Blocs disappearing from Layer Tree after reopening project

I Need Help
1

Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

I duplicated an existing page to create a new one, then duplicated a few Blocs to build out the content. Everything worked perfectly while I was designing. I saved the project, closed Blocs, and when I reopened it later, the content was still visible on the design canvas and the page itself is fine, but several of the Blocs had completely disappeared from the Layer Tree.

The strange thing is the content clearly still exists because it’s visible on the canvas and the published page is working correctly:

This has happened to me several times now, and it’s becoming really frustrating because I end up having to recreate sections that already exist but can no longer be accessed through the Layer Tree.

Is this a known bug, or am I missing something? I don’t think I’m doing anything unusual—I’m simply duplicating pages and Blocs using the normal workflow.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

2

It sounds very much like a duplicate ID conflict caused by duplicating both the page and the Blocs within it.

Here is what’s likely happening behind the scenes and a few things you can try:

Why this happens

When you duplicate a page and then duplicate Blocs on top of that, Blocs sometimes fails to assign new unique internal IDs to the duplicated elements.

  • The Canvas & Live Site still render fine because the HTML structure exists.
  • The Layer Tree relies on unique IDs to map out the hierarchy—so when it encounters duplicate IDs, it gets confused and hides or drops those elements from the tree view.

How to fix / work around it

  1. Check & Rename IDs: Click on the elements directly on the canvas and check the Inspector panel on the right. If any ID looks duplicated, manually give it a unique name to see if it reappears in the Layer Tree.
  2. Copy & Paste instead of Duplicate Page: Instead of using Duplicate Page, try creating a fresh, empty page and then copy & paste the Blocs over. This usually forces Blocs to generate new, unique IDs for all elements properly.
  3. Check Global vs. Local: Make sure the Blocs haven’t accidentally been set to a Global Area (like Header/Footer) during the duplication process.

Hope this helps.

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3

Thank you so much for your kind assistance, I will definitely try that and let you know how i get on.

Thanks again.

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4

I have updated the site since by creating a new page and copy pasting the blocs and assigning unique ids, rather than duplicating them, everything was fine until I opened the file again yesterday and I have the same issue again… the design is fine just the blocs are not showing in the layer tree.

This is really frustrating and annoying especially as im trying to get vital content out.

any other solutions to this?

Thanks

5

In that case, @Norm is probably the only one who can help you. You can report this directly to him following the official bug reporting guide.

6

It has been a known issue, seemingly not consistent across occurrences.

https://forum.blocsapp.com/search?q=missing%20layer

https://forum.blocsapp.com/search?q=disappear%20layer

https://forum.blocsapp.com/search?q=broken%20layer

Hopefully Norm can track down the cause of your specific occurrence.

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7

Thank you.

Hi Norm,

I’ve sent you the Blocs file and I’m hoping you can shed some light on the issue.

It’s been very frustrating, as it’s currently stalling progress on updating my website, so I really appreciate you taking a look.

Thank you all for your kind help and support.

8

Hi Norm,

Just following up again regarding ticket #26620.

I’ve now updated to Blocs 6.4.7, but unfortunately the disappearing Bloc issue is still unresolved, and I can see there was no related fix listed in the 6.4.7 release notes.

As you previously found in my project file, the affected Blocs were somehow being placed outside the page container, despite me only using normal copy/paste within the same page. You also mentioned that the issue appeared to be occurring during paste and that additional checks may be required there.

At this point the problem is preventing me from confidently updating my live portfolio website. I use the site professionally with clients, so I’m understandably reluctant to make substantial changes while there is a risk of the project structure becoming corrupted again.

Could you please let me know whether you’ve been able to identify the cause, or whether a fix is planned for an upcoming Blocs update?

In the meantime, if there is a specific workflow you recommend that completely avoids the issue, I’d really appreciate knowing what that is.

Many thanks,
Saj

9

Hi all,

Just following up on an issue I posted about previously, as unfortunately I’m still experiencing the problem and I’m hoping someone in the community may have some insight.

