How to Fix WordPress White Screen of Death Error

If you are using WordPress for a long time, you probably have come across the white screen error at least once. When it occurred for the first time, you must have been shocked and are looking for the solutions of this error. In the following, we have listed some common causes and solutions of WordPress white screen of death error. Before that, it is imperative to discuss the basic definition and characteristics of this situation. Check the detailed information in below.

What is WordPress White Screen of Death Error

In fact, this is a WordPress error that occurs when there are some problems with the configuration of your site. When this happens, you cannot see the content, but only a white screen, in your webpage. Also, your site cannot be accessed by your subscribers or prospective viewers until the error is fixed.

The white screen of death error can appear due to various reasons. No matter what the cause is, there is an effective way to fix the error. Listed here are some common causes of the white screen on your WordPress site, along with the recommendable solution for each.

Some Common Causes and Solutions of the Error

The key to success in fixing the white screen of death error is ascertaining the problem on the site. After searching online and collecting the feedback from some WordPress users, we have found that this error mainly appears after you executing a mistake in the configuration of plugins or coding in themes.

As plugins are mostly configured by webmasters, let’s start with this aspect. In this method, you should deactivate all the plugins to see if the error can be fixed temporarily.

To deactivate all the plugins, you can through your WordPress dashboard or from the wp-content folder. As for the later way, you simply need to find the Plugins folder and rename it. This will automatically deactivate all the plugins. Now, you can activate the plugins, one at a time, to find the erroneous one. Once detected, you can follow the plugin-fixing solution showed as below to resolve the error.

If the white screen appears even after deactivating the plugins, it means that the problem lies in coding. Therefore, you should re-activate all the plugins, as they are error-free, and modify the themes folder to fix the problem successfully.

Error due to plugins

Generally, if you are using multiple plugins on your WordPress site to improve your site’s performance, an error in any one plugin may affect your site. Once the situation happens, the simple solution to fix this is by deactivating the specific plugin. For example, if you detect that the error is caused by “X” plugin, disabling the plugin will fix your site. Note that you can try this from your latest updated or installed plugin.

This can be done by navigating to the Plugins page of your WordPress site and removing the plugin. However, to use that plugin again, you will have to install and activate it on your site from the scratch.

However, what if you are not getting the access to your WordPress dashboard? In this case, you have to use the FTP clients for accessing the plugin files on your WordPress site. To be precise, you have to execute the following procedure.

To start with, you need to log into your server from the FTP client. Then, you should dig into your WordPress directory where your files are presented. Here, you need to click on the wp-content folder and select the plugins folder. Inside this folder, you should navigate to the plugin that you had modified before the error occurred. As the plugin needs to be removed, you should deactivate or delete it. Upon completion, refreshing your website can fix the error.

Error due to template coding

If you detect that all your plugins are normal without wrong situation, you’d better figure out whether the white screen that appears on your WordPress site is due to an error in coding on the theme files. Just the same as plugin checking, try from your newly added or modified theme.

Firstly, you should connect to your server using FTP and dig into your WordPress directory to find the wp-content folder. Here, you have to find the themes folder and move into your currently activated theme folder.

Then, you can find a functions.php file which contains the coding of the initial version of the theme. Simply upload it, save the settings and refresh your browser to fix the white screen error. This way can bring your template coding back to normal.

Also, you can even replace your currently used template with the default theme like Twenty Fourteen and Twenty Thirteen. After all, these are the official WordPress themes that are error-free for coding.

Error due to an unknown reason

If both your themes and plugins are error-free, you need to move into something more technical. Firstly, open your wp-config file via File Manger to insert the following debug mode. If you have installed the caching plugins, don’t forget to clear your browser cache and refresh your site again.

define('WP_DEBUG', true);