White Screen of Death!!
Doesn’t it look like some disease?
Yes it is the disease, not for human beings but for WordPress.
In this article we are going to talk about WordPress screen of death.
Sometimes, you may see that website was running fine and suddenly it turned blank! What could be the reason?
Even one of the possibility is that the WordPress site is loading fine but dashboard is not and this is the unsettling thing about WordPress. So, what is the actual reason?
Let’s talk about symptoms and cure of white screen of death in WordPress, so called WSOD.
Problems and Solution of White Screen of Death Error
- Plugin Related Issues
Sometimes the conflict could be created between the theme (which you are currently using) and plugin (new plugin or updating existing plugin). In that case, you can simply disable that plugin and everything will be fine. Now, the problem is how will you disable the plugin when your dashboard is not working. The people who are using WordPress for a long time must have some hint running in their mind.
Did you get that?
Yes! Exactly. You need to access your WordPress plugin directory via FTP. How will you do that?
It is a simple task, firstly you must have credentials of FTP and the correct permissions for your WordPress directory. After that follow the steps mentioned below:
- Login to FTP.
- Navigate to the installation directory of WordPress.
- Select the wp_content/plugins folder.
- Select the folder with correct plugin name.
- Rename the folder to disable plugin and the name should be different from another plugins so that it can get recognizable later
You can also disable all the plugins at once very easily. Just rename the plugins folder and create the new one and then move one by one plugins to the new folder and activate them in an individual way.
So, you will get to know what is causing WordPress white screen of death (WSOD). After that, disable that plugin and your site will run normally.
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- Theme Related Issues
These theme related issues have same origin as of the plugins.
- The simplest cause of this issue is installing a new theme which makes conflict with the existing plugin. This is also known as classic theme-plugin conflict. What you need to do is disable the recent installed theme and WordPress will automatically pick up the default theme. I wish you haven’t deleted the default theme. If in case you have, then upload that theme into the folder of themes in wp-content.
- You can also disable the recent activated theme via FTP in WordPress. It is same as disabling the plugin. The only difference is that you have to open the folder of wp_content/themes rather than the plugins folder. To deactivate it rename the theme’s folder.
- Sometimes the poorly coded theme won’t work with the latest update of WordPress. If the theme has stopped working instantly after the upgradation of WordPress then there is possibility that the theme is offender. You must deactivate the theme and the things will get normal.
- Exceed the Memory Limit
There is the possibility that you have over grown your memory limit. The traffic which is bigger in amount require more space that your current hosting provider not providing. Now, it’s time for an upgradation.
What you need to do is to increase your PHP memory limit with the modification in wp-config.php file. Add the following line:
define (‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’,’64M’);
The maximum memory limit you can take on shared hosts is up to 64MB. If there is still some issue then you can consult to your hosting provider.
- Unknown Causes
Sometimes it is really hard to find out the actual cause. In this time you need to do extra efforts to find out the core of the problem. You can enable the wp-Debug mode.
You should add these lines at the bottom of wp-config.php file:
error_reporting (E_ALL);
ini_set (‘display_errors’, 1);
define (‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
This will display all the errors on the screen. So, you can use this information to determine the cause of WordPress white screen of death.
This is how to how to fix white screen of death error in WordPress.
Conclusion
The white screen of death is the inevitable problems that must be faced by every WordPress user. If you don’t want to worry about any hosting issues then you can use Managed WordPress Hosting. It has specialized in WordPress and its related issues. It loads the site very fast and you won’t be getting WordPress white screen of death error as well.