{"id":208,"date":"2025-07-01T14:50:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/?p=208"},"modified":"2025-07-01T15:25:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T15:25:45","slug":"white-screen-of-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/white-screen-of-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixing the White Screen of Death (WSOD) in WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you\u2019re delving into WordPress development, you\u2019ve probably encountered one of the most irritating challenges: the \u201cWhite Screen of Death\u201d (WSOD).<br>Suddenly, your website goes blank, displaying nothing but a white screen and no error message, which can be incredibly confusing. Don\u2019t worry! Here\u2019s a brief guide on what leads to this issue and how to fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-container-core-quote-is-layout-4e7a1cb8 wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\" style=\"border-style:none;border-width:0px;border-radius:42px;margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30);margin-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-contrast-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color wp-elements-b0ce2a9cea1b0ff8cf4a2ea67d8d615c\" style=\"background-color:#e0e7ed;font-size:clamp(14px, 0.875rem + ((1vw - 3.2px) * 0.1), 15px);\"><em>NOTE:  It&#8217;s really important to back up your site before you start making any changes. Also, think about using a staging environment while you&#8217;re developing; it can help you catch any issues before they become bigger problems.<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s Behind the White Screen of Death? <br>The WSOD typically pops up because of: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Conflicts between plugins or themes <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A memory limit that\u2019s been maxed out <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>PHP errors <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Corrupted core files Here\u2019s a <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Step-by-Step Guide to Fix It:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 1:<\/strong> <strong>Disable Plugins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Log into your site using FTP or the File Manager in cPanel.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Head over to \/wp-content\/ and rename the plugins folder to plugins_old. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Refresh your website. If it loads up, one of the plugins is the troublemaker. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rename the folder back to plugins and change the name of each plugin one at a time to find the culprit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 2:<\/strong> <strong>Switch to a Default Theme<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Navigate to \/wp-content\/themes\/ and rename the folder of your active theme. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>WordPress will automatically switch to a default theme like Twenty Twenty-Five. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If your site loads, then your theme is the issue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 3:<\/strong> <strong>Increase PHP Memory Limit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Edit the <code>wp-config.php<\/code> file and add:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code has-base-color has-text-color\"><code>define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 4:<\/strong> <strong>Enable Debugging<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Add the following to <code>wp-config.php<\/code> to display errors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code has-base-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-dddcbe0063351e626d941395714e7bdd\"><code>define('WP_DEBUG', true); \ndefine('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true); \ndefine('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 5:<\/strong> <strong>Check for File Corruption<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Re-upload fresh copies of <code>wp-admin<\/code> and <code>wp-includes<\/code> folders from a clean WordPress download<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hope this helps. Post comments if anything needed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re delving into WordPress development, you\u2019ve probably encountered one of the most irritating challenges: the \u201cWhite Screen of Death\u201d (WSOD).Suddenly, your website goes blank, displaying nothing but a white screen and no error message, which can be incredibly confusing. Don\u2019t worry! Here\u2019s a brief guide on what leads to this issue and how to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,3],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-php","category-wordpress","tag-wsod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webprow.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}