So, you visit your WordPress site and somehow find that it is completely blank. You could have a problem viewing your entire site, or maybe just the front-end or the back-end. What is wrong? Well, this is known as the WordPress white screen of death.
The white screen of death occurs due to some error, it could be:
- Memory exceeded on PHP
- Error with a plugin (in some cases, you may get an actual error output message, and this would be different from the white screen of death)
- Failed installation or upgrade in /wp-admin folder
- Error with caching in the case you run a cache plugin
What To Do First When Troubleshooting The White Screen of Death in WordPress
The primary protocol for problems with WordPress boil down to doing 1 or both of the following:
- Disable plugins one by one via FTP or your web host filemanager
- Change the theme to the default WordPress themes available
Well, if you cannot log into your site, you are going to have to try another route. If you are familiar with using FTP (File Transfer Protocol), log in and go to your wp-content folder. In order to disable plugins one by one, go to the plugins folder and rename each folder. For example, you can rename pluginname to pluginame1. Do this until your site appears. However, you can also disable all plugins at once by just renaming the entire plugins folder to a different name.
In the case that is not the issue, try switching the theme to one of the default themes that WordPress has, like Twenty Eleven and Twenty Twelve. Of course, you will need to do this by FTP, and go into the wp-content folder, and then into the folder named themes. Within the themes folder, you will see the names of the themes. The one you have activated is the one you will need to rename in order to activate it.
As a side note, especially to any WordPress developer, often you may have inserted plugin snippets that take the place of plugins, and you can either take out the extra code or just change the theme.
Once you have done any of the above, check to see if your site appears. If so, great… if not… you need to troubleshoot some more. At this point, I’d recommend trying to FTP a fresh copy of WordPress to web hosting account in order to cover the angle that you may have a failed upgraded or installation. Just remember not to overwrite the /wp-contents or the wp-config.php file when doing this. If it still persists, try some of the below suggestions.
So, That WordPress White Screen of Death is Persistent…
You have disabled plugins and changed your theme. You still have that white screen of death. You might need a little help with WordPress to debug the situation, so you can use the following code. This code goes in the wp-config.php file.
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true);
Once this has been placed, you can refresh your site and there should be a message to tell you if something is wrong. If it is telling you something cannot be found, it usually means you are missing a file. If the message says that something is missing, the error message is telling you something in the code is missing. You will need to reload a fresh file.
In some cases, it could be the memory or the cache. You will have to clear the cache on your site, or adjust the php.ini file to increase memory size. You can increase the memory by adding the following line in your wp-config.php file:
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');
If that does not work, your web host may not allow you to do this and you will have to ask if they can do it for you. It is not a huge request and only takes moments. Worst case scenario is that they say no. If they do not, you might want to seek a more reliable host that allows you some control over your site.
Have you ever suffered from the WordPress White Screen of Death? Was your solution solved with one of these methods, or did you have a different error?
hello nile
i was facing this issue some dayzz later but now its loading fine .but when i was trying to log on my admin pannel it turns white thnx for sharing that how to fix it will share it wid other bloger frnds too.
I am glad you got this solved. I know it can be frustrating when it does occur, but at least there is a solution. 🙂
hello Nile
Thanks for sharing this information, and I will share it wid my other friends too
Thank you Siddharth!
Good Post. Nile. Keep teaching us. By the way this layout is better than previous one.
Hi Alex! Thank you… I worked hard on it… and have a lot more additions to the site to do.
Hi Nile, Good topic you have shared. I agreed with your explanation, when you see a white screen of death, This could be caused by a plugin that we may be using that is not functioning correctly. It could also be caused by theme coded that we are using.
hi nile ,
i have faced this kind of situation when i have used wrong plugin and i solve this by 8 hour of hard work because i know very little about wordpress. Thanks for such a nicely written article.
Nile, No I have not suffered the white screen of death and am VERY thankful I have not….and hope I never do. Even though your blog instructions are very clear, it feels way over my head. I am so grateful for you and others that have a real handle on the ins and outs of the techie blog stuff. If I ever get in trouble I know who to look up!
Many thanks!
Lynn
Lynn… you are lucky. Hope it remains that way. 🙂
Excellent tips. One more addition would be to check the error logs. Sometimes in your error logs you can get hints of what is wrong.
Thanks.
Hi Karel!
That is why there is a line you can use to debug… you don’t have to check the error logs if you put the line to make WordPress give you a message on what is occurring.
I haven’t experienced the white screen of death yet but this is definitely a valuable information to keep just in case I get this in the future. What I’m experiencing now is this nagging message that’s displayed in my dashboard telling me to move my .htaccess file from one folder to another or my backup folder might be visible to the public. I’ve done what it says, the message is still there. I asked hostgator to look into it, and I was told everything’s in order, just ignore the message. Kim Castleberry has even renamed the .htaccess.bak files back to .htaccess but the message is still there. I don’t know what else to do.
I’d really have to take a look at it, but I am not really doing any hands on work for free at the moment. I would wonder if it were from a plugin conflict. I would have thought that it would have been a host thing originally.
Thanks Nile, this has happened to me hopefully it won’t happen again but when it comes I’ll come back again to this post.
By the way nice new theme especially the animation in the 3 circles. Is it made with a genesis?
It is a Genesis child theme that I made and I put the CSS3 circles within a widget.
Oh yes, I’ve had the white screen of death a few times, years ago. I so wish I’d found easy to follow directions like these Nile. I remember scouring the wordpress forums, and it wasn’t easy to find answers. If I ever have one now, it’s usually because of a plugin so easy to fix. Like everything, it’s easy when you know how:-)
Hi Julieanne! I know the feeling. In fact, lately when I have submitted a ticket on the WordPress Support forums, I end up answering it a few days later and then posting a tutorial…lol.
