How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death (Step by Step)

If /wp-admin is also blank, you must use FTP or a file manager to access your site’s files. By renaming the active theme or plugin folders within the /wp-content/ directory, you can force WordPress to disable them and regain access to your dashboard.Sometimes, all your plugins and themes are correctly configured, but some parts of your site serve stale cached content. This can sometimes break a site and mask a fix you’ve already applied. Absolutely. If a WordPress script or plugin needs more memory than is allocated on your server, it will fail to execute and result in a blank white screen. You can often fix this by increasing the PHP memory limit in your wp-config.php file.Suggested read: How to Easily Fix Leverage Browser Caching Warning in WordPress

What is the WordPress White Screen of Death?

RunCloud supports atomic deployment for Git and WordPress, making this process seamless and error-free. When you deploy, RunCloud ensures the new version is fully in place before it goes live, preventing partial-update errors that often result in a blank screen. To explore this advanced, reliable deployment method, refer to our detailed guide on:In the future, you can use the WordPress staging environment feature directly within the RunCloud dashboard to create and manage these test sites with just a few clicks. To learn how to implement this process, we recommend referring to our comprehensive article on creating a WordPress staging environment.In this step, you should first check your site for a stuck “.maintenance” file in your root directory using the RunCloud File Manager, and delete it if it exists. If all else fails or you need an immediate fix, the safest and fastest solution is to restore your website from a recent backup.If you recently modified or created a new file on your server via CLI, then you need to make sure that you set the correct file permissions and ownership. Incorrect file and folder permissions can prevent WordPress from accessing the necessary files, resulting in a blank screen. The standard permissions are 755 for directories and 644 for files; you can check and correct these using your RunCloud File Manager or an SFTP client.Let’s get started!

Common Causes of the WordPress White Screen of Death

The White Screen of Death is a common WordPress issue that can usually be resolved by following a logical troubleshooting process. Work through these steps in order, starting with the most likely culprits, such as plugins and themes, to efficiently diagnose and resolve the error.

• Plugin Incompatibility: This is the most frequent cause. A plugin may conflict with another plugin, your active theme, or a recent WordPress core update, leading to a fatal error.
• Theme Functionality Errors: Your active theme can cause a WSOD due to poorly written code, a syntax error in its functions.php file, or an incompatibility after an update.
• Exhausted PHP Memory Limit: A script or process may require more memory than your server has allocated to PHP. When this memory limit is reached, the script is terminated, often leaving a blank page.
• Corrupted Core Files: A failed or interrupted WordPress core update can leave you with missing or corrupted files, which prevent WordPress from loading correctly.
• File Permission Issues: Incorrect read/write permissions on core WordPress files and folders can prevent the server from accessing them, leading to a failure to load.

If this has happened to you, don’t panic. This guide provides a step-by-step process for diagnosing and resolving the WordPress White Screen of Death. By following these proven steps, you’ll be equipped to pinpoint the exact cause and bring your website back online quickly.

How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death: 7 Proven Steps

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');

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Suggested read: How to Fix WordPress HTTP Error When Uploading Images (Quick Guide)

Step 2: Switch to a Default WordPress Theme

The most effective way to prevent the White Screen of Death is never to let a breaking change reach your live site. A staging environment is an exact, private clone of your production website where you can safely test plugin updates, theme modifications, and new code. If an update causes a WSOD on your staging site, your live site remains completely unaffected, giving you a risk-free space to troubleshoot the conflict.

Step 3: Increase PHP Memory Limit

An update likely created an incompatibility with a plugin or your theme. Access your site via FTP or your host’s file manager, navigate to the wp-content folder, and temporarily rename the plugins folder to deactivate all plugins. If this resolves the issue, reactivate them one by one to identify the cause.Git is a version control system that tracks every change made to your files, allowing you to instantly roll back to a previous, working version if a new deployment causes a WSOD. This eliminates the need to manually hunt for syntax errors or faulty code after an update.

Step 4: Enable WordPress Debug Mode

Several things can cause this error:Additionally, you can use RunCloud’s Error Log Monitoring to see PHP and NGINX errors directly from your dashboard. This will often point you to the exact problematic file and line number.

If you have performed all the above actions, you should clear your browser cache. If you use a caching plugin or server-level caching, such as RunCloud’s RunCache, be sure to purge that cache as well. This ensures you are viewing the live, non-cached version of your site.

Step 5: Clear WordPress and Browser Cache

If plugins aren’t the problem, then your active theme might be causing an issue, especially after an update or code modification. Just as we did above, use the RunCloud File Manager and navigate to /wp-content/themes/. Rename the folder of your active theme; this forces WordPress to fall back to a default theme, such as Twenty Twenty-Five. If this resolves the issue with your site, you will need to troubleshoot the theme or contact its developer for a fix.On most live websites, PHP error reporting is disabled by default for security reasons. This means that when a script-breaking error occurs, the server stops rendering the page but has no instructions to display an error message, which results in a blank output.This is known as the infamous WordPress White Screen of Death (WSOD). It is a frustrating error that only happens when something has gone critically wrong behind the scenes.

Step 6: Fix File Permissions and Ownership Issues

Suggested read: How to Fix WordPress High CPU Usage (10 Instant Solutions)And finally, the most important safety net is a reliable, recent backup. Instead of relying on manual processes, use a service like RunCloud Backups & Incremental Restore to automatically save versions of your site. This ensures you can revert to a working state in seconds if an update or change causes a fatal error.

Despite the intimidating name, the WSOD is a code execution failure. Your website’s data, including posts, pages, and user information stored in the database, is almost always safe and unaffected.

Step 7: Remove the .maintenance File or Restore a Backup

After fixing the file permissions, you can fix the file ownership issues by simply clicking the “Fix Ownership” button in the Tools menu.The white screen is a code-level issue, so your content, users, and posts in the database are generally safe. Restoring a recent backup is the safest option, but fixing the issue by deactivating the faulty plugin/theme will also bring your site back without data loss.

Wrapping Up: Preventing the WordPress White Screen of Death in the Future

While knowing how to fix the White Screen of Death is a valuable skill, the best strategy is to implement practices that prevent it from happening in the first place. A proactive approach to site management can save you from downtime and stress by identifying potential issues before they escalate into critical failures. Here’s how you can do this:

Enable a Staging Environment

With RunCloud Backups & Incremental Restore, you can revert your entire web application to a stable state in just a few clicks, ensuring no data is lost and your site is back online instantly.If the public-facing site works but /wp-admin is blank, the issue is specific to the admin dashboard. This is often caused by a plugin or a custom function in your theme’s functions.php file, so start troubleshooting there.

Install and Manage WordPress with Git

Plugin conflicts are the most common cause of this error, so your first step is to deactivate all plugins at once. You can do this by using the RunCloud File Manager to navigate to your wp-content directory and rename the plugins folder to something like plugins_disabled. If your site comes back online, then you can rename the folder and reactivate your plugins one by one to find the one causing the error.Suggested read: How to Fix WordPress Revisions Not Showing [SOLVED]The most effective method is to enable WordPress’s built-in debug mode. Edit your wp-config.php file and change define( 'WP_DEBUG', false ); to true to display the specific error message that is causing the blank screen.A blank screen can occur if a WordPress process exceeds the memory allocation your server has provided. To fix this, use the RunCloud File Manager to edit your wp-config.php file and add the line just before the /* That’s all, stop editing! */ line. 

WordPress White Screen of Death FAQs