A client of mine is using the Avada theme. I’m personally not a fan – they bundle a LOT of plugins with this theme and don’t allow you to update them easily meaning you’re prone to security problems.
Anyway, the client couldn’t run backups using Updraft plus. The problem was a javascript error. If you’re experiencing this, I found the problem to be with the Layer Slider plugin they bundle.
- Click on the Layer Slider WP link in your WordPress admin area.
- Scroll down to Troubleshooting and Advanced Settings
- Disable the top option ‘Use Google CDN version of jQuery’
Here’s a screenshot of the settings I used.

Options to change in Layerslider plugin to get Updraft working
Once I’d made these changes, Updraft Plus started working again along with other broken back-end functionality.
If you’re thinking about buying a theme, I’d personally recommend avoiding ThemeForest. There are some good themes in there but they are few and far between. The vast majority of themes bundle a huge amount of plugins unneccessarily and they do this in a way that makes your website insecure since you’re not notified about updates being required and are unable to perform updates.
If you’re looking to buy a theme, I recommend Themify themes or Genesis themes or any themes from the WordPress repository. There are plenty to pick from.
That’s not to say the plugins from CodeCanyon aren’t good – in particular I like the WooZone plugin – but please, avoid the themes – only pain will follow.
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February 5, 2016 @ 3:30 pm
DUDE! This setup worked great THANKS FOR this post, had no idea that this very popular AVADA theme would cause so many problems.
February 5, 2016 @ 3:33 pm
You’re welcome – it’s an easy fix but it had me scratching my head for quite a while trying to figure out why Updraft had stopped working.
May 26, 2016 @ 12:42 am
Hi Dave. Thank you SO much for sharing this fix! I purchased the Layer Slider standalone plugin to use with the Divi theme after a visiting client requested a very specific vision for her home page that LayerSlider seemed to be the best choice to use. After installing it and importing demos the database crashed and I immediately had other massive technical issues that cost hours to undo…and that with a client visiting me in Oregon from Florida and leaving in a couple of days! So, no way to undo the lost time, but you helped me avoid losing any more than I had to (sure enough, it was the Use Google CDN setting that got me, too. You’d think that would be a safe option to choose!) . Now I can get to work so I will (hopefully) have something for her to see in time for our meeting tomorrow. Bless you!