Why Your Gravity Form Doesn’t Work (And How to Fix the “Display: None” Problem)

Have you ever created a beautiful contact form in Gravity Forms, embedded it on your WordPress site, only to find that it’s completely invisible to visitors? If you inspect the page and see style="display:none" on your form wrapper, you’re not alone. This is one of the most common Gravity Forms issues, and fortunately, it’s usually easy to fix.

What’s Actually Happening?

When your Gravity Forms has conditional logic (fields that show or hide based on user selections), the plugin uses a clever trick:

1. It hides the entire form initially with display: none
2. JavaScript runs to figure out which fields should be visible
3. The form becomes visible with only the appropriate fields showing

Think of it like a magic trick where the magician covers something with a cloth, does the magic behind the scenes, then reveals the final result. But sometimes, the “reveal” part doesn’t happen, leaving your form invisible forever.

The Most Common Culprit: Missing wp_footer()

Here’s the #1 reason forms stay hidden: your WordPress theme is missing a crucial piece of code.

Every WordPress theme should have this line in its footer.php file:

<?php wp_footer(); ?>

This innocent-looking line tells WordPress, “Hey, let plugins add their JavaScript here!” Without it, Gravity Forms can’t add the JavaScript needed to make your form visible.

How to Check and Fix This:

1. Access your WordPress files (via FTP, cPanel File Manager, or your hosting control panel)
2. Navigate to your active theme folder (usually /wp-content/themes/your-theme-name/)
3. Open the footer.php file
4. Look for <?php wp_footer(); ?> somewhere before the closing </body> tag
5. If it’s missing, add it right before </body>

Your footer.php should look something like this:

<!-- other footer content -->

    <?php wp_footer(); ?>

</body>

</html>

Other Common Causes (And Quick Fixes)

JavaScript Conflicts

Sometimes other plugins or theme elements break the JavaScript that makes your form appear.

Quick test: Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty Four). If your form works with the default theme, your current theme has a conflict.

Broken Conditional Logic

If you’ve been editing your form and renamed fields that are used in conditional logic, you might have created a “loop” where the form can’t figure out what to show.

Quick fix:

1. Go to your form editor in WordPress admin
2. Temporarily remove ALL conditional logic from your form
3. Test if the form appears
4. If it does, re-add your conditional logic carefully

Double jQuery Loading

Your theme might be loading jQuery twice, which confuses Gravity Forms.

How to check: Right-click on your page, select “View Page Source,” and search for “jquery”. If you see it loaded multiple times (especially from different sources like Google CDN and WordPress), that’s your problem.

The Nuclear Option: CSS Override

While you’re troubleshooting the real issue, you can force your form to appear with this CSS:

.gform_wrapper {

    display: block !important;

}

Important: This is a band aid, not a real fix. Your conditional logic still won’t work properly, so use this only temporarily while you solve the underlying problem.

How to Prevent This in the Future

1. Always use well coded themes that include wp_footer()
2. Test forms after making changes to conditional logic
3. Be careful when renaming form fields that are used in conditional rules
4. Keep your plugins updated to avoid conflicts

When to Ask for Help

If you’ve tried these fixes and your form is still playing hide and seek, it’s time to:

1. Contact your theme developer if you suspect a theme issue
2. Reach out to Gravity Forms support with specific details about your setup
3. Hire a WordPress developer for complex conflicts

The Bottom Line

The display: none problem looks scary, but it’s usually just WordPress not being able to run the JavaScript that makes your form appear. Most of the time, adding <?php wp_footer(); ?> to your theme or fixing conditional logic will solve it.

Remember: Gravity Forms is trying to be helpful by hiding fields that shouldn’t be shown, but sometimes it needs a little help from your theme to do its magic properly.

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Have you encountered this issue before? What solution worked for you? Share your experience in the comments below!