topic Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme in CMS Development

Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

bearons — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 13:48:34 GMT

Hi all -

In the page editor for website or landing pages, when clicking the 'Add To' button in the side panel, I am unable to add Sections or Layouts - only Modules. Please see the image #1 below.

I am writing here as I believe this is a theme-specific bug. In my sandbox environment, I do have an option to add Sections & Layouts, see image #2 below.

I do have section & layouts in my actual theme folder that I have modified directly in the Design Manager. I don't recall enabling or disabling any setting that could have caused this - does anyone have any ideas as to why this could be happening?

Any help is appreciated.

Image #1 - no sections & layouts:

Image #2 - sandbox env. sections & layouts available

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

Victor_Becerra — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 16:15:05 GMT

Hi @bearons Thank you for reaching out to the Community!I'd like to invite some community members who are subject matter experts to join this conversation.@Anton @GiantFocal @TomM2 - Would you be able to share any insights on this? Your expertise would be greatly appreciated.Best,Victor

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

RubenBurdin — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 17:47:04 GMT

Hi @bearons

this usually comes down to how the theme was set up.

For HubSpot pages built with drag-and-drop themes, sections and layouts only appear if the theme’s theme.json has them enabled and if the files in your Design Manager are saved as “section” or “layout” types. If those were edited directly as coded files, HubSpot won’t recognize them as reusable blocks in the editor. You can double-check whether your theme is drag-and-drop compatible here:

(https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/cms/start-building/building-blocks/drag-and-drop/drag-and-drop-templates )

Also, make sure the modified theme is published to your account, not just sitting in your design tools folder (https://knowledge.hubspot.com/website-and-landing-pages/edit-your-theme-settings )

If everything looks correct but you only see modules, it’s often because the theme was converted from a coded template or a setting in theme.json was missed. Do you recall if your live theme was cloned from a marketplace theme or built custom?

If consistency between HubSpot themes and external repos is important for you, Stacksync can mirror changes in both directions so you don’t run into drift between sandbox and production.

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

bearons — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 18:01:39 GMT

Hi @RubenBurdin - thank you for your reply. The sections that have previously been available to use in the page editor have been both code-edited and built-in boilerplate sections. The layouts have also not been edited from the initial boilerplate code.

The theme I am developing has been passed down and updated over the years so I'm not completely sure, though I do believe it was cloned from a marketplace boilerplate theme a few years back.

Interestingly, none of the themes on this account allow for adding sections or layouts to any of the website pages. The pages in my sandbox account and another personal account do allow for these, however, regardless of theme. It appears that may not be theme-related after all.

Does anyone have any clues as to what could cause this?

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

WebGuruz_Tech — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:42:34 GMT

Hi @bearons ,

In HubSpot, the ability to add Sections and Layouts in the page editor only works if the template you’re using is built with drag-and-drop (DND) areas. If a template doesn’t contain a dnd_area, the editor will only allow you to add Modules.

Since you mentioned you modified your theme directly in the Design Manager, most likely:

The template you’re using on the live site no longer has a dnd_area, or
You’re using a page template that was never set up as DND, even though your sandbox theme has it.

How to check/fix this:

Go to Design Tools > open your theme > Templates.

Open the template file for the page you’re editing.

Look for code like this:

{% dnd_area "main", label="Main content area" %} {% end_dnd_area %}

If it’s missing, add a dnd_area where you want sections/layouts to be editable, then publish the theme again.

Once your template has at least one dnd_area, the page editor will let you add Sections and Layouts, not just modules.

Hope this helps!

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

Victor_Becerra — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 15:36:03 GMT

Hi there @bearons

I just wanted to check in and see if the suggestion from @WebGuruz_Tech solved your issue.

If you still need help, please let me know. I'm happy to assist further.

Best, Victor

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

bearons — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:27:06 GMT

Hi @WebGuruz_Tech - thank you for your reply and apologies for the delay, was on vacation.

I have returned to look into this issue and have found that your suggestion does not seem to be accurate. I will display my failing scenario below:

Starting on an unmodified Website Page built using a template that features a dnd_area tag, we see that the template is displayed as `donors_v3.html`:

Image: view from the Settings menu.

Upon clicking 'Edit this template', I am taken to the Design Manager page for this template. We can see in the image below that the template has a `{% dnd_area %}` tag and a valid template declaration definition:

Image: view of first-half of template html file, donors-v3.html

Note: I have cut off entire file for question purposes. The codeblock does indeed complete with a `{% end_dnd_area %}` tag.

