Solution to the problem: White screen of death error in WordPress

The white screen of death problem is one of the most common WordPress problems that many website owners face. It is also one of the most frustrating problems, because the screen actually does not provide any information about what went wrong with the site. In this comprehensive article, we will explain to you what exactly is meant by the white screen of death. We will also introduce you to its most important causes, and we will also explain to you the solutions to the problem that you can implement to return the website to its normal functioning.

What is the problem of the white screen of death?

The problem of the white screen of death in WordPress is that a white screen appears when you try to visit the website instead of the actual content that should appear, due to an error related to the database or PHP files. The problem of the white screen of death that appears in WordPress: This problem can be encountered in the front interface that appears to visitors, or in the back interface through which the work team manages their site, or in both interfaces together, as it is not possible to access any content related to the site by visiting either interface. It is also possible to encounter this problem on a specific page of the site, while the rest of the pages work normally, as the location of the problem depends on the underlying cause.

Sometimes some browsers may display an error message of 500, which means that the page you are trying to visit does not work, but without providing you with any information explaining the cause of the problem. In newer versions of WordPress (version 5.2.4 and above), a white screen may not appear when you encounter a white screen of death issue. Instead, a message appears stating that the site is experiencing technical issues. The error message that can appear in modern versions of WordPress instead of the white screen of death, and simultaneously with seeing this message, an email may or may not be sent stating the reason that led to the appearance of the problem, thanks to the Fatal Error Protection feature.

Read also: What is a fatal error? And its reasons? The best solutions to it are the causes of the white screen of death problem. There are many reasons that can lead to the appearance of the white screen of death problem in WordPress, and it may sometimes be difficult to know the exact reason behind the problem.

In most cases, the root cause of the problem is due to an unresponsive script timeout or interruption of the work of this code by the server hosting the WordPress website. One of the following reasons could also lead to the appearance of the white screen of death problem as well: 1. Consuming the entire permissible memory limit. If you use a plugin installed on the WordPress site or a code added to it, or one of the functions of an activated template, the entire permissible memory limit for use in the WordPress system specified in PHP is used, this can lead to the appearance of the white screen of death problem, and the problem can be solved in this case by increasing the permissible amount of memory to be used.

2. A problem with one of the activated plugins or the activated template. Sometimes this error occurs as a result of one of the plugins installed on the site not working properly or because the template used is not working as it should. It can also occur as a result of a conflict between the site’s software (plugins - templates - software codes). 3.

Code not working properly If wrong or poorly coded code is added to WordPress, this may lead to the white screen of death problem. In addition, the problem may appear if the code conflicts with the activated template or one of the activated plugins, as we mentioned above. 4.

There is a problem with the hosting server. Many problems with the hosting server that runs the WordPress website can cause the white screen of death problem to appear, and this problem may indicate that the server crashes and stops working sometimes. Other reasons can also lead to the appearance of the white screen of death problem, such as temporary storage or a corrupted file, but most likely one of the reasons we mentioned in the list will be what is causing your problem.

There are many solutions to the white screen of death problem

Solutions to the white screen of death problem, but no solution always works, as the solution that should be applied depends on the reason that led to the problem. If you know the cause of the problem, try the solution that you think is appropriate for that cause, and if you cannot find the cause, you can try all the solutions provided starting with the solution that you think is most appropriate in your case. But before implementing the steps of any of these solutions, it is preferable to make a backup copy of the WordPress site, in order to avoid things getting worse.

Solution #1: Check other sites first; If you have other sites on the same hosting, you must log in and check them. If you see the same problem, this means that the error is due to your hosting service, and you must contact them to solve the problem. If the screen of death does not appear on your other sites, this means that the issue is related to your specific site and you should try the next solution. Solution #2: Try to recover WordPress. If the problem is due to a plugin you have installed or a template, you can solve it by entering WordPress in recovery mode, then disabling the plugin that is causing the problem, or changing the activated template to the default WordPress template.

If a white screen of death problem occurs on your site, and you are not using an old version of WordPress, and the problem is caused by a plugin or theme, WordPress may identify the plugin or theme causing it, and notify you of its name in an email. An email message explaining which plugin caused the white screen of death problem. Sometimes WordPress does not recognize the plugin or theme that is causing the problem, but perhaps you somehow know which one is the cause (for example, if it occurred after activating a particular plugin or theme), or perhaps you want to deactivate all plugins and reactivate the default theme, as we will explain later, and then you can enter recovery mode as well and do that. There are two ways to enter recovery mode in WordPress. The first is through the link that may be present in the email informing you of the add-on or template that caused the problem. The second is by visiting the following link and replacing example.com with your website’s domain: example.com/wp-login.php?action=entered_recovery_mode. After visiting the link, a page will appear requesting you to enter your WordPress login information, and you must enter the administrator account data to access the WordPress control panel in recovery mode.

You have entered recovery mode in WordPress. You can now deactivate the plugins you want from the plugins page in the backend. You can also reactivate the default template if you wish. Solution #3: Increase the permissible memory limit. Often, this problem occurs when one of the scripts on your site exceeds the permissible memory consumption limit, and therefore you need to increase the available PHP memory in WordPress. When you increase the memory, you will enable the script to finish the task it was supposed to do, and thus the white screen will disappear.

Steps to increase the memory limit: You must go to the control panel, then the file manager, or use FTP and access the file (wp-config.php). The next step is to write this code into the wp-config.php file define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M'); 3. You will write this code before the line That’s all, stop editing!

