Have you ever encountered a WordPress white screen of death after migration? What’s more frustrating than a white plain screen without showing any message?
However, most WordPress users have faced this error at least once. But the good thing is that the WordPress white screen of death error is relatively simple to fix.
White screen of death is one of the most common WordPress errors which you can face using WordPress because it locks you out of your admin panel. Sometimes it affects a certain part of your site while the other part of the site works perfectly fine.
As the name suggests, White screen of death – While you are trying to access your site but it converts with a plain white screen. There are numerous causes for occurring this error such as plugins & themes which can contain incorrect code, the lack of memory or issues related to your hosting server, and much more.
More so by reading this article, you will be able to find some more causes and possible solutions to fix this error. Before going further, first, let’s read what is the cause of this error to get more information.
Causes Of WordPress white screen of death
There are many reasons for the blank white screen error in WordPress, but the main cause is generally when WordPress finishes its memory limit.
This can happen when WordPress contains multiple plugins operating all at once, or if a very resource-intensive plugin is operated too much. It can actually just occur if a plugin was coded poorly. As a result of the low memory, WordPress fails to show any content.
And yes, this can occur on both the front and the back end of your website. And it can actually be separated into a single page or post.
Definitely, plugins are not the only thing that can generate this error. Articles can also be the offender if they are coded incorrectly. Due to the lack of knowledge, troubleshooting may bring some time as you have to try just nearly everything. A few of the major causes for WordPress white screen are,
- Memory Exhaustion
- Poorly Coded Theme
- Issues with the web hosting server
- Your theme may be causing the problem
- The theme directory may be missing or renamed
- Due to some plugins that may not be working properly
With the basic terms, let’s get the possible solution of how to fix this white screen of death error-
Possible Solution To Fix WordPress white screen of death
Here in below list find the possible solutions to fix WordPress white screen problems,
By Enhancing Memory Limit
Exhaustion of memory is one of the main causes of this issue. So in order to resolve this type of error try to increase PHP memory in WordPress.
Disabling All The Plugins
After logging into your WordPress dashboard go to the plugins menu and then tap on installed plugins. After that, a list of the plugins will appear. Here you can check the number of installed plugins and their statuses. Each plugin that is active has a deactivated button beneath. Tap on it and the plugin will be turned off.
Replacing The Theme With A Default Theme
If the above methods don’t work then try replacing your current WordPress theme with a default Twenty Seventeen theme. An ideal approach to do this is by backing up your theme folder.
Then at that point erasing the theme. WordPress will consequently fall back to the default theme. Then again, you can go into your phpMyAdmin and refresh the database tables in the wp_options table.
The accompanying table names would need to be refreshed: Stylesheet, current theme, and template.
If this fixes the issue, then you should look at your theme’s functions.php file. If you find any extra spaces at the bottom, then you should try fixing them.
How to enable WordPress to debug mode
We all are aware that WordPress provides numerous features to troubleshoot the error. It also contains the functionality that you can use to resolve the error quickly.
However, this – ‘Enable WordPress Debug Mode’ feature is disabled by default, and mainly used by the developers.
To enable it, you will have to access your WordPress site via FTP. Then follow the instruction provided below:
- Access your public_html folder.
- Check the wp-config.php file, right-click on it, and select the View/Edit option.
- Thereafter find the line that says – That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.
As you might remember, a while ago by adding an extra line of code just above the Happy blogging message we increased the WordPress memory limit.
Now add a second code snippet in between those two:
| define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true ); |
Now save changes and try to access your site again. Now you will see the WSOD error, but this will activate WordPress debug mode and the error.
More so, to access your logs, you have to go to public_html > wp-content through the FTP client and look for the debug.log file.
Now open it by View/Edit option and see at the bottom of the file to check the last error it logged:
Understanding the log can be a bit tricky task, but here you have to pay attention – Last WordPress file that tried to open when the error popped up and the code line that triggers it.
If you can determine those two things, then you should be able to find the file through FTP. If it is a theme, plugin, or custom script, you can remove it.
Other Fixes
In case, any of the above ways can’t resolve the problem, then you should try to install a fresh copy of WordPress. However, it is unlikely, but always it is possible that a core file may have been corrupted.
That’s All!
Still, if you are suffering from the White Screen of Death error, then your next step is – you should be to contact the web hosting support service or hire a WordPress expert by dialing WordPress Help Number +1-888-738-0846 (Toll-Free).