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Missing header or footer

Either the site chrome has disappeared, or a page is rendering with the wrong layout.

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First: is it one page or the whole site?

That single question determines the cause.

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One page is affected

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The page builder is taking over

This is the expected behaviour on builder pages, not a bug. If the header and footer are genuinely missing — not just full-width — a plugin is likely removing them. See Plugin conflicts.

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The page has no content

template-page-builder.php renders only content. A page assigned to it with nothing in it produces an empty canvas.
1

Open the page in the block editor

Pages → All Pages → your page → Edit.
2

Check it has content

A page saved with Elementor but with an empty Elementor document has no post content.
3

Switch the template if needed

Page Attributes → Template → Default Template.

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Stale Elementor cache

Content renders empty or unstyled.
1

Regenerate Elementor's CSS

Elementor → Tools → Regenerate CSS & Data.
2

Clear every cache

Page cache, object cache, CDN, browser.
3

Re-save the page in Elementor

This forces a rewrite of the Elementor data.

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The whole site is affected

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A plugin is removing them

1

Deactivate all plugins

2

Check the site

If the header and footer return, a plugin is the cause. Bisect to find it — see Plugin conflicts.
3

Look for the usual suspects

Page builders, header/footer builder plugins, white-label plugins, and maintenance-mode plugins.

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A child theme is responsible

header.php and footer.php must call get_header() and get_footer(). A child theme that replaces them without calling the parent versions, or that outputs an unbalanced tag, will break the page structure.
Check that your child theme’s versions are not swallowing or duplicating these calls.

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Unbalanced HTML

The most insidious version of this problem: the page looks visually fine but is structurally broken.
get_header() opens <main id="site-content"> and get_footer() closes it. If your child theme opens its own <main>, the page has two main landmarks — exactly the accessibility failure this theme is built to avoid — and browsers may re-nest content in ways that look wrong.
Validate the markup at the W3C Validator to find unclosed tags.

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Content is narrower or wider than expected

A different symptom with a different cause. Screenshot: wide and boxed container layouts compared Admin path: Appearance → Customize → Vara SaaS → Layout → Container layout

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An empty sidebar column

If there is an unexplained gap beside your content, the sidebar area is rendering with no widgets.

Check it is switched on

Customize → Vara SaaS → General → Enable sidebar.

Check it has widgets

Appearance → Widgets → Primary Sidebar.
An empty sidebar still reserves its column on wide screens, which reads as a layout bug. If you do not use widgets, turn Enable sidebar off. See Sidebars and widgets.

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Double footer or content repeated

Almost always the header or footer markup being emitted twice.

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Diagnostic checklist

1

Does it happen on every page or one page?

Every page → plugin or child theme. One page → template or builder.
2

View source and check for vara-saas-builder-page

Confirms whether the theme deliberately stepped aside.
3

Deactivate all plugins

The fastest isolation step.
4

Disable your child theme

Rename its folder via FTP if you suspect it.
5

Validate the HTML

The W3C Validator will find unclosed tags.
6

Clear all caches

Last, but frequently the actual answer.

Header and menus

How the header is meant to be built.

Template files

What each template renders and how to override it.