Why do some customers get an error to enable JavaScript?

JavaScript is a programming language that allows websites to be dynamically rendered and updated. It’s a vital part of the look and functionality of a WooCommerce site.

Our Stripe extension uses JavaScript to display important parts of the checkout flow to customers, such as payment form fields. If a customer sees an error requesting that they enable JavaScript, it’s likely a result of:

• JavaScript errors occurring on the checkout page, or…
• JavaScript files failing to load on the checkout page

The most common reasons for JavaScript errors are:

• An optimization plugin is preventing the JavaScript files from loading properly
• The active theme is missing calls to wp_head() and/or wp_footer()
• The active theme is using old, overridden template files
  • You can read more about fixing outdated template files here
• The active theme is loading headers and/or footers in a non-standard way.
  • WooCommerce uses the get_header action inside of get_header() to initialize the checkout and load scripts. If your current theme is not utilizing get_header(), you must either:
    • Switch to use get_header(), or…
    • Trigger the get_header action manually using do_action( ‘get_header' ); in your custom header loader.

If you’d like to determine what is causing the JavaScript files to not load properly on your site, you will want to perform a conflict test. You can read more about plugin and theme conflicts in our Self-Service Guide.