Thanks for this Nile I have never encountered this white screen before with WordPress so I would have been baffled if it happened. Needless to say I have bookmarked this page it is one of those post that is sure to come in handy at some point given the number of WordPress sites we build!
It is definitely good to have some articles on hand for troubleshooting. Thank you for bookmarking. 😀
Hi Nile,
thank you for this very useful and clear information!
I have bookmarked this post, just in case.
It is so good to know people like you, who provide solutions like these!
Cheers,
Yorinda
Hi Yorinda! Thank you for stopping by. I always hope my directions are clear for everyone to understand.
I admit, usually when I have been faced with the white screen of death, it is an issue of the theme I am using is “broken” (aka, missing an important files such as the stylesheet) or the theme is missing. I have never encountered the white screen of death on the back-end, just the front-end and I have always been able to fix it by changing my theme.
It is funny that this issue is not always one thing, but one, or a combination.
Nile,
I am happy to say I have never experienced the White Screen of death – but I have seen, several times, the windows black screen – felt like death too. We are so used to our computers just working that it is overwhelming when it suddenly is blank. What a wonderful post this is and if I ever run into that problem – hopefully I never will – I now know where to turn for immediate help,
Warmly,
Dr. Erica
Thanks Dr. Erica!
Nile,
So far so good! I haven’t experienced this yet (knock on wood). It is good to know that there is something I can do about it. The way you have explained it at least I have the knowledge of what to say to someone that I would hire to fix it.
-Donna
I know the feeling. I have not experienced this issue on my own website, but I have on clients sites.
Great tips on how to deal with this issue Nile! I did have this happen to me once and my developer had to fix the issue for me and I had to pay for this service. Now that you have explained what to do I can address it myself if this ever happens again. Thanks so much for the valuable info.
It is not a difficult fix, but when I do it, I usually charge half of my hourly flat rate fee.
I have never experienced the white screen of death, and I hope I never shall. I did lose all my blog posts one time, and Kim Castleberry helped me get them back again. I don’t know what that was all about, but it was scary enough! Thanks for the valuable info, Nile.
Willena
That is scary! I’d freak out too…lol. Thank goodness Kim helped you.
Nile, what I am worried about as a newbie -having already had so many issues with my WP site – is that it always seems to point to plugins – one host told me having plugins was bad and you should have less…I don’t have loads…what is it that makes plugins cause so many issues – is there a way of rating or knowing plugins that cause rogue whitescreens and other issue?
The only way to rate them is to do so on WordPress.org if they are free plugins. When you install a plugin, it is at your own risk. It is the same for any content management system.
Here is the thing on the number of plugins. If those plugins are not heavy on the database, then you can have quite a few. However, if they call a lot of elements to the page from the database, then you do want to be careful.
Hey very informative post. After reading this post, recently i helped one of my friend who was having the same problem that you have described above. He was very grateful to me. Thanks for sharing this useful info.
I am glad you were able to help someone else with this issue. 😀
Hi Nile,
It’s superb article. I do appreciate this article but I’m was looking for how to install wordpress theme & where do download attractive theme. so please share your idea for install wordpress theme & where to download beautiful theme.
Most of the great themes are either in the WordPress theme directory or you would have to go to a Premium Theme site like StudioPress.
A lot of web hosts have a automatic installer and do offer WordPress. It is simple to use and only takes a couple steps, as well as only takes less than a minute to install WordPress for you.
I just showed my colleague how to fix the issue too…..he’s helping me with my Boston Wedding DJ blog that’s in the works
Hey Nile,
Nice post and I learned lots of good thing from this post. This post surely gonna help all the newbies and I never faced these problem but thanks for sharing these tips and I think this tips surely helps us whenever we faced such problem.
Awesome… I am glad this article was helpful.
This problem is not faced by me yet,But I surely remember these tips whenever I will face such type of problem in future .Thanks for this nice sharing.
I hope it never occurs to you, but glad that this is helpful in case you may need to troubleshoot this type of problem one day.
Really thank to God i had not yet faced this problem yet
But thanks to you, if in future i’ll be facing such a problem then surely will have a first-aid with me
Very informative post…keep sharing!!!
Thank you Ashutosh! As I have told others, I hope that you never have to deal with this problem. Thank you for coming by. 😀
I am staring at the white screen as I write this.I made some changes to my posts, visited my site, and nothing. It is only a new site with 4 posts at the moment, so I will go through the steps you outline and see what happens.As it is only a new site, can I just delete everything and start again?
If so, is there a process to follow for that as well?
Hi Peter! If you go to your WordPress backend, under the navigation is updates…. if you want a fresh install of WordPress, go into the updates and click the button to do an automatic upgrade, or in this case, fresh replace of your WordPress files. It will keep your current posts.
Even though it is a new site with 4 posts, what theme are you using, and what plugins are you using?
Hi Nile,
Thanks for the info, I think I am on top of it now.
The theme is thesis 1.8.5. and the plugins are all in one seo pack, akismet,better wp security,google xml sitemaps,limit login attempts,redirection, simplified social sharing,wp sticky and wp super cache.
I am really having a bad week with my sites, with something unusual on another site.
This is another wordpress site, using the moxy lite theme.When I log into thedashboard>pages.and select a page or post to edit, I have a red messge at the top of the page saying connention lost, we are saving this in your browser.
Now I have no revisions down the botton of the page and this message acrosss the top.
Have you seen this before?
I suppose this is all part of the learning curve.
Pete.
What is that WordPress white screen of death you speak of? Good thing I haven’t see that on my WP screen. Whew.