What actions should I take to resolve WordPress’ “White Screen of Death” error?
Share
Sign Up to our social questions and Answers Engine to ask questions, answer people’s questions, and connect with other people.
Login to our W3Make Forum to ask questions answer people’s questions & connect with other people.
Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.
Please briefly explain why you feel this question should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.
The “White Screen of Death” (WSOD) in WordPress is an error where you see a blank white screen instead of your website or the WordPress admin dashboard. It can occur due to various reasons, such as plugin conflicts, theme issues, memory limits, or PHP errors. Here are some ways:
1. Enable Debugging: Open the wp-config.php file in your WordPress root directory and add the following lines of code just before the “That’s all, stop editing!” comment:
define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true );
define( ‘WP_DEBUG_LOG’, true );
2. Increase Memory Limits: In some cases, the WSOD error may be caused by insufficient memory limits. Add the following code to your wp-config.php file, just before the “That’s all, stop editing!” comment:
define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ );
3. Check for PHP Errors: If none of the above steps resolve the issue, there may be PHP errors. Review the debug.log file (located in the wp-content directory) for any error messages or warnings. You can also try temporarily enabling PHP error reporting by adding the following code to your wp-config.php file, just before the “That’s all, stop editing!” comment:
error_reporting( E_ALL );
ini_set( ‘display_errors’, 1 );
The “White Screen of Death” (WSOD) in WordPress can be caused by various factors, including incompatible or poorly coded plugins or themes, memory limitations, PHP errors, syntax errors in WordPress files, file permission issues, corrupted files, or database problems. When any of these issues occur, they can interrupt the normal functioning of WordPress, resulting in a blank white screen instead of the expected website content. Identifying and addressing the specific cause of the WSOD is necessary to resolve the error and restore the functionality of the WordPress website.
Here are some possible causes and solutions:
Some websites allow browsers to save files locally to reduce load times. This is referred to as browser caching. Unfortunately, if the saved files are out of current, caching can cause issues.
If you’ve got permission to access your administrator dashboard you are using a caching WordPress plugin, try removing the cache within the plugin. In your plugin of choice, this should be an indicated option.
2. Go back and retrace your steps.
This may appear to be a waste of time, but determining what you performed in the moments preceding the error may help you resolve the problem more quickly.
Begin by asking yourself these questions:
What was I doing on the website just before the white screen of death appeared?
Was someone else using WordPress when the problem first appeared, and if so, what were they doing?
Your responses may assist you in determining the source of your error.
If, on the other hand, no one was working on the website at the time the screen appeared (i.e., you just noticed it when you tried to log in), then proceed to the solution below.
3. Disable the theme that is currently active.
Your WordPress theme, like plugins, might become outdated or clash with another plugin. Themes can sometimes install incorrectly owing to faulty files. To troubleshoot this issue, first replace the theme with a default WordPress theme.
1.Follow these procedures if you have access to administrator controls.
2.From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Themes.
3.Enable any of the default WordPress themes, such as Twenty Nineteen.
4.Look for the white screen of death on your website.
If you are unable to access your admin, you will need to open your SFTP to a access the website. Then proceed as follows.
1.Navigate to the public_html folder, then to the wp-content folder.
2.Navigate to the themes folder and locate your active theme folder.
3.Add “_old” to the end of the name of the folder containing your active theme. This turns off the theme.
4.Go to your website. If the white screen of death vanished, you’ve discovered the issue. Inform the theme creator of the mistake and request the most recent version of the theme.
5. Modify your memory limit.
When you install a plugin, a series of scripts is executed on your WordPress website. Every time the plugin runs, it consumes a small amount of memory on your server.
WordPress places a memory restriction on your plugins to prevent scripts from slowing down your website. When a script requires more memory, it can result in the white screen of death.
The good news is that you can tell WordPress to grant your plugins more memory by following the steps below.
1.Use SFTP to connect to your server.
2.Navigate to the public_html folder and find the wp-config.php file.
3.Right-click on wp-config.php and select View/Edit.
4.Scroll to the bottom of the file and copy and paste the following code:define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’); This tells WordPress that your scripts can use up to 64 MB of memory.
5.Check to see if your website is operational.
5. Corrupted files or database: Upload problems might occur if the uploaded image files or the WordPress database itself are corrupted. Check your image files for corruption and attempt restoring the WordPress database with plugins such as “WP-Optimize” or “WP-DBManager.”