Finally, the existence of this `{% dnd_area %}` tag is confirmed by inspecting the elements of the webpage in the HubSpot page editor and searching for the class names tagged to the dnd_area, "body-container":

Image: snippet of webpage in page editor featuring the classes representing the dnd_area tag object

We then return to the 'Add To' side panel in the page editor and once again see no option to add sections or modules:

Image: side panel view of 'Add To' menu for the given page

For thoroughness, please see an example section within my codebase below to prove that there are valid sections available for adding, which have also been added successfully previously:

Image: custom section `tabbedmodulev3.html`

Your further guidance and support would be terrific and is much appreciated!

Kind regards.

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

bearons — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:28:39 GMT

Hi @RubenBurdin -

Following up on my earlier reply to see if you have any suggestions for a solution here. Further, including a copy of my `theme.json` file for your review in case I am missing any critical fields:

{ "label" : "xxx_Theme_xxx24-25", "preview_path" : "./templates/home.html", "screenshot_path" : "./images/template-previews/home.png", "enable_domain_stylesheets" : false, "is_available_for_new_content" : true, "responsive_breakpoints" : [ { "name" : "mobile", "previewWidth" : { "value" : 477, "units" : "px" }, "mediaQuery" : "@media (max-width: 767px)", "messages" : { } } ], "author" : { "name" : "HubSpot", "email" : "hs-content-assets@hubspot.com", "url" : "https://www.hubspot.com/" }, "documentation_url" : "https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/cms/building-blocks/themes/hubspot-cms-boilerplate", "example_url" : "https://boilerplate.hubspotcms.com", "license" : "./license.txt" }

Any further guidance and support is greatly appreciated!

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

bearons — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:30:05 GMT

Hi @Victor_Becerra - thank you for checking in and apologies for the delay, I was on vacation. Please see my latest reply to WebGuruz_Tech that showcases that neither Rubin, nor WebGuruz's solutions have solved my issue.

This issue is beginning to impact my client's user experience so any timely support would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Victor.

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

Victor_Becerra — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 16:42:29 GMT

Hey @bearons , I know this must be frustrating — thanks for your patience while we work through it.

And big thanks to @WebGuruz_Tech and @RubenBurdin for all the contributions so far 🙏 — Just a quick reminder that this issue isn’t solved yet. let’s keep the conversation going until we land on a clear solution.

@SteveHTM looping you in here in case you might have additional insights to share. Thanks!

Best, Victor

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

Victor_Becerra — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 18:04:33 GMT

Hi @bearons — thanks for all the detailed follow-ups, that’s super helpful.

Looking at your theme.json, I noticed the field is written as:

"isavailablefornewcontent" : true

But HubSpot is actually looking for:

"is_available_for_new_content" : true

That underscore makes all the difference — without it, the theme won’t expose sections/layouts/modules properly in the page editor.

This came up in this community thread here, where the solution was to update the JSON key.

Once you correct the field name and republish your theme, the missing sections/layouts should appear again.

Let us know if that resolves it!

Best,
Victor

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

bearons — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 17:10:52 GMT

@Victor_Becerra I'm not sure where you are getting the incorrect version of the theme.json. In my reply to Ruben you can see the full theme.json including the `"is_available_for_new_content": true`, which has been the case the entire time.

Could you please unmark the accepted solutions? None of these solutions have worked for me and it is causing client issues. I'm not sure where to turn.

Link to my reply with theme.json: Solved: HubSpot Community - Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme - HubSpot Community

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

STierney — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 17:14:57 GMT

Hey @bearons - thanks for following up here!

For reference, we outline possible solutions not just for specific situations, but for all Community users for future reference - even when the solution may just be a next-step, or a task to verify.

With that said, I'd like to re-tag @RubenBurdin and @WebGuruz_Tech to see if they have any additional thoughts on how we might be able to get this solved for you!

Shane, Community Manager

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

MichaelMa — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 19:24:30 GMT

I was looking for an answer to this because it was recently (literally this week) changed for my hubs. The tab was there Monday and gone today after our editors was asking what happened.

The update was this update: https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Developer-Announcements/August-2025-Developer-Rollup/m-p/1195242

The sections are accessed via the new button on mouse hover between sections called "Add Section".

Which brings up the new modal window for saved and coded sections (coded sections show up in All Sections until they release the categories options):

Feedback: Please bring back a more obvious way to add sections. Either a button on the sidebar (new button if you insist on keeping modules and sections separate) or something else. The change has literally broke the workflow of our editors.

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

bearons — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 14:25:01 GMT

Hi @STierney - in that case I would suggest that you unmark Reuben and WebGuruz's comments and instead highlight @MichaelMa's response as the accepted solution.

Re: Sections & Layouts not appearing in page editor for theme

bearons — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 14:28:41 GMT

Sometimes I doubt myself in my career aspirations to develop and lead product teams, then I see decisions like these and remember that there is an astonishing number of product leads with their heads in the sand...

Thank you @MichaelMa - you just saved me a whole lot of headaches!