Norm kindly looked at my project file and discovered that the missing Blocs hadn’t actually been deleted. Somehow they had ended up outside the page container, which explained why they were no longer appearing correctly in the Layer Tree.

He sent me back a corrected project file with everything restored to the correct hierarchy. I then continued working from that corrected file, completed my updates, published the website and closed Blocs as normal.

A few days later I reopened the project and unfortunately discovered that the same Blocs were missing from the Layer Tree again.

That’s the part I’m struggling to understand. I haven’t intentionally moved anything outside the page container, and the fact that it has happened again after working from the corrected file makes me concerned that something else may be triggering it.

The affected page is my AI Films page. It was built normally in Blocs, but for each film I added an iframe and pasted custom Vimeo embed code into it. I used ChatGPT to modify the original Vimeo code so the films don’t autoplay and have the appropriate controls for the viewer to choose and play each video.

I don’t know whether the custom iframe code has anything to do with the issue or whether it’s completely unrelated.

I need to continue adding new films to this page, ideally by duplicating one of the existing Blocs and replacing the Vimeo iframe code, but at the moment I’m hesitant to make further changes until I understand what is causing this.

It’s becoming a difficult situation as I also use Blocs for client projects, so I need to be confident that a project I save and close will reopen with the page structure intact.

Has anyone experienced Blocs moving outside the page container after saving and reopening a project, or have any idea what could cause this?

I’ve also noticed a separate issue since updating my iPhone to iOS 27.

I have several Vimeo videos embedded on my homepage which are set to autoplay without sound. Prior to the iOS update, these autoplayed correctly on my iPhone.

Since updating to iOS 27, they no longer autoplay and instead display the Vimeo thumbnail/play state. The exact same homepage and videos continue to autoplay correctly on desktop.

I haven’t changed the embed code or the Blocs setup, so the only change I’m aware of is the iOS update. I appreciate this could simply be a change in Safari/iOS autoplay behaviour rather than anything related to Blocs, but I thought it was worth mentioning in case anyone else using Vimeo embeds has experienced the same thing.

I’m currently running the latest version of Blocs, including the update released a few days ago. The Layer Tree issue is still occurring following that update.

Any help or insight into either issue would be really appreciated.

10

This (missing blocs in the layer tree) has been a random bug for years with previous versions. I have had it happen several times myself.

Only the developer can solve it. I think there has been efforts to fix it in the past, it does seem less likely to happen now, which is one bonus.

But I understand the frustration.

Auto play is handled by the browser. Have you tested with other browsers?

The bric I made Any Video has an auto play option but the results vary (using YouTubes own parameters). It’s really outside of your hands to force a video to autoplay.

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11

Seems like a true bug or oversight within the app code itself, as users have no access to this, due to visual abstraction away from such control.

12

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your reply, really appreciate the insight. It’s reassuring in one sense to know I’m not the only one who’s experienced the missing Blocs issue, although slightly concerning that it’s been around for some time, particularly when using Blocs for client projects.

As a quick update, I may have found a workaround. I rebuilt the affected sections, this time duplicating the Blocs directly from the Layer Tree using Command + D, assigning each a new ID and, importantly, not reordering them afterwards.

I’ve since closed and reopened the project several times, updated the website, and so far everything seems to be holding together. Fingers crossed!

Regarding the Vimeo autoplay issue, I’ve also managed to resolve that.

After a bit of investigating, I discovered that under iPhone Settings > Accessibility > Motion, the Auto-Play Video Previews option was switched off.

I enabled it, refreshed my website, and the Vimeo background videos started autoplaying again, exactly as they did before updating to iOS 27.

Interestingly, I hadn’t changed any of the iframe code or the website itself, so it appears this particular iPhone setting was affecting autoplay in my case.

Of course, this does raise a separate consideration when designing websites with background videos, as we can’t control individual visitors’ iPhone settings. But at least I’ve identified what was preventing playback on my device.

Hopefully this helps anyone else experiencing similar issues with Vimeo embeds and autoplay on iOS 27.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. Much appreciated.

Cheers,
Saj

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