How to Fix WordPress White Screen of Death

Aug 16, 2023

How to Fix WordPress White Screen of Death

The White Screen of Death makes your site inaccessible to both administrators and visitors 💀 But panic not, we’ll show you the many methods you can use to fix this error!
👉Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/Kinsta?sub_…

The White Screen of Death can be a frustrating error, mainly because it doesn’t give you any information pointing to a possible cause or solution. As the name suggests, this error occurs when you’re trying to access a website, but instead you land in a completely blank page. If that happens to your WordPress site, it may mean you no longer have access to it.

The good news is that a simple plugin and/or theme check should fix the White Screen of Death issue in most cases. This tutorial will guide you through the reasons why you might be getting the White Screen of Death error, and how you can fix it.

ℹ️ About Kinsta

Kinsta is an award-winning Cloud Platform designed to host and manage your WordPress sites, Applications, and Databases faster and more efficiently. Trusted by 25,000+ companies worldwide, from developers, startups, and agencies, to multinational brands, we guarantee lighting-fast performance, enterprise-level security, ease of use, and exceptional support.

🚀 Try our flagship Managed WordPress Hosting plans and get $240/month worth of premium features included in every plan. That’s free unlimited migrations, 20% faster load times thanks to Google’s fastest servers and Premium Tier network backed by Cloudflare’s 275+ CDN locations worldwide, and 24/7/365 multilingual technical support from humans in less than 2 minutes.

👉 Try risk-free with our 30-day money-back guarantee Powerful Managed WordPress Hosting

👤Follow us:
► https://kinsta.com/blog/
► https://kinsta.com/newsletter/
► https://twitter.com/kinsta
► https://instagram.com/kinstahosting
► https://facebook.com/kinstahosting

💡Discover all of our hosting solutions ► https://kinsta.com/

🕘Timestamps

0:00 Methods to Fix WordPress White Screen of Death
0:48 What is the WordPress White Screen of Death?
1:53 Disable Your WordPress Plugins
3:05 Switch to a Default WordPress Theme
4:04 Clear Browser and WordPress Plugin Cache
5:02 Switch on Debugging Mode
6:36 Increase Your Memory Limit
7:57 Check File Permission Issues
8:49 Check for Failed Auto-Update Issues
9:36 Resolve Syntax Errors or Restore a Backup
10:27 Increase the PHP Text Processing Capability

📚Resources

📙 Check out our full guide on methods to fix WordPress White Screen of Death:
► https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-whi…

🔌How to Fix a 500 Internal Server Error on Your WordPress Site
► https://kinsta.com/blog/500-internal-…

⚔️How to Fix a 502 Bad Gateway Error on Your WordPress Site
► https://kinsta.com/blog/502-bad-gateway/

🔒Locked out of Your WordPress Admin Dashboard? (Here’s What to Do)
► https://kinsta.com/blog/locked-out-of…

🧠How to Improve PHP Memory Limit in WordPress
► https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/php-…

___________________________________________________________________________

🔇This video has captions (translated by real humans!) in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Japanese, Danish and Swedish. Click on the CC to set your preferred language.

#WhiteScreenOfDeath #WSOD

Content

0.35 -> - Hey everyone, I'm Mike and today I'm going to show you

2.52 -> nine methods to fix the WordPress White Screen of Death.

6.017 -> (upbeat music)

12.421 -> Nothing is worse than browsing to your WordPress site

14.72 -> and suddenly being met with a white screen of death.

17.54 -> This error makes your website inaccessible

19.56 -> to both administrators and visitors.

21.72 -> In this video, we'll explain

23.29 -> what the WordPress White Screen of Death is,

25.78 -> and what its most common causes are.

28.21 -> Most importantly, we'll walk you through

30.12 -> nine potential solutions for getting your site

32.4 -> back up and running as fast as possible.

34.76 -> But before we get too far, I wanna let you know

36.77 -> that there'll be links to more resources

38.49 -> in the video's description below

40.19 -> and remember, subscribe and ring that bell

42.46 -> to get more notifications on future helpful content.

45.64 -> Now, let's get started.

49.67 -> True to its name, the WordPress White Screen of Death

52.28 -> occurs when you're faced with a blank white screen

55.39 -> instead of the webpage you're trying to access.