Happy publishing. Add the memory increase code in the wp-config.php file. This code means that you are increasing the size of the memory limit in WordPress to 256 MB. 4.

Then you will save the changes you made to the wp-config.php file. You can now visit your site, and if memory limit is the problem, the white screen will disappear. Note: If this solution to increase the memory limit does not work, it means that the web hosting provider you are relying on does not allow WordPress to increase the PHP memory limit, and you will need to ask the web hosting provider to manually increase the PHP memory limit. Solution #4: Check plugins and themes If the previous solutions do not work, you should check plugins and themes, sometimes the reason is one of them.

What you have to do is disable all plugins on your site. The first method: If you can access your control panel, you must go to the (Add-ons) tab on the right of the screen or (Plugins) on the left of the screen. After that, you must select all plugins and choose (Disable). Disable all WordPress plugins from the WordPress control panel. The second method: If you cannot access the WordPress control panel, you must access the site files through FTP or through cPanel and then deactivate the plugins, as follows: Once connected, go to the (wp-content) folder where you will see the “plugins” folder. Disable WordPress plugins through the hosting control panel now; You need to right click on the Plugins folder and then rename the file. You can rename the plugins folder to (plugins-deactivated) or (Plugins-old).

after that; When WordPress searches for the Plugins folder to load all the plugins for your site, it will not be able to find it, so it will simply deactivate all plugins automatically. after that; Try to access your site, and if the white screen disappears and the cause is add-ons, you must start activating the add-ons one by one until you know which add-on caused the problem. Solution #5: Check themes In this solution, you should try replacing the template or theme of your site with the default theme to confirm the cause of the problem.

Steps: If you can access the WordPress control panel, you can go to Appearance, then Templates, and select the default template. Activate the WordPress hosting template to solve the white screen of death problem. If you are not able to do that, you can do the following steps: You have to access the folder that contains all the templates for your site (through FTP or through cPanel) and follow the path / wp-content / theme / folder. after that; You must delete or change the name of the activated template on your site (right mouse button, then Delete or Rename). Reactivate the default template through cPanel to solve the white screen of death problem 3.

WordPress will often enable a default theme such as Twenty Eighteen); If you do not have a default template for your site, you must download it manually after that. You should try accessing your site, and if the problem disappears, this means that your template contains some faulty code (bugs), or it conflicts with some other components of your site. Advice: If the problem is with the template, you can go in and look at some of the template files and examine them if you have added a new function to it or written new code that suffers from a problem, or examine the code in general if you have programming experience in writing PHP code, or seek the help of someone who is an expert in WordPress development from a freelance site such as a freelancer to examine your template files. Go to the template file editor to ensure that there are no errors in them. Solution #6: Activate Debug Mode to detect errors in WordPress - if the previous solutions do not work; You can try running Debug Mode to find out the cause of the error.

Steps: Beginning; You must activate Debug mode by modifying the following code in the wp-config.php file. define( 'WP_DEBUG', true); define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true); 2. Once you add this code; The blank screen will now contain errors, warnings, and notifications; These warnings may be able to help you determine the real cause of the error.

If you do not see any errors then you should check the debug log. Note: After completing this task, restore the original code as follows define( 'WP_DEBUG', false); Solution #7: Restore a backup copy of the site before the white screen of death problem occurred. In most cases, the white screen of death problem, as well as various other problems that can occur with the site, can be resolved by restoring a backup copy of the site that was created before the problem occurred. In this case, the entire site is restored to a point in the recent past where it was working, so regardless of the cause of the problem, it is resolved except for some cases where the cause is not inherent in the site, such as a hosting problem or some other reason.

You can create a backup copy, restore it, and schedule an automatic backup every day, week, or otherwise by using a custom WordPress plugin such as UpdraftPlus, or through hosting options if they provide that, and you can learn how by reviewing our comprehensive article on this topic (explanation of making a backup copy of your site to secure it from any damage). Clear cache after these steps; The problem may have already been resolved but the problem still appears when you try to browse the site. This is because the browser or your site retains cache files, so you simply have to empty your site's cache and the same for your web browser. 1- Clear the browser cache First, you need to clear the cache in the web browser; Most web browsers store static content from the site to make your subsequent visit faster, such as style sheets (CSS), JavaScript, and images.

In some cases web browsers may fail to realize that a web page has changed, and instead of fetching a fresh copy, they may continue to reload the page from the copy stored on your computer. If you are using the Google Chrome browser: Go to Settings and clear data as in the picture. Click on the option to clear browsing data in Google Chrome 2. A new window will open for you in which you can choose the content you want to remove.

Select and Clear Cache Options You have now finished clearing your browser cache, and you can now try visiting your website to ensure that the White screen of death error issue is resolved. If you are using another browser such as (Firefox, Opera, Safari), you can delete temporary files in a similar way. 2- Delete the cache files for your WordPress site. You will also need to delete the cache files for your WordPress site through one of the cache plugins (such as: WP Super Cache), or through the hosting service provider.

Then try to log in again to your site, and the problem will be solved and your site will mostly work without problems. Thus, we finish explaining what the white screen of death problem is, introducing you to its causes, and explaining how to solve it in more than one way. In conclusion, we would like to point out that you will not necessarily need to use all of the previous solutions, but rather the problem will be solved by adopting one or two solutions in most cases. Read also: The most common WordPress problems, and ways to solve them