Fix the WordPress white screen error
The WordPress white screen error happens when a WordPress website fails to load and displays a blank white screen instead. To fix the WordPress white screen error, follow the steps below in sequential order.
A. Check your website error log report
1. Log in to your hosting control panel
2. Click on the Account Usage button
3. Locate your website’s domain name under the Domain column
4. On your domain’s row, click on Error Log under the Logs column
5. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the report and locate the most recent date and time (timestamps are in EST- Eastern Standard Time) – this is your most recent error log entry
6. On the most recent error log entry, scroll all the way to the right (horizontally) to view the full error, here is an example:
7. The error log will indicate what component of your WordPress website is triggering the white screen error. Normally, it will be a plugin or theme triggering the white screen error, see the examples below:
If there is a plugin triggering the error, you will see it indicated like the format below. The name of the plugin triggering the error will be indicated after the / forward slash in front of the word plugins.
2023-11-09 19:37:32.076020 [NOTICE] [1681121] [T0] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function hello_world() in /home/domains/skystrahelp/public_html/wp-content/plugins/helloplugin/functions.php:50If there is a theme triggering the error, you will see it indicated like the format below. The name of the theme triggering the error will be indicated after the / forward slash in front of the word themes.
2023-11-09 19:37:32.076020 [NOTICE] [1681121] [T0] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function hello_world() in /home/domains/skystrahelp/public_html/wp-content/themes/hellotheme/functions.php:508. Take note of the name of the plugin or theme causing the error. From our examples above, for the plugin error, the name of the plugin causing the error is helloplugin, and for the theme error, it is hellotheme.
9. Now that you’ve identified the component triggering the error, you need to disable it. Move to the steps below to disable the plugin or theme triggering the error.
B. Disable the plugin or theme causing the error
The next step is to disable the plugin or theme causing the white screen error on your website.
1. Log in to your hosting control panel
2. Click on the File Manager button
3. Double click on the domains folder
4. Locate your website folder and double click on it
5. Locate the public_html folder and double click on it
6. Locate the wp-content folder and double click on it
7. In the wp-content folder, you will see a plugins and themes folder. If you are trying to disable a plugin, double click on the plugins folder. If you are trying to disable a theme, double click on the themes folder.
8. Inside the plugins or themes folder, locate the folder for the plugin or theme you are trying to disable (it will have the exact same name as from your error log).
9. Right click on the folder to reveal a dropdown and select Rename, we’ll use a plugin called akismet as an example:
10. In front of the existing name of your plugin or theme, put – old. For example, if your plugin folder name is hello, then you would rename is to hello-old. For example, if your plugin folder name is akismet, then you would rename is to akismet-old
11. Once you’ve added – old to the plugin or theme folder name, click the Rename button to save it
12. Now, log in to your WordPress admin dashboard – it should now be loading
13. You can also reload your website and you should now see it loading
If the white screen error is still happening, continue to the next solutions below.
C. Delete Wordfence .htaccess code snippet
The WordPress white screen error can often be caused by the Wordfence plugin injecting a code snippet into your website .htaccess file. In order to get your WordPress website working again, you need to remove the Wordfence code snippet from your .htaccess file.
1. Log in to your hosting control panel
2. Click on the File Manager button
3. Double click the domains folder
4. Locate your domain name’s folder and double click it. If you have multiple domain names, you will see multiple folders listed.
5. Inside your domain name’s folder, you will see a public_html folder, double click to open it up
6. Inside of your domain name’s public_html folder, locate the .htaccess file -depending on the size of your device’s screen and number of files, you may have to scroll to find it.
Once you locate the .htaccess file, hover over it and do a right-click to get a dropdown, from the dropdown, select Edit.
7. Your window will now pop open the .htaccess file, scroll until you find the Wordfence code in your .htaccess file, it will always begin with # Wordfence WAF and end with # END Wordfence WAF, here is an example of the code snippet and what it looks like inside of an .htaccess file
# Wordfence WAF
<IfModule LiteSpeed>
php_value auto_prepend_file '/home/skystrahelp/public_html/skystrahelp.com/wordfence-waf.php'
</IfModule>
<IfModule lsapi_module>
php_value auto_prepend_file '/home/skystrahelp/public_html/skystrahelp.com/wordfence-waf.php'
</IfModule>
<Files ".user.ini">
<IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
Require all denied
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</IfModule>
</Files>
# END Wordfence WAF
8. Highlight and delete all of the Wordfence code in your .htaccess file and then click the Save File button followed by the X button to close the session, here is an example:
9. Return to load your website
D. Increase PHP memory threshold
The WordPress white screen error can happen when your website has exhausted its PHP memory threshold. Follow the steps below to increase the threshold.
1. Open this guide: Manage PHP options
2. Locate the memory_limit dropdown
3. On the dropdown, select the highest threshold value available
4. Re-attempt to load your website
If you’re still seeing a white screen on your WordPress website, move to the steps below to restore your website from backups.
E. Restore from backups
1. Open this guide: Restore hosting account data from backups
2. First, perform a restore for your website files only
3. If the white screen error is still happening, perform a restore for your database