57.67 -> Depending on the browser you're using,

59.58 -> you could get different error messages

61.33 -> like this one from Google Chrome,

62.77 -> which includes an HTTP 500 error warning,

66.09 -> or this white screen of death in Mozilla Firefox.

68.82 -> As you can see, it's just a plain white screen.

71.37 -> It doesn't contain any useful errors or warning messages.

74.7 -> The WordPress White Screen of Death is almost always caused

77.62 -> by PHP code errors or memory limit exhaustion.

80.8 -> Another possible cause is a faulty theme or plugin.

83.89 -> The latter is likely the issue

85.28 -> if the front end of your website is down.

87.41 -> But your WordPress admin area is up.

89.67 -> To quickly check whether the dashboard on your site

91.682 -> is working, navigate to yourdomain.com/wp-admin.

96.703 -> So how do you fix the white screen of death?

100.02 -> I'm so glad you asked.

101.65 -> When you experienced the WordPress White Screen of Death,

104.2 -> your priority will be to fix it as quickly as possible.

107.35 -> With that in mind, let's take a look at

108.96 -> nine possible solutions you can use to resolve it.

113.98 -> One of the easiest and most common ways to fix

116.18 -> the WordPress White Screen of Death

118.03 -> is to disable all of your plugins.

120.35 -> Often a site goes down due to a bad plugin update.

123.65 -> If you can still access your domain area,

126.07 -> a quick way to do this is to navigate to plugins

128.15 -> from the dashboard.

129.55 -> Select all plugins and then click on Deactivate

133.29 -> from the bulk actions drop down menu.

135.98 -> If that fixes the issue, you'll need to find the culprit.

138.92 -> To do this, you can start activating the plugins one by one,

142.35 -> reloading the site after each activation.

145.14 -> When your front end goes down,

146.29 -> you found the misbehaving plugin,.

148.21 -> You can then reach out to the plugins developer for help

150.9 -> or post a support ticket in the WordPress plugin directory.

153.87 -> If you can't access your dashboard,

155.77 -> you can use a file transfer protocol or FTP client

158.8 -> to access the sites files directory.

161.44 -> Under the WP content folder of your root directory,

164.33 -> locate the plugins folder,

166.06 -> rename it to something along the lines of plugins_old.

170.95 -> Then check your site again on the front end.

173.24 -> If this works, you'll need to test each plugin one by one.

176.87 -> rename your plugin folder back to Plugins

179.21 -> and then individually rename each plugin folder

181.95 -> inside of it until you locate the faulty one.

186.78 -> If the problem isn't a plugin your WordPress theme

189.39 -> may be the cause of the white screen of death.

192 -> To see if this is the issue, you can replace your theme

194.53 -> by switching to a default one.

196.53 -> If you can access your admin area,

198.48 -> go to Appearance and then Themes in your dashboard.

202.06 -> Locate and activate a default WordPress theme such as 2020.

206.13 -> Then test your site again.

207.81 -> If it works, you know the problem lies within your theme.

210.99 -> If you can't access your dashboard,

212.9 -> the process is the same as it was plugins,

215.52 -> use FTP to access your site's files

217.89 -> and rename your themes folder to something else.

220.68 -> WordPress will then revert to the latest default theme,

223.65 -> which is most likely 2020.

225.77 -> If you don't have any other themes,

227.25 -> you can download one from the WordPress Theme Directory

229.82 -> and then upload it to your themes folder.

232.21 -> After that, go ahead and check your site again.

234.7 -> If it works, perhaps your theme has had a conflict

237.41 -> or bad update.

238.77 -> If this is the case,

239.82 -> you might need to reach out to the developer for help

241.94 -> or consider switching themes.

245.45 -> If you have access to the backend of your WordPress site,

248.15 -> but are still seeing the white screen of death

250.12 -> on the front end,

251.1 -> it might be due to an issue with your cache.

253.47 -> To fix it, try clearing your web browser's cache

256.23 -> and your WordPress caching plugin

258.37 -> assuming you have one installed.

260.29 -> If you have a caching plugin installed

262.01 -> on your WordPress site such as WP Rocket or WP Super Cache,

265.99 -> most offer a quick way to clear the cache

268.29 -> via the plugin settings page.

270.16 -> Using WP Super Cache as an example,

272.93 -> in your WordPress dashboard, you would navigate to Settings

275.99 -> and then to WP Super Cache and then Delete Cache.

281.35 -> If you're a Kinsta user, there's also an easy way

283.7 -> for you to clear your cache using MyKinsta.

286.2 -> To do this login to your account,

288.53 -> click on Tools followed by Clear Cache

291.11 -> under the site cache section.

293.53 -> Once you empty the cache, save your changes,

295.93 -> then revisit your site to see

297.21 -> whether that corrected the issue.

299.03 -> If not, it's Time to move on to another solution.

304.02 -> If you are still seeing the white screen of death,

306.3 -> the admin area isn't working

307.79 -> or you think you found the problem but want to dig deeper,

310.89 -> you can enable debugging mode.

312.9 -> This will show any errors

314.21 -> that are occurring on your website.

316.27 -> To enable debugging, you'll need to open

318.38 -> the wpconfig.php file of your WordPress install.

323.18 -> Within it, you'll find the following line.

326.95 -> Change false to true, and then reload your site.

330.46 -> If this line doesn't exist,

331.87 -> you can add it to the top of the file.

334.09 -> Instead of the white screen,

335.19 -> you'll get a white screen with some error messages.

337.82 -> This isn't a huge improvement, but it's only a start.

340.96 -> The white screen of death error message

342.59 -> should state which file the problem originated in like this.

346.29 -> You can see at the end of this example message

348.24 -> that the problem is in line 38 of a plugin called

351.35 -> my test plugin.

352.82 -> Therefore, disabling that plugin should resolve the issue.

355.94 -> If you don't see any errors at all

357.53 -> after enabling debug mode,

359.3 -> you might need to reach out to your web host.

361.45 -> It's possible debugging isn't correctly configured

363.97 -> on your server.

364.82 -> Kinsta customers have the option to use

366.74 -> a built in debugging tool.

368.5 -> From the MyKinsta dashboard to click on your website's name

371.44 -> followed by Tools, under WordPress debugging select Enable.

377.15 -> You can then access your error log under the logs section

380.34 -> of your MyKinsta dashboard

381.87 -> and explore them to learn more about the problem.

384.89 -> Keep in mind that having the debugging mode turned on

387.68 -> can expose some of your website's information

389.93 -> to unapproved users.

391.31 -> Therefore, make sure to always turn the mode off

394.45 -> when you're done using it.

397.55 -> If you're a Kinsta customer,

398.7 -> memory limit isn't likely to be an issue

400.8 -> as all of our plans have a set default memory limit

403.84 -> of 256 megabytes.

405.95 -> However, if you're not a Kinsta customer,

408.37 -> and you still see

409.203 -> the dreaded white screen of death empty page

411.38 -> after trying some of the previously stated solutions,

414.14 -> or you get an error complaining about memory limits

416.34 -> or exhausted memory,

417.73 -> you'll need to assign more memory to the application.

420.73 -> This can be done through the wpconfig.php file

424.02 -> on many WordPress installs.

425.87 -> Open the file and add the following code.

429.69 -> If this doesn't seem to work, you have a few options.

432.49 -> In a regular environment you can use your .htaccess file

436.06 -> to increase the memory limit, add the following line.

439.41 -> If you can't access your.htaccess file,

442.23 -> you can use your PHP.ini file

445.18 -> to increase the memory limit instead.

447.53 -> To do that connect to your server via FTP.

450.63 -> In the root directory of your site,

452.48 -> look for the php.ini file.

455.06 -> Once you locate it, add the following line

457.38 -> anywhere inside the file.

458.68 -> If you're still out of memory and need to assign more,

461.47 -> there may be an issue with your application.

463.73 -> Perhaps your theme or one of your plugins

465.66 -> is using an inordinate amount of resources.

468.23 -> At this point, you may want to hire a developer

470.49 -> to take a look.

471.62 -> Even your hosts may be able to help

473.17 -> by showing you the SQL logs

475.12 -> and other resource stats for your site.

479.25 -> Another potential cause of the white screen of death

481.42 -> is permission and ownership issues.

483.74 -> It is possible to fix this problem yourself.

485.98 -> However, unless you really know what you're doing,

488.48 -> we would advise against it

489.61 -> as you can inadvertently create vulnerabilities

491.75 -> that attackers can exploit.

493.66 -> When it comes to WordPress permissions

495.27 -> there are three simple rules to follow.

497.75 -> Files should be set to 664 or 644.

501.79 -> Folders should be set to 775 or 755.

505.9 -> The wpconfig.php file should be set to 660, 600 or 644.

513.19 -> If you have SSH access to your server,

515.74 -> you can apply the appropriate rules

517.44 -> within the following command

518.87 -> running it from the root WordPress directory.

522.07 -> If you are unsure how to do this, or are a bit intimidated,

525.41 -> go ahead and ask your web host for help.

529.86 -> Sometimes WordPress runs into an issue with updates

532.22 -> such as when the server times out.

534.3 -> More often than not

535.33 -> this problem resolves itself automatically.

537.67 -> However, in some rare cases,

539.54 -> it may lead to the white screen of death.

541.97 -> The first thing you should do

542.92 -> is go into your WordPress root directory

545.15 -> and see if there's a .maintenance file there.

547.59 -> It may be abbreviated as well.

549.79 -> What you'd want to do is try to delete that file

552.25 -> and load up your site again.

554.27 -> If the update was successful,

555.85 -> but WordPress failed to remove this file automatically,

558.869 -> everything should go back to normal.

561.04 -> If the update was not completed,

562.9 -> and may be restarted automatically,

564.61 -> in which case things could go back to normal just the same.

568.57 -> If all else fails,

569.72 -> follow the recommended manual update procedure

571.82 -> for WordPress,

572.71 -> which should resolve the issue once and for all.

577.06 -> Another common cause for the WordPress White Screen of Death

579.72 -> is when you're editing the code on your WordPress site

582.26 -> and accidentally miss type something

584.21 -> or use the wrong syntax.

585.83 -> One character in the wrong place

587.68 -> can take down your whole site,

589.24 -> which is why you should never edit code

590.99 -> on your live production site.

593.24 -> Not to worry though, you can always connect to your site

595.86 -> via FTP and revert the change you made manually.

599.44 -> If you don't know What caused the problem,

601.6 -> this is where having WordPress backups in place

603.78 -> comes in handy.

604.97 -> Here at Kinsta you can restore your site

606.98 -> to an earlier point in time with a single click.

609.73 -> To do this, log into your MyKinsta dashboard

612.45 -> and navigate to backups.

614.84 -> Keep in mind that if you enable debug mode

617.19 -> and WordPress earlier, there might also be an error message

620.37 -> indicating a parse syntax error.

622.97 -> If this is the case, it should tell you exactly

625.22 -> where to find the problem code.

628.94 -> At this point, if the white screen of death

630.65 -> has not yet been resolved,

632.09 -> there's one additional trick you can try.

634.38 -> On rare occasions this problem might occur

636.51 -> because a page or post is particularly long.

639.52 -> If this is the case,

640.5 -> you can try adjusting the PHP text processing capability

643.91 -> on your site

645 -> by increasing the backtrack and recursion limits.

647.9 -> To do so add the following code

649.86 -> within your wpconfig.php file.

653.66 -> Once you add this code, save your changes

655.87 -> then refresh your site to see if it's now working.

660.52 -> The WordPress White Screen of Death

662.02 -> can be incredibly frustrating.

663.78 -> There are a number of things that can go wrong

665.36 -> but thankfully the situation

666.7 -> is usually not as bad as it seems.

668.92 -> A simple plugin and or theme check

670.74 -> should fix the white screen of death issue in most cases.

673.97 -> Getting more familiar with WordPress debug mode

676.15 -> will definitely shed more light on the problem

678.5 -> and guide you.

679.67 -> If you've encountered

680.503 -> any other WordPress White Screen of Death situations,

682.98 -> let us know so we can learn from it

684.8 -> and share the experience.

688.2 -> Kinsta's WordPress hosting can speed up your website

690.66 -> by up to 200% and you'll get 24/7 support

693.87 -> from our expert WordPress engineers.

696.01 -> Let us show you the Kinsta difference.

697.92 -> Try a free demo of our MyKinsta dashboard

700.2 -> at demo.kinsta.com.

702.64 -> Thank you for watching and don't forget to subscribe

704.84 -> for more tutorials, explainers

706.261 -> and helpful content like this.

707.759 -> (upbeat music)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nsoi8fU0Cw