Last Updated On : Sep 14, 2022.

9 Ways to Fix White Screen of Death WordPress

Working on WordPress but suddenly you see a white screen of death locking you out. This is a frustrating issue. A white screen locks you out of your WordPress dashboard and makes you fumble with a Canvas. At first, it looks like all has gone, but don’t lose hope! Let’s go further to fix it AND avoid it with the new WordPress Fatal Error Recovery Mode. But don’t worry, you still have the option of the Fatal Error Recovery Mode Feature. Moreover, read this article that causes the white screen of death, how to identify the root cause, and how you can and when to know what’s going on.

 

Let’s get down and learn ways how to fix the White Screen of Death

 

1. Check For Server’s Availability

Working on WordPress, but suddenly you see a white screen of death locking you out. Let’s know how to fix it AND avoid it with the new WordPress Fatal Error Recovery Mode. Check the servers’ availability by using an online status tool.

If the server is down, you can get in touch with the hosting provider to get it back online ASAP. In this way, cloud hosting platforms like CloudWays help you out.

 

2. Clear Browser Cache

When you simply clear the browser cache, it does the trick. As browser caching helps with faster browsing speed and a better user experience. However, when you start opening more websites, their cache gets cluttered by all the cookies and site data.

Just follow these easy steps like removing all the cookies and cache and going to the History in Chrome and clicking “Clear browsing data.” Go to Basic or Advanced, select the time range, and click Clear data. Once we are through with the process, go back to the website and hit REFRESH. The wp-admins confirm that you are good to go.

 

3. Enabling Debug Mode

If clearing the browser cache does not help, the next fix is to enable WordPress to debug in this mode. It highlights the critical information about the errors that are causing the White Screen Death in WordPress.

To enable the debug mode, you need to access the wp-config.php file. So just log into CPanel or connect to the server via SFTP using FileZilla (or a similar FTP client).

Open the file in a text editor and follow these steps.

•  Change false to “true”
•  Save changes and upload the updated file.
• Return the browser and refresh the screen
• When you see the White Screen of Death but you see a White Error Message

If something like this:

For example, you might see something like this:

Cannot redeclare get_posts() (previously declared in /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-includes/post.php:1624) in /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/my-plugin.php on line 21

The above error message states an error at line 21 in one of the plugins. At this point, you may either contact the plugin provider or replace the plugin with something similar. If that’s not possible, disable the WordPress plugins altogether.

 

4. Increasing Memory Units

WordPress runs on top of PHP. As such, both layers need adequate memory for execution. Sometimes the limit gets exhausted, resulting in the White Screen of Death and 500 Internal Server Errors.
Setting the memory limit is easy. Follow the steps below to set up the memory limit on Cloudways:

• Log in to your Cloudways account.
• Select your server.
• Click Settings & Packages. Check your memory limit under the basic tab and increase it.
• Click Save Changes”
• Now return to wp-admin, refresh the page and check if the error is still there. If you still see the White Screen of Death, move on to the next method.

 

5. Disable Plugins & Themes

When you disable plugins and themes, this is amongst the simplest method for White Screen Of Death and troubleshooting guides including the first step. It may appear time-consuming, but it could impact the appearance of the WordPress site. Let’s see how to disable themes and plugins without causing any damage to the WordPress site.

 

1. Disable the Theme

• Now you can follow the steps below to disable or change the current theme on WordPress.
• First, Log in to wp-admin dashboard
• Check Appearance and click themes
• Now you can activate the default theme

Still, if you can’t access the wp-admin because of white screen errors, access your server using Filezilla and change its name to wp-content/themes to something like that.
This will disable the existing theme. You will see WordPress as the default theme.
Now you can go into the repository of the best WordPress themes and select those that meet your requirements.

 

2. Disabling the Plugins

Now you can follow the steps to disable plugins via the WordPress dashboard.

• Go to the WordPress dashboard
• Click Plugins to see the list of installed plugins
• Disable all of them.

Now you can activate them one after the other to see which plugin is causing the error. However, if you still can’t access wp-admin, use FileZilla again, then you can rename the plugin folder. If you see the website is back to its normal state, then rename the folder back to plugins and start testing each plugin If your website starts working, rename the folder back to plugins and start testing each plugin individually by renaming it one by one.

 

6. Resolve Syntax Errors

Developers use PHP codes inside the functions.php file to add/optimize specific functionality. It also adds the custom code using a third-party service for an existing feature. Often it results in a White Screen Of Death Error. Doing such steps helps resolve syntax errors. The recommended practice for adding custom code is to note every change you make in the functions.php file. Better yet, keep backups of the original file to avoid such issues.

 

7. Work Out failed updated Issues

WordPress update issues can sometimes result in the White Screen of Death error. Check to see if your site has a failed automatic update.

A timed-out server result during an update can trigger the WSoD error. You may resolve this by following the steps below:

• Connect via FTP server
• Open your site’s root folder.
• Locate a file named “.maintenance.”
• If you find any such file, delete it.

Following the above steps will knock away the WSoD error, but if you can’t find the “maintenance” file, move on to the next solution.

 

8. Restore Back Up

Taking regular backups always helps. Fixing up previous backups is also one of the most effective ways to reduce the WordPress Wide Screen of Death.
Cloudways users can use the following steps:

• Log in to your Cloudways platform.
• Go to Application Management → Staging Management.
• Click Launch Staging Application.”

 

Select your server

 

•  Only it will take a few minutes to create the staging application.
•  Once the staging is done, you can select the server and go to application staging management.
• Now click “pull” to copy the data from the staging site.

For non-cloud users, they can take a full backup using a WordPress backup plugin and retrieve the backup of their WordPress website using cPanel.

 

9. Contact your hosting provider.

If you are done with all the methods and they do not work. In that case, you can contact your host provider for help.

 

How to Prevent the WordPress White Screen of Death Error?

The solutions shared above in this blog may help you fix the White Screen of Death error, but wouldn’t it be amazing if it never occurred in the first place?
To prevent the WSoD error from happening, try the steps:

• Frequently backing up your website helps in storing information in the remote server. You can back up your server via a backup & restore plugin or a third-party tool or service.
• Abstain from installing untrustworthy plugins and themes. Always check customer reviews, ratings, and the most recent update date of a plugin or theme before installing them. Only install frequently updated add-ons with favorable reviews, as they are unlikely to conflict with your site’s settings.
• Regular checks in the WordPress updates in a staging environment to ensure that they don’t conflict with your site’s settings.
• Apply them first in a testing environment to ensure they don’t cause errors.
• Controlling multiple users’ access to your site

 

Summary

WordPress White Screen of Death error often throws up many questions to users. By following these steps, you will be able to fix such annoying errors in these guides while learning. There is no hard and fast rule to troubleshoot this error. You can follow these best practices that help in the prevention of errors, and maintain timely backups and you can contact your WordPress Support Team for further assistance.

 

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