Updated on by Password Protect WP Admin

7 Ways to Fix WordPress White Screen of Death (WSoD)

The WordPress White Screen of Death (WSoD) is a common error when your website freezes with a white, blank screen that prevents you from accessing the administration area. You won’t be able to perform actions, and your users won’t be able to visit the pages they want or read the content on your site.

Fortunately, it’s usually pretty easy to fix. Let’s look at what causes the WordPress white screen of death and show 7 practical ways to solve this problem.

What is the cause of the WordPress white screen of death?

As the name suggests, the WordPress white screen of death (WSoD) error occurs when you try to access your website but are presented with a blank white screen.

wordpress white screen of death

The error message can vary depending on the browser. As you can see, it is a blank white screen and not a warning if you stumble across this issue in Mozilla Firefox.

The causes of the problem vary. It can be

  • Exhaustion of the memory limit
  • PHP code error
  • A faulty plugin or theme
  • Misconfiguration of the database

In addition, the WordPress White Screen of Death can occur due to issues with your hosting provider.

A good way to tell if your hosting provider is the issue is to check If the problem occurs on your other websites. In this case, we recommend that you contact your provider for further assistance. If not, follow these 7 ways to resolve the issue:

1. Increase the memory limit

To fix the WordPress white screen of death issue, you should first increase the PHP memory limit available to WordPress. This will allow scripts to use more memory to fulfill the request they are supposed to.

Open your wp-config.php file, which contains your database information and other important settings in the root directory.

Paste the following code into the file:

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '64M');

Alternatively, you can also use the .htaccess file to change the PHP memory limit. Simply add this line to the file and you’re done.

php_value memory_limit 64M

2. Disable all WordPress plugins

Poorly coded or buggy WordPress plugins are another culprit for the WordPress white screen of death. WordPress users often encounter this problem after updating their plugins.

If you can still access the WordPress admin dashboard, go to Plugin > Installed Plugins, select all plugins, and click Deactivate in the Bulk Actions dropdown menu.

disable wordpress plugins

If you do not have access to the administration area, you may need to deactivate your plugins via FTP.

After connecting your WordPress site via an FTP client, go to the wp-content > plugin folder. Right-click on the folder and select Rename. Let’s say we change it to plugins-deactivated.

wp-content disable plugins

The FTP client will now recognize the new name of the plugin folder. WordPress will look for the directory labeled “plugins” to load and run all plugins. If it does not find a suitable folder at this point, it will simply deactivate your plugins.

Now reload your website and check if the WordPress white screen of death has disappeared.

plugin deactivated

If so, you should activate each plugin individually to locate the faulty plugin and then remove it to avoid conflicts in the future.

3 Switch back to the WordPress default theme

If plugins are not the cause, you should take a look at your theme – the easiest way to check if the these is an issue is to switch your site back to the default theme.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes and activate a default theme such as Twenty Twenty-Five.

Screenshot

If you don’t have access to your dashboard, the process is the same as for plugins.

Access your wp-content/themes folder via FTP and download the current theme to your desktop as a backup. Then right-click on the theme and select Delete. After FTP has removed the current theme, WordPress will automatically run the default theme if you have them installed on your website. Then, reload your website in another tab browser to see if the issue is resolved.

4 Clear WordPress cache

In some cases, you may be able to access the backend while the white screen of death appears on the frontend of the website. If you have a caching plugin installed on your WordPress website, we recommend you clear the cache in your web browsers.

You can easily clear the cache on the plugin settings page. Take the WP Super Cache plugin as an example. You just need to navigate to Settings > WP Super Cache and click Clear Cache.

wp super cache clear cache

WP Rocket users simply go to Settings > WP Rocket > Dashboard tab and click the Clear cache button.

clear cache with wp rocket

There’s an alternative method for all caching plugins. Don’t forget to save your changes and then return to your site to see if it’s working as usual.

5 Turn on the debugging mode

Enabling debugging mode is a common solution if you want to fix the cause of the problem. The process displays all errors that occur on your WordPress website.

Simply add the following code to your wp-config.php file.

define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);

As soon as you insert the code, errors, warnings and notes are displayed on the blank screen. You can use these to determine the root cause.

If you do not find any errors, we recommend that you check the debug log, which consists of the debug.log file containing all errors, notes and warnings. The log is located in the wp-content folder in your root directory, which can be accessed with an FTP client.

6 Check file permission problems

This method requires careful attention, as incorrect changes to WordPress file permissions can create serious issues. Improper modifications won’t only fail to fix the WordPress white screen of death but may introduce security vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit.

When setting WordPress file permissions, follow these essential guidelines:

  • Use 755 for folders and subfolders
  • Set 644 for all files
  • Configure wp-config.php file permissions to 660, 600, or 644

Beginners should proceed with caution or seek professional assistance when modifying file permissions, as improper changes could compromise your website’s security.

7 Correct pages or posts that are too long

If the white screen of death only occurs with long posts and pages, you can try adding the following code to your wp-config.php file, which increases the trackback and recursion limit.

This will result in an increase in PHP’s text processing performance and help to return long posts or pages to normal.

/** Trick for long posts */
ini_set('pcre.recursion_limit', 20000000);
ini_set('pcre.backtrack_limit', 10000000);

Conclusion

Although it’s a common error, the white screen error on WordPress can be alarming, but it’s usually easily fixed. To resolve this issue, you need to increase the PHP memory limit, remove the faulty plugin and theme, and clear the browser and WordPress cache.