own caching system under the Performance tab, but that only controls how styles and scripts are generated and stored. It doesn’t include any background process that would automatically remove or refresh files on a schedule.
When Elementor regenerates CSS, it’s usually triggered by a user action saving a page, changing global settings, or clicking “Regenerate CSS”. If no one’s editing the site and the files still disappear, that means something else on the server is deleting them. In most cases, this turns out to be a hosting-level cleanup routine, a cron job, or an optimization/security plugin that’s clearing what it thinks are temporary cache files.
I’d suggest checking with your hosting provider to see if they have any automatic cleanup scripts running on the /uploads/ directory, and ask them to exclude /uploads/elementor/css/ from that process. It’s also worth double-checking any cache or optimization plugins you use (like WP Fastest Cache, WP Rocket, or similar) to make sure they’re not deleting Elementor’s generated CSS.
As a quick workaround, you can switch Elementor’s CSS Print Method to Inline (Internal Embedding) under Elementor > Settings > Advanced. That way, even if the external cleanup removes files, your pages will still display correctly since the styles will be included directly in the HTML.
So just to be clear, Elementor’s own caching doesn’t delete anything automatically. The issue comes from something external to Elementor, and once that’s excluded or disabled, the problem should stop happening.
Best,
Sorry Milos, but Nicholas just stated on the facebook forum that Elementor is indeed regenerating the CSS files in /uploads/elementor/css : https://www.facebook.com/groups/Elementors/posts/24377402661958857/
We are experiencing this issue of the deletion of the CSS files in that specific folder even on websites that only have Elementor installed – no other plugins, no updates, no edits, nothing.
This ticket describes it perfectly, but now it happens even if no one makes changes to the website: https://github.com/elementor/elementor/issues/31594
Update:
Image of Nicholas Statement: https://imgur.com/a/cZBVxBF
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This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by
morphiaz.
I’m seeing the same problem. At first I thought it was related to my cookie tool (Complianz), so I set Elementor cookies to functional and added Elementor as a script. I even created a small MU-plugin that preloads pages after WordPress updates to re-generate the CSS files, but the issue still happened again last night – even though there were no updates or changes made on the site.
I’m using WP-Optimize as my caching plugin. The first time I noticed this was a few weeks ago on another site, and since then it has happened on at least 4 different websites. For now I’ve disabled caching temporarily, since switching to inline CSS doesn’t make sense on larger websites.
Right now I really don’t know what to do. From what I can see this has been an Elementor issue for quite a while, but if the CSS files are now being deleted not only after WordPress or plugin updates but also regularly without any changes, that’s a big problem for anyone using a caching plugin. Wouldn’t it make sense if Elementor automatically rebuilt the CSS files right away, instead of waiting for a page visit?
Exactly. Now it starts regularly every 12+ hours without any edits at all from our side, logins or even WordPress or plugin updates. Its insane, and there is no way to turn it off – what makes it even more unbelievable. All caching plugins like WP Rocket or WP Fastest Cache that create HTML pages but also if you use CDN, are having this same issue by linking to CSS files, that no longer exist resulting in broken websites for every visitor.
And I actually dont know how to stop this.
@naou there is no need or a reasonable reason to rebuild CSS if nothing has changed, Elementor just has to give us the option to turn this behavior off, if we wish to. Its this simple.
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This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by morphiaz.
I’m experiencing the same issue, and it would be really important to have an option to disable this behavior.
I’m using Elementor and Elementor Pro on five different websites, and the problem occurs on all of them.
Luckily, I came across this thread, as the issue has been bothering me for a few days now. I’m experiencing the same problem and I’m using a combination of Elementor and WP Fastest Cache.
After some troubleshooting with the help of a MU-plugin, I discovered that wp-cron is likely the cause. It seems to trigger automatic plugin updates, and afterward, the folder gets deleted. I hope this information helps the elementor team.
We are having the same problem on several websites. The set-up is also Elementor and WP Fastest Cache.
It would be really important to have an option to stop CSS files being deleted when there has been no changes to the website.
I don’t think switching to Inline CSS is a viable solution to the problem as it adds way too many lines to the code.
@kollinio I also thought at first it was only related to auto-updates. But in my case, all automatic updates are disabled, and the issue still happens, even when nobody touched the site.
That suggests Elementor itself sometimes deletes/regenerates the CSS files automatically in the background, and the caching plugin then stores HTML pointing to missing CSS.
As a workaround I built a small MU-plugin for myself. It hooks into updates, daily cron and cache purges, flushes Elementor’s CSS cache and then “prewarms” some key pages so the CSS files are recreated right away. I’m currently testing it on one of my sites – if it works reliably I’d be happy to share it here so others can try as well.
@naou same for us. We dont update automatically anything without doing our QA on a stage website to check if the update breaks something. All auto updates are disabled by default.
I am also working on a mu-plugin to stop the regular automatic purge from Elementor that works this way:
If someone edits any page, templates etc., or makes updates of core / plugins, or even if someone clicks the button “Clear Files & Data” then yes; allow it -> go ahead and let Elementor purge automatically – but just dont do it on a regular basis every 12+ hours when no one made edits / updates / etc.
I am testing it on a website and for now, it seems to work fine.
There will hopefully be an official fix soon, as this issue seems to be affecting many users.
I’ve currently built a hook that ensures the cache of WP Fastest Cache is purged whenever the Elementor CSS folder is unintentionally emptied. This should prevent any further CSS 404 errors.
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This reply was modified 7 months, 3 weeks ago by
kollinio.
+1 (several websites affected, several unhappy clients). CSS loading / cache issues mainly in Firefox, but also other browsers occasionally.
It’s really hard to believe that Elementor’s official take on this is to recommend switching to inline CSS forever. Please reconsider!
@morphiazz Did you also report the issue on Github? Maybe now it won’t be marked by Nicholas as “invalid” any more like ticket nr #31594 …
@adalov I can’t post on GitHub unless they allow it through their official support channel. I opened a ticket two days ago and I’m hoping it gets approved — only then am I allowed to post on GitHub with a reference to the ticket I created.
But let’s be clear: this has nothing to do with incompatibility with other plugins or any new feature. This is definitely a bug. There is absolutely no reason to delete all CSS files on a scheduled basis — and the user can’t disable it, even if the Element Cache is turned off — when nothing on the site has changed (no edits, no plugin or core updates, etc.).
This is simply insane and it’s breaking all caching plugins that thousands of users have been relying on for years. I see countless posts online from people confused about why this is happening, and I honestly don’t understand why no one has dug deeper into it yet.
@morphiazz I wish you luck with the support! Let us know how it goes here. And that’s news (to me) that they do not allow submitting certain issues on Github or just mark them as invalid without making an effort to resolve it. The reason must be that they stubbornly deny it’s a bug. Not a bug, but a feature (though very unwanted), seems to be the approach. Also not a very nice move …
Let’s follow this up closely.
@miloss84 any news?
@adalov @miloss84 this is the ticket ID:
Case #TSM6UOY4X7FV
Plugin Support
Milos
(@miloss84)
Hi @morphiazz
Thank you very much for reporting this and for taking the time to describe the issue in detail. We truly appreciate your effort and the valuable feedback.
We’ve received your ticket, and our team will review this behavior carefully to determine what’s causing the scheduled deletion of CSS files.
Thanks again for bringing this to our attention your input helps us improve Elementor for everyone.
Best regards,
