How To Fix WordPress White Screen Of Death

Have you ever met with WordPress white screen of death? Many of us would have because it is a common error everyone among us faces. Do you want to know the WordPress white screen fix?

Before we begin to discuss the fixes, lets have a look at the causes of it.

WordPress White Screen of Death

According to WordPress, it is the most common error that occurs in the content management system.

WordPress white screen of death can occur due to these reasons.

1. PHP codes syntax error.
2. Faulty Theme or Plugin.
3. Missing theme file from WordPress.
4. Memory Limitation.

The error isn’t tough to solve but needs a little smart work.

When this error cause, there are two situations.

1. You get a white screen on the front-end and can use the back-end.
2. You get a white screen on both ends.

If you met situation one, you could fix it using a dashboard. Because if you can still use the back-end, it means that the theme or plugin generates an error.

In that case, disable all the plugins and change the theme to the default one that is “Twenty Nineteen.”

Now, if you met the second situation, then “Between the devil and the deep sea,” you have no choice except to do some advanced work.

Because you can neither use back-end nor view front-end.

So let’s start some real work.

How To Fix WordPress White Screen Of Death

You are in a hurry, and you want to fix this issue within time. But sincerely, it will take more than  2 minutes to find the cause, not the solution.

Personally, to find the cause of the WordPress white screen, I set debugging to on. This is the first step I do first because it saves me a lot of time.

It is my personal way to solve the issue, so let’s start finding the cause and solution.

Clear the Cache

In rare cases it happens that the personal browser cache causes the issue.

So first step is to clear the cache the site.

You can clear all the cache under Settings>>History>>Clear Browsing Data.

Now visit your WordPress admin section; if the issue still occurs, follow other steps.

Disable Plugins and Themes

If you can access the admin section after clearing the cache, then the simple and easy way to fix the issue is to disabling the plugins and reverting the theme to the default one.

Sometimes you install or update a plugin which isn’t compatible with your current version.

Such a plugin can generate an error, so it is recommended to check the plugin compatibility before installing it.

After deactivating plugins, activate them one by one and reload the site after each activation. Don’t activate plugins in bulk; otherwise, you wouldn’t find the issue then.

If your site goes down after activation, deactivate the plugin you last installed. So you have successfully found the culprit plugin causing the error to occur.

If you cannot access the administration section even after clearing the cache, you have to use an FTP program.

We will use FileZilla. Connect you website to FTP program.

After a successful connection, you have to rename the plugins folder. Go to wp-content; you will notice the plugins folder. Rename the folder to plugins1.

Recheck the site; if it works, change the plugins folder name to its original plugins.

Go inside the plugins folder and rename each plugin one by one until you find the misbehaving plugin.

What to do if the plugins aren’t causing issue?

Well, WordPress white screen of death can be caused due to faulty theme also.

If you have access to admin section, change theme to default one.

If that solves the issue then do same process we did earlier on plugins.

Connect to the FTP program and start renaming each one by one until you find the faulty theme.

But remember to reload the site each time you rename a theme.

Debugging

Sometimes, the WordPress white screen admin is caused due to syntax errors. But believe me, it is not easy to find syntax errors.

But we have a way to find the syntax errors quickly by switching debugging to on.

If you were editing theme or plugin files and you misspelled something. That mistake can also generate an error.

It is “Programming BRO“, no useless character on the wrong place.

How do you find syntax errors quickly?

Take it easy.

Go to the core files of your WordPress website. You will find a file named wp-config.php; edit it.

Scroll down, until you find this line.

define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );

Change false to true .

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );

The issue wouldn’t be solved, but it will give us the exact location where the problem exists.

You will see a white screen and error messages like this.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function my_plugin() inhtml/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/my-test-plugin/my-test-plugin.phpon line 20

You can see that after enabling debugging, we are getting the exact location of the error.

You wouldn’t see anything; then, it is recommended to ask the host about the problem.

Increasing Server Memory Limit

Sometimes the error may be caused due to the server memory. In that case, you have to provide more memory to the server to work smoothly.

Increasing memory limit in WordPress is quite easy; you have to edit wp-config.php file.

Just add the following code to the wp-config.php

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '128M');

Same thing can be applied in the .htaccess also.

Add this code to .htaccess file.

php_value memory_limit 128M

Or you can edit your php.ini file and add this code.

memory_limit = 128M

Conclusion

Now you know the cause and WordPress white screen fix. Even a single update of theme/plugin could take your site offline, and you will have no access.

You must do the following things to prevent from this issue in future.

1. Take a backup of your whole site.
2. Manually update the themes/plugins.
3. Use good hosting for solid support.

If you liked this tutorial, please do share it with your friends and do comment.