How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death (Complete Guide)

1. How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death (Complete Guide)

2. INTRODUCTION PHP and database errors usually cause this error. In most cases, the white screen of death is due to an unresponsive script that times out or gets interrupted by your WordPress hosting server. For example, one plugin may be incompatible with another plugin. This guide will walk you through the likely causes of the WordPress white screen of death, its corresponding error message, and how to resolve it.

3. How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death As mentioned above, fixing the WordPress white screen of death depends on what went wrong in the first place. The following are several possible issues along with the steps on how to fix them. Clear Cache There may be times when you can access the backend—admin area and dashboard—of your site, but not the frontend. If this is your situation, the first thing to try is clearing your browser cache. This isn’t WordPress centric, so this step will depend on what browser you use.

4. Disable all WordPress Plugins WordPress plugin and theme management means that many bits and pieces of a WordPress site are often in a state of flux, creating an environment where things can, and sometimes do, go wrong. So there is a possibility of a compatibility issue after an update, or a glitch during the update itself. It’s not common, but it can happen.

5. Revert to the Default WordPress Theme Sometimes you’ll get the WordPress white screen of death due to an issue with your theme. Depending on how long you’ve had your site, and assuming you haven’t deleted them, there’s a good chance you have several default themes installed. These are named by the year, so look for themes named Twenty Nineteen, Twenty Twenty, and so forth.

6. Confirm There are no Failed Auto-Updates If you have WordPress auto-updates turned on, there may have been a glitch in the update process. Something as simple as a server time out could mess things up. Typically, glitches of this sort will resolve automatically, but in some cases, it may lead to a WordPress white screen of death.

7. Increase Your PHP Memory Limit WordPress has a default memory limit of 32MB which frankly, is pretty small. WordPress will try to increase the limit itself when necessary, but it’s not uncommon to need to adjust it yourself—like when you end up with a WordPress white screen of death! Depending on your site, you may need a lot more memory. For example, a site running a WooCommerce store needs a memory limit of 256MB.

8. Restore From a Backup A final way to recover from a WordPress white screen of death is to restore from a backup. Of course, this only works if you’ve been keeping up with all your WordPress maintenance duties and have a backup. If you do have one, before restoring, it’s a good idea to take a fresh backup, even though you’re currently dealing with a WordPress white screen of death. That way, if you run into problems with the restore, you still have a current backup of your data.

9. When Nothing Fixes Your WordPress White Screen of Death What if you’ve tried everything and you still have a WordPress white screen of death? It’s time to reach out to your hosting provider for support. Depending on the level of support offered, they will either fix it for you or tell you what you need to do to fix it yourself.

10. Conclusion Hopefully, the info above has helped you find and resolve your issue. And helped you to realize that there typically isn’t a need for panic when you’re greeted with a WordPress white screen of death instead of your website.

11. Thank You