WordPress white screen of death

The short answer

A completely blank white page means PHP (the programming language WordPress runs on) stopped before it produced any of the page, and nothing on screen is telling you why. First try opening yoursite.com/wp-admin, which often still works when the front of the site does not, and check your admin email for a WordPress recovery mode message.

If that gets you nowhere, disable all plugins by renaming the plugins folder over SFTP, switch to a default theme, and turn on the debug log to see the real error. A backup restore from before the change is the quick way out.

What it means

WordPress builds every page as it is requested. If the code crashes partway through, the page is cut short. Modern WordPress usually catches a crash and shows a “critical error” message, so when you see pure white instead it normally means one of three things.

Either the crash happened before WordPress had a chance to load its error handler (for example a mistake in wp-config.php, a must-use plugin, or a damaged core file), or the server is set to hide errors and the output was simply empty, or a cache somewhere (your browser, a caching plugin, or Cloudflare, the network that sits in front of your site) is serving an empty copy of a page that failed earlier.

The good news is that a white screen is a symptom, not a loss of data. Your pages, posts, images and orders are stored in the database and media folder, and they are still there.

Common causes

• A plugin or theme crashing. Usually right after an update, or when two plugins conflict. Same root cause as the critical error, just without the friendly message.
• A typo in a file you edited by hand, typically wp-config.php or the theme’s functions.php. PHP refuses to run a file with a syntax error, so nothing loads at all.
• Running out of memory. A page builder, image regeneration or a big import can push PHP past its memory limit and it stops silently.
• An update that was interrupted. A lost connection halfway through leaves half-written core files.
• A cache serving a blank page. The real error was fixed, but a cached empty page is still being handed out.
• A server-level fault such as a full disk or a crashed PHP process. Less common, and something your host fixes rather than you.

How to fix it

1. Rule out caching. Open the site in a private browsing window. If it loads there, clear your browser cache and the cache in your caching plugin, and purge Cloudflare if your site uses it. This step is the same on any host.
2. Try the admin area. Go to yoursite.com/wp-admin. If it opens, deactivate the most recently updated plugin under Plugins > Installed Plugins and reload the front of the site.
3. Check for the recovery email. WordPress sends a message titled “Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue” to the address under Settings > General. The link inside lets you log in with the broken plugin paused.
4. Turn on the error log. Over SFTP, or in File Manager in the management console (Plesk with WP Toolkit), edit wp-config.php. Above “That’s all, stop editing!” add define('WP_DEBUG', true); and define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);. Reload the blank page and open wp-content/debug.log. The line starting “PHP Fatal error” or “PHP Parse error” names the file at fault. If the fault is in wp-config.php itself this will not work; instead open Websites & Domains > Logs in the console and read the PHP error log there.
5. Disable all plugins. In wp-content rename the plugins folder to plugins.off. If the site returns, rename it back and reactivate plugins one by one until the white screen comes back; the last one is the problem. Check wp-content/mu-plugins the same way if it exists.
6. Switch theme. Rename the active theme’s folder inside wp-content/themes. WordPress falls back to a default theme if one is installed. If the site loads, the theme (or an edit to it) is the cause.
7. Raise the memory limit. Add define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M'); to wp-config.php. Our memory limit article covers this in detail.
8. Repair the core files. If you can reach the dashboard, go to Dashboard > Updates and click Re-install version x.x. If you cannot, run the WordPress integrity check in WP Toolkit, which can reinstall the core files without touching your content. Over SSH, wp core download --force --skip-content does the same.
9. Restore a backup. If the cause is still unclear, use Backup & Restore in the console to roll back to just before the change. Then turn WP_DEBUG off again.

On WP Alpha

Most white screens follow an update, and on WP Alpha WordPress, plugin and theme updates are tested on a staging copy first, with before and after screenshots and an error log check before anything goes live. That catches the broken update before it reaches your real site, which prevents most of these.

If a change you made yourself causes a blank page, backups run every two hours and are kept for 30 days, and you can queue a restore from the management console (Plesk with WP Toolkit), from a single file such as functions.php up to the whole site. Staging sites are one click in WP Toolkit, so you can try edits there first.

If you would rather not touch files at all, support is available 24/7 by live chat and tickets, with an urgent escalation form for a site